The Bok coach has made wholesale changes after the loss to France
Andy Capostagno in Genoa
Last Saturday, for the second time this year, South Africa went into a Test match against France confident of victory, only to have their hopes dashed by a massively confident team in blue. Consequently when the team arrived in Genoa on Sunday, along with the seven tons of luggage, the drawing board was unpacked.
Coach Harry Viljoen was forced to rethink the whole balance of his team and with seven changes, the side that takes the field against Italy on Saturday bears little resemblance to the one that lost 20-10 to France in Paris.
Some of those changes can be defended to the hilt. Joe van Niekerk, who has replaced AJ Venter on the flank, is a precocious talent whose time has finally come, while tighthead prop Willie Meyer should have been selected against France if only because, by his own admission, Cobus Visagie was unfit.
Venter’s move to lock in place of Mark Andrews also has merit because it will add much-needed pace to the tight five and, to be honest, with the current game plan Dean Hall’s selection ahead of Pieter Rossouw on the left wing is largely irrelevant.
But that is where the logic stops. Viljoen was criticised for his flyhalf selections when this squad was announced, principally because as long as Braam van Straaten stayed fit there was never going to be a place in the match squad for Louis Koen.
If, pre-tour, anyone had suggested that the back line would read Koen (flyhalf), Van Straaten (inside centre) and Trevor Halstead (outside centre) they would have been laughed off the stage. Yet that is precisely the midfield trio that will take the field in Genoa on Saturday. Viljoen says he believes in the organisational ability of Koen and Van Straaten and argues that by picking them as a pair he will get twice as much organisation.
Clearly that was something missed against France, where the meticulously planned, multi-phased moves practised in training were replaced by misguided attempts to chip or grubber kick through a flat-lying defence. The one occasion when the Boks showed the patience required to carry the ball through six phases, Pieter Rossouw scored a try.
After an angry meeting on Sunday night the management eased off, made the necessary changes to the team and then tried to convince the whole squad that last Saturday’s game had never happened. Reviewing the video revealed that the Boks had played a fair amount of good rugby, but had shot themselves in the foot by allowing turnovers at the tackle and losing the ball in the opposition 22 through an anxiety to keep a movement alive.
In Viljoen’s first Test in charge, against Argentina last year, he forbade his team from kicking the ball. Despite the fact that the tactic nearly resulted in defeat, the sparse attention paid to tactical kicking in training this week might suggest that we can expect something similar against Italy.
Which is not to underestimate the Italians, but merely to reiterate that in the greater scheme of things this match was always going to be used as a dress rehearsal for next week’s encounter with England at Twickenham.
Against Italy Viljoen needs his players to show a capacity for controlling the ball that is not commensurate with the wide game normally attempted against weak opposition.
His underlying aim was summed up when the team was announced on Wednesday. Viljoen said: “Prior to the tour this would not have been the combination that I would have played. Things, however, happen and one has to adapt. This is an opportunity for some players to put their hands up and challenge for a place in the match squad against England.”
Two players for whom this is particularly true are scrumhalf Deon de Kock and centre Adrian Jacobs, the Falcons pair who are both on the bench against Italy. There is a feeling that Joost van der Westhuizen is paying a visit to the last-chance saloon
As for Jacobs, Viljoen should have been able to gamble with the gifted youngster at inside centre thanks to the inclusion of Koen, but he seems to think that he has more future at outside centre, which is where he will go if Van Straaten is taken off in the second half. This is conservative thinking, but after last week’s performance it’s quite understandable.