Andy Capostagno Springbok preparations
It is sad to think that the Currie Cup final has become irrelevant. Once the showpiece of the season and, at least during the isolation years, the pinnacle of many players’ careers, it now just marks the time between the end of the South African season and the beginning of a Springbok tour.
This year’s tour is rather an important one – the World Cup, no less – but it is a tour all the same. And because the tour was considered to be too important to allow compromise, the Currie Cup final did not include any of the players chosen to travel to Britain and France.
Not that allowing the tail to wag the dog is ever a good thing, but try telling Sir Alex Ferguson he must pick a Manchester United second team for the FA Cup final because England are playing an international in a month’s time and see what kind of Caledonian oaths emerge.
That’s why Sunday’s “friendly” against an Eastern Province XV was so poor; for players such as Ollie le Roux and Henry Honiball could scarcely be blamed for wondering whether their presence at King’s Park might – just might – have made a difference to the result. Instead they were asked to show pride and commitment for the good of South Africa in an ill-considered bun fight at Telkom Park.
And the net result of that managerial decision is that Selborne Boome will not be going to the World Cup. Ag, shame, he only broke his thumb and if he’d been released to play in the Currie Cup (assuming Western Province were anywhere near the knockout stages) he might have broken a leg, or worse. What nonsense. It will come as no relief to Boome to be told that he is young and will play in future World Cups. People said that to Gary Teichmann in 1995.
The good news is that Boome’s replacement strengthens the squad. More Springboks have been chosen during the 1999 season than in any other and it is therefore a mystery why it has taken this long to get Fritz van Heerden back into the national set up.
Three seasons ago, when Nick Mallett was assistant coach to Andr Markgraaff, he said he believed Van Heerden could become a South African version of Ian Jones. What happened to that clear-minded view? Obscured, like so many others this year by infighting, back-stabbing and irrelevancies.
It is five years since Van Heerden was touted as the answer to Springbok woes at the tail of the line-out. In those days he was a number seven flank, but first Ian Macdonald and then Rudolf Straueli emerged as Kitch Christie’s choices and by the time the World Cup came along Van Heerden was a forgotten man.
His switch to lock coincided with the world trend for less bulk and more mobility in the engine room, and his season spent with Leicester made him into a complete player. His experience of English conditions should make him not simply an afterthought, but a genuine contender for a place in Mallett’s first team.
So why does Van Heerden’s selection seem like a betrayal? Part of it has to do with the perceived Western Province bias in the national set-up; it smacks of the days when Danie Craven would call a player out of the Maties second team to play for South Africa. But part of it is also because it reinforces the idea that the Currie Cup doesn’t matter.
The cries for AJ Venter’s inclusion in the World Cup squad fell on deaf ears, but after all, as much as he has played lock, Venter is a back-rower to the core. But if Boome had to be replaced, how about the tried and trusted Hannes Strydom, captain of the victorious Lions? Too old? Too injury prone? Or the tireless John Slade of the defeated Sharks, a man who when cut, bleeds rugby? Too much the journeyman? What?
It is fruitless to complain. Mallett has made his choices and good luck to him. But what happens if Bobby Skinstad breaks a bone or two against the Eagles in George on Sunday?
Will he eat humble pie and select Venter or Teichmann?
Or will he get on the phone to Rod MacQueen and ask, since he missed the 1995 World Cup through non-selection, would Tiaan Strauss care to play for South Africa at this year’s event?