The Springboks have never won at the House of Pain in Dunedin, but the return of Os du Randt to the scrum might just be the boost the team needs. Andy Capostagno reports
Three weeks ago South Africa had never scored 100 points in a single Test match. Two weeks ago Wales had never beaten South Africa in 93 years of trying. After the match at the Millennium Building Site the Welsh Rugby Union kept its offices open until 8 o’clock selling match programmes to a delirious public who will carry the score 29-19 to their deathbeds. South Africa have never beaten New Zealand in Dunedin. Who cares?
History is bunk, or in the words of the poet, “all lies and jest, till a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest”. So let’s get the statistics out of the way. The two teams have played four times at the House of Pain in Dunedin. In 1921 it was 13-5 to the All Blacks, in 1956 10-6, in 1965 13-0 and in 1994 22-14.
Taking into account the relative scarcity of points in international rugby prior to the last decade, those are all fairly comprehensive victories for the home side. And if the general air of pessimism is anything to go by, things are unlikely to change on Saturday.
Much of the pessimism is centred around coach Nick Mallett’s apparent inability to decide upon his best team. In contrast to the 17-match unbeaten run of recent history, Mallett’s team this year has been about as settled as an Italian government. In Dunedin only five players will start the game for the fourth successive time. They are Percy Montgomery and Pieter Muller among the backs and Krynauw Otto, Cobus Visagie and Naka Drotske among the forwards. And of those five, only Otto knows that, fitness permitting, he will definitely play against Australia in a week’s time.
Comparisons are odious, but if the Springbok team is made up of temporary squatters, the All Blacks are the gracious heirs to a 500-year-old estate. During the same period that Mallett has been tinkering, New Zealand coach John Hart played Tony Brown at fly-half while waiting for Andrew Mehrtens to get fit, and he has preferred Andrew Blowers to Dylan Mika on the side of the scrum for Saturday’s encounter. Parsimonious with caps, or what?
So what are the grounds, if any, for South African optimism? Well, for one thing Os du Randt is back in the green and gold. There are those who will tell you that this an insignificant thing, a smokescreen. Hogwash.
Two years ago Du Randt’s name was the first to be written into any Springbok side. His brutal power at loose-head camouflaged the weaknesses at tight-head, allowed the selection of a non-scrumming hooker and scared the willies out of the opposition. His pace and ball skills in the loose gave the team an extra flanker – one who weighed 130kg.
Du Randt has been desperately playing down his role ever since replacing Robbie Kempson in the squad last week. But it is significant that Mallett has chosen to start with the Free Stater, rather than letting him soak up the atmosphere on the bench. Expect him to play for rather longer than the 40 minutes suggested elsewhere.
In the second and back rows there are also significant changes, with the return of Mark Andrews perhaps less so than the selection of Andr Venter in his favourite number seven shirt.
An urban legend has grown up around Venter’s performance in the first Test against Italy in Port Elizabeth. The legend goes that he had a poor game. Forgive me for repeating myself: hogwash.
We are rather closer to the World Cup than many people realise. The Springbok back row did not work against Wales and is in need of repair. Venter adds steel to the team and if Ruben Kruger were to emulate Du Randt and return to international rugby, the stage would be set for a fit-again Bobby Skinstad.
Venter and Kruger get through so much hard work. Imagine the effect of Skinstad if he didn’t have to worry about his suspect defence. And that would allow Rassie Erasmus to understudy the whole back row as an impact player on the bench.
Riches indeed, if Mallett sees the light, as he apparently has at half-back.
Exactly why he dropped Dave von Hoesslin and Gaffie du Toit for the Wales Test only he will know. In their absence too much ball was wasted by Werner Swanepoel and Braam van Straaten, either from poor kicks from hand, or the overwhelming desire to keep the ball among the underperforming pack.
The job of half backs is always the same; to make more right decisions than wrong ones. Von Hoesslin and Du Toit need to remember that there are more ways to skin an All Black than by playing 10-man rugby. In other words, if you’ve got the two best battering rams at centre in world rugby, bloody well use them!
And from there it is not inconceivable that some scraps will reach Breyton Paulse and Pieter Rossouw on the wings. Add in a few incursions from Montgomery and this particular Dunedin Test could be a new beginning instead of the predicted visit to the crematorium.