Andy Capostagno in Edinburgh Rugby World Cup
As it turns out we worried needlessly. A week into the fourth World Cup only England are sitting prettier than South Africa. Moreover, the Springboks got the kind of genuine workout against Scotland that no training camp can ever replicate: behind after an hour, convincing winners after 80 minutes, and all without the influence of Henry Honiball upon proceedings.
The team now knows that it does not walk on water, but that its key components are in place, together with a never-say-die attitude that will surely be needed in the harder games to come. Those games at this distance – before England plays New Zealand – look likely to include the All Blacks in Paris, a prospect which – pre-tournament – would have appeared like King Kong did to Fay Wray, but now looks more like trying to give medication to a cat: full of sound and fury and a few scratches, but achievable with hard work.
That has as much to do with the perceived mortality of the All Blacks as it does with some of the excellent things achieved by the Springboks against Scotland. The loss of Kees Meuws is a cruel blow to New Zealand, meaning that Craig Dowd will likely have to prop at tight head against that square-jawed, plain-talking epitome of all things English, Jason Leonard, at Twickenham on Saturday.
There are several other areas where England perceive themselves to be superior to the All Blacks and in the days building up to Saturday’s contest there has been a tangible air of confidence in the land, not something that might have been expected if you remember what New Zealand did to England at Newlands in the last World Cup.
One of the incidents from that game, where Jonah Lomu settled the issue before the first 20 minutes were out, has already become the stuff of legend, and after the final in 1995 the great Gareth Edwards stood up to speak at a celebratory dinner and said, “I’ve seen a cat run over by a motor car before, but never by a winger.”
The same Mike Catt referred to by Edwards looks set to take the field on Saturday, this time at centre rather than full-back where he was cruelly exposed four years ago. The injury to Lions centre Will Greenwood, which forced him off in the first half against Italy, has refused to clear up and his replacement, Jeremy Guscott, has been ill in bed with flu.
None of which seems to have dampened English spirits, due to the fact that they might justly claim to have the best pack, and that after all is where the game will be won and lost. They are, for instance, significantly stronger at lock, where for the All Blacks, Norm Maxwell and Robin Brooke do not carry anything like the threat of former partnership Brooke and Ian Jones. It may be time for John Hart to admit another error and recall Jones, if only to bring the best out of his long-time Test partner.
As for the back row, for all the superlatives being used to describe Josh Kronfeld in the British press, no one has yet suggested that his partnership with Taine Randell and Reuben Thorne is made in heaven. That particular accolade has gone to the South Africans, whom Scottish coach Jim Telfer described as “the best ball- playing back row in the world”.
He was principally referring to the mighty efforts against his team by Andr Venter and Rassie Erasmus, because even though he provided the scoring pass for the first try by Brendan Venter, Bobby Skinstad can scarcely have been proud of his efforts on Sunday. If he was not knocking on from the base of the scrum, he was standing uselessly in the backline, and yet, so wonderfully did Andr Venter and Erasmus play, Skinstad had the luxury of a free ride and a considerably improved second half.
Against Spain this week Skinstad will have the chance to practise some basics in a considerably less intimidating atmosphere. He should be told to spend some quality time with his team-mates in the scrum, rather than standing between the centres, especially since the evidence of the Scotland game suggests that the sooner the ball gets to Robbie Fleck the better.
In fact, Fleck was one of many maligned players to come to the party last week. Even Pieter Rossouw had his moments.
Coach Nick Mallett is now in the enviable position of knowing pretty much what his best team is. He can thus allow the B team to let off steam against the Spanish at Murrayfield and rest his key men; those being Joost van der Westhuizen, Andr Venter, Erasmus, Cobus Visagie and Os du Randt.
Van der Westhuizen should be kept in cotton wool now until the quarter-final, for he has proved since coming back from serious injury that he has the quality to turn in an exceptional performance when it is really needed. It goes without saying that it is not needed against either Spain or Uruguay.
As for the pack, other teams would kill to be able to put Ruben Kruger, Krynauw Otto and Ollie le Roux on the bench, and that includes the All Blacks. The problem from here on in lies not with the pack, but with the backs. Jannie de Beer was skilled enough in his play on Sunday to suggest that Honiball is not the panacea for all ills, which is not to say that he kicked well, for that is routine for the red- headed Free Stater.
De Beer’s all-round game impressed against the Scots; he kept Gregor Townsend in check for the most part, but, more importantly, Brendan Venter saw a lot of the ball. That translated into six tries, and a look back at the past 18 months, with the exception of the two Tests against Italy, shows that tries have been hard to come by. The fact that so many were from broken play suggests that work still needs doing on set piece moves, but also that a few broken halos have at least been sent to the menders.
When the dust has settled on the pool section of this World Cup, South Africa will be revealed as the team most likely to achieve. Whether they play England or New Zealand in Paris is immaterial since they will have seen both in action at the highest level and have formulated a plan to beat them.
Elsewhere, Wales may yet finish second in their group and even Australia will have their work cut out to beat Ireland in Dublin. The time will come when the critics begin to ask why South Africa were given such an easy time by the draw for the pool stages. The answer will be that as defending champions they deserved a bit of molly-coddling. Whisper it, but the chances of a successful defence are increasing by the day.