Nick Mallett’s faltering class of 1999 could do with some help from several members of the World Cup-winning class of 1995, writes Andy Capostagno
Last Sunday, before a recording of the TV quiz show Use It or Lose It, Burger Geldenhuys was relating Gordon Forbes’s famous story about the day that Abe Segal said: “It’s too soon to panic.” Why was a former Springbok flanker concerned with a tennis tale? Because anyone who has any kind of an interest in the South African rugby team at the moment wants to know the answer to the same question.
After four successive defeats, the last two by catastrophic margins, is it too soon to panic?
The only man who really knows the answer is Nick Mallett and he may take solace from the fact that Kitch Christie’s mind was only marginally clearer two months before the 1995 World Cup. That may seem like heresy from the viewpoint of history, but those with clear memories may recall that in the run-up to the 1995 tournament Christie persuaded Naas Botha to come out of retirement to play a trial game at Ellis Park.
Christie had decided that Hennie le Roux’s best position was at inside centre and that Joel Stransky was not strong enough mentally to cope with the pressure of winning the World Cup for his country. The reason for Christie’s concern was that on the tour to Britain six months previously, Stransky had failed to challenge for a Test place, played worse and worse in the midweek team and ended up so confused that he was asking the media how he might improve his game.
We know what happened subsequently. Botha went back into retirement, Le Roux made a fist of inside centre and Stransky, under enormous pressure, dropped the winning goal in the World Cup final. And what will Stransky be doing at this year’s tournament? Commentating for SuperSport.
I am reminded of the great English batsman, Peter May, who retired at 30 and was immediately made a selector. With England in dire straits against Australia (as usual), one spectator, spotting May in blazer and tie in the pavilion, shouted: “Your place is out in the middle, not up there”.
But given that Stransky is not on Mallett’s menu, who is? The coach is apparently going to devote the next few days to watching Currie Cup videos, despite his stated opinion that the competition pales into insignificance beside the Super 12. If he wants his mind to be altered, if not changed entirely, he should watch the following games.
June 27, Loftus Versfeld: Blue Bulls 16, Natal Sharks 27. The by now familiar Andr Joubert master class in a match which truly mattered, but this time at fly-half. On Wednesday night this week, most of the class of 1995 gathered together for a benefit dinner in Joubert’s honour.
It was intended as something of a last hurrah before retirement, it ended up as a welcome back to the big time, his participation in a second World Cup now a near certainty.
July 9, King’s Park: Natal 22, Free State 30. Played just prior to the Dunedin Test between New Zealand and South Africa, this was the kind of match that makes every other rugby playing nation envious of the Currie Cup. It can truly be said that since the competition was expanded to 14 teams four years ago the overall standard has declined, but when strength meets strength as it did at King’s Park a man would be crazy to believe that the Super 12 has more to offer.
July 17, Free State Stadium: Free State 17, Blue Bulls 38. While the nation was reeling from the 32-6 drubbing in Brisbane, those left behind produced a pulsating match, about as close to international standard as it is possible for a provincial match to come. Joost van der Westhuizen, still nursing his knee under a full leg strapping, eschewed his trademark breaks around the fringes to show that there is more to his game than that.
His service to his fly-half, woeful since his return from injury two weeks previously, improved immeasurably and he gave a lesson in spoiling to his young and talented Free State counterpart, Jimmy Powell. Time after time the Free State pack produced good ball which Van der Westhuizen turned into pig’s offal before the startled gaze of Powell.
Meanwhile, Ruben Kruger earned the man of the match award with a bravura display of the art of flank play. He was everywhere, both on his feet and in his traditional role, winning the ball on the ground like a demented truffle hound. Kruger is the kind of South African forward that other teams fear because of his iron will. His return to the national side is even more inevitable than Van der Westhuizen’s.
After watching those three games, Mallett will have a better idea of what has been going on in his absence, and hopefully a better appreciation of the function of the Currie Cup: it makes Springboks. If he absorbs that lesson soon enough the ridiculous calls for his head will die down in the national interest. After all, some fairly bizarre suggestions of who might take over from Mallett have been aired, but nobody yet has suggested Abe Segal.