Andy Capostagno Rugby
It is safe to assume that when a team is in crisis the last thing the members of it should be asked to do is to meet and beat the best team in the world. But that is how the Tri-Nations fixtures have panned out.
New Zealand have won their home games against South Africa and Australia by hugely convincing margins without playing anywhere close to their potential. They come to Pretoria this weekend with a team showing one miserly change from that which beat Australia – loose-head prop Greg Feek replaces the injured Carl Hoeft.
And while All Black coach John Hart may justifiably be preening himself upon the wisdom of his early season selections, Springbok coach Nick Mallett may well be pondering the old show business saw, the one that goes, “Be nice to people on the way up, because you’ll meet them all again on the way down.”
When the same two sides met in Dunedin last month Mallett chose to blame the 28-0 defeat squarely upon his half-back combination of Dave von Hoesslin and Gaffie du Toit. He did so in the post-match press conference and in the privacy of the players’ room where, reliable sources reveal, the pair were held up to ridicule.
Von Hoesslin is no longer a part of the squad, but Du Toit is now expected, against the same opposition, to go out and save the pride of Springbok rugby. It is, not to put too fine a point on it, wishful thinking.
Amazingly, Du Toit is one of only seven survivors from the starting 15 at Carisbrook. He’s probably wondering what he has done in the interim to still be in contention, never mind in the side. The answer, of course, is that he has stayed fit and, in a funny way, in favour.
What, for instance, has Braam van Straaten done wrong? Answer: he didn’t play very well against Australia. Since then he has been removed from the squad, replaced with Henry Honiball and Jannie de Beer, both of whom have fallen down with injury. So what is the logical response made by the management? Recall Franco Smith.
It may seem like a lifetime ago now, but during the Super 12 wise heads were talking seriously of Van Straaten as South Africa’s first-choice flyhalf at the World Cup. His qualities included ferocious tackling, an eye for a gap and an impeccable goal- kicking technique. He needed to work on his distribution, but as an alternative to Honiball he was much closer to the mould than Du Toit.
Back in those far-off times Smith was actually dropped from the Northern Bulls starting line-up due to poor form. It was a matter of a few months previously that he was in Mallett’s first-choice team for the Test against Wales at Wembley. In a game the Boks won more by good luck than good management Smith was one of Mallett’s principal scapegoats for the poor performance and was not seen again in a Test match.
Until now, that is. Smith, who was on the verge of signing terms to play with Andy Marinos at Newport, will now be expected, alongside Du Toit, to provide the creative spark which will ignite the flame which will in turn roast the All Blacks at Loftus.
There have been times when such a desperate throw of the dice might have worked. This is not one of them.
In troubled times Springbok teams generally revert to what they know best: they get physical. They concentrate on making sure that the opposition knows it is in a game. The result in these instances becomes largely an irrelevance. If you remember Robert de Niro’s impression of the boxer Jake la Motta, beaten to a pulp, but still standing to deliver the line, “You never put me down, Ray,” you’ll know what I mean.
It goes without saying that such tactics will be akin to signing a death warrant against the All Blacks. If the Springboks try to get physical the All Blacks will do exactly what they did against Australia: kick them to death with the unerring boot of Andrew Mehrtens.
So what else? The Springboks could spread it to the wings. Here they have Pieter Rossouw, a man in such rich form that he was dropped for the last game against Australia, and not before time. They also have Deon Kayser, a man who has spent two years trying to reinvent himself in the centre and now gets the chance on the wing because Breyton Paulse’s defence is deemed suspect.
And at fullback Percy Montgomery is playing with such verve that Andr Joubert retired last week, “to take the pressure off Percy”. Do me a favour.
So if the All Blacks cannot be beaten by getting physical, or by spreading the ball to the wings, how can they be? Answer: they can’t. Not by this team. Not at this time.