Andy Capostagno rugby
With so many players on tour it would be tempting to dismiss South Africa’s first match as an irrelevant contest. On a rainy Wednesday evening in Tucuman the midweek Springboks finally beat Argentina A 32-21 and, after all, a win is a win. But if that’s what the coaching staff is telling its charges they are lying through their teeth.
Alistair Coetzee’s midweek side couldn’t have started better, with tries in the ninth and 11th minutes from Stefan Terblanche and Deon Kayser. But, with a couple of isolated exceptions, that was as good as it got for the Boks. They then suffered the humiliation of conceding tries from a close-in lineout and a pushover scrum, both of which revealed the soft underbelly of the tourists for all to see.
Maybe South Africa no longer has tight forwards of stature, maybe Argentina has a surfeit. Maybe what has really happened is that four years of trying to teach South African players to stand out of tight exchanges to concentrate on tackling, running and passing has bred a generation of lightweights.
To the very end of his tenure, Nick Mallett stuck manfully to his theory that big forwards no longer cut the mustard in international rugby. But if mobility is the key it relies to some extent on the opposition buying into the same theory. Australia and New Zealand, the two sides that Mallett measured his team against, bought in. Argentina and most of the northern hemisphere teams beg to differ.
So it came as no real surprise when England, with their mighty pack and a fearless flyhalf, beat the Boks in Bloemfontein in June, having been robbed in the opening match in Pretoria a week earlier. And it should be equally transparent that in Sunday’s test the Pumas won’t try to reinvent the wheel; they will play the same game that their second stringers played in Tucuman.
They will dominate in the set phases and rely on Agustin Pichot and Gonzalo Quesada to kick for position at halfback. In Tucuman the brothers Miranda kicked virtually everything that came their way in the second half, utilising wet conditions in the classic manner, making their opponents turn and run back to yet another lineout.
It took the sharp rugby brain of Dan van Zyl to finally rally his team with a clever box kick from turnover ball in the opposition 22. Terblanche won the race to the tryline to secure his hat trick and the match was won.
If Van Zyl and his flyhalf partner Chris Rossouw had kicked more often they might have had an easier time of it. Instead the Boks relied absolutely on making breaks from broken play and were rewarded with four tries. It’s a policy that produces some exciting rugby, but against good teams is doomed to failure.
Harry Viljoen has a month to get back to basics with his team. He needs to find a front row and a lock partner for Mark Andrews and he needs to impress upon whoever starts at flyhalf that it is not a sin to kick the ball, particularly in soft conditions.
It has to be said that he starts with a huge disadvantage. For the first time in his career the admirable Willie Meyer should start at tight-head prop and Andrews will win everything that comes his way. But beyond those two it is a lottery. Robbie Kempson can be expected to struggle against Omar Hassan, the ferocious Puma tight head who fights fire with fire on the field, and off it leaves his opponents awestricken by serenading them with a voice like Pavarotti’s.
Whoever starts at hooker will get a lesson in the art from Federico Mendez and at lock the great partnership of Pedro Sporleder and German Llanes has finally been supplanted by the excellent pairing of Alejandro Allub and Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe.
The moral of all this name- dropping is that there is not likely to be much loose ball around for the Springbok backs to prosper. If modern coaches were more au fait with the “horses for courses” tactics of yesteryear Viljoen might actually be tempted to select the much-maligned Braam van Straaten at flyhalf and tell him to kick the leather off the ball.
Instead it seems Percy Montgomery will start in the number 10 shirt, a decision that further handicaps a team trying to reinvent itself. If the Boks were playing Canada or the United States and were guaranteed a constant supply of quality ball there would be sense in selecting a gifted runner at flyhalf. In the circumstances it is foolhardy in the extreme.
All of the foregoing may sound a little too pessimistic ahead of a Test against a team that has never beaten the Springboks on home soil. But the Pumas are not the gifted amateurs of the past.
They are a considerable team hardened by fulltime professionals from the French and British leagues who will not be overawed by a South African reputation for hardness, a reputation which is fast being consigned to the dustbin of history.
@ best of sport on tv
friday
Cricket: SuperSport Series, first day, Strikers vs Titans, from the Wanderers at 10am on SuperSport1 (SS1)/CSN
Golf: American Express Championship at 1pm on SuperSport International (SSInt)
Soccer: English Nationwide First Division, Preston vs Crewe, at 9.40pm on SS1/CSN
saturday
Boxing: International Boxing Federation flyweight title bout, Hawk Makepula vs Irene Pacheco, plus others, from Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, at 3am on SS1/CSN
Cricket: SuperSport Series, second day, Strikers vs Titans at 10am on SS2
Golf: American Express Championship at 3pm on SuperSport Extra1 (SSX1)
Rugby: Tour matches, Scotland vs Australia at 3.45pm on M-Net/SS1, Wales vs Samoa at 6pm on SS2, Ireland vs Japan at 8.30pm (delayed) on SS2, France vs New Zealand at 9.35pm on SS1/CSN
Soccer: Premier Soccer League (PSL), Hellenic vs Wanderers at 3pm on SABC1; African Champions League, Sundowns vs Sable de Batie at 4.30pm on e.tv; English Premier League, Arsenal vs Derby at 5pm on SSInt, Charlton vs Ipswich at 7pm (delayed) on SSInt (repeat at 10.20pm on SS2); women’s African Cup of Nations, South Africa vs Runion at 1.30pm on SABC3
sunday
Boxing: Lennox Lewis vs David Tua, plus undercard, from Las Vegas, at 4am on SS1/CSN (on M-Net from 4.30am; Lewis bout at about 6am, repeat at 12.40pm on SS2)
Cricket: SuperSport Series, third day, Strikers vs Titans at 9.30am on SS1/M-Net
Golf: American Express Championship at 1.30pm on SSInt
Rugby: Test, Argentina vs South Africa at 9.30pm on M-Net/SS1
Soccer: PSL, Santos vs Kaizer Chiefs at 2.30pm on SABC2; African Champions League, Esperance vs Africa Sports at 3.30pm on e.tv; English Premier League, Chelsea vs Leeds at 6pm on SS1/CSN; English Nationwide First Division, Gillingham vs Nottingham Forest at 3pm on SS2
monday
Cricket: SuperSport Series, final day, Strikers vs Titans at 10am on SS1/CSN
Soccer: MTN Kick-off magazine programme at 6.05pm on e.tv; English Premier League, Manchester United vs Middlesbrough (played on Saturday) at 9.30pm on SS1/CSN; African Champions League, Hearts of Oak vs Jeanne d’Arc (played at the weekend) at 10.15pm on e.tv
Tennis: Paris Open at 1pm on SS2
tuesday
Boxing: Fight Night, from Carousel, at 8pm on SSInt
Tennis: Paris Open at 1pm on SS2
wednesday
Rugby: Tour match, Ireland A vs South Africa at 9.30pm on SS1/CSN
Soccer: PSL, Sundowns vs Santos at 10pm (delayed) on SABC2; African Champions League, Lobi Stars vs Al Ahly (played at the weekend) at 10.15pm on e.tv
Tennis: Paris Open at 1pm on SS2
thursday
Golf: Johnnie Walker Classic at 8am on SS2
Tennis: Paris Open at 1pm on SS2
friday
Cricket: First Test, South Africa vs New Zealand, from Bloemfontein at 10am on e.tv/SSInt
Golf: Johnnie Walker Classic at 8am on SS2
Soccer: Women’s African Cup of Nations, South Africa vs Zimbabwe at 2pm on SABC3
Tennis: Paris Open at 3pm on SS2
ENDS