The Springboks take the world’s biggest pack into their crucial game at Twickenham
Andy Capostagno in London
It is a melancholy fact that, while South Africa have lost only seven times to England in 95 years, five of those defeats have come since the end of isolation 10 years ago. If, as the bookmakers are predicting, England win at Twickenham on Saturday, both teams will have won six and lost six in the past decade.
The concern for South Africa should be that the balance of power seems to be moving inexorably towards England. In 1998 Nick Mallett’s team came here needing one more win to supplant the All Blacks in the record books with 18 wins in a row. Pieter Rossouw scored a marvellous try early on, but England won 13-7.
A year later the Springboks atoned for that defeat by winning 44-21 in Paris in a World Cup quarterfinal. Jannie de Beer wrote his name into history that day with five drop goals and gave a memorable response in the post match press conference. He said: “God gave me the talent, but the forwards gave me the ball.”
Last year the two-Test series in South Africa ended 1-1, but England won the decider at Twickenham, 25-17. And it is that result, and that performance in particular, not the 20-10 defeat against France a fortnight ago, that will drive the players this time.
It was the match that temporarily put Braam van Straaten’s career on hold, for while he scored all the points (including a try), his tactical kicking was lamentable, squandering all the ball won so bravely by the forwards.
This Saturday Van Straaten has a chance to exorcise the ghosts of that match, although he will have to do it from inside centre, not flyhalf. It will be his last game for his country for the foreseeable future as, after a game for the Barbarians next week, he takes up a contract with Leeds.
This time around it is up to Louis Koen to kick with purpose in the number 10 shirt, so it was interesting to see the Lions pivot chatting amicably with Jannie de Beer at a black-tie function on Monday night. Earlier in the day Koen had spent half an hour at the training ground, after the rest of the team had left, practising drop goals.
On Wednesday, when Harry Viljoen announced his team to the press, an enigmatic smile played around his lips when he was asked whether his team’s tactics on Saturday would include drop goals.
Viljoen pondered for a while, weighing up which response would best suit his team and then apparently decided to get his retaliation in first. “We do have a flyhalf who can kick drop goals,” he said. At which point the sound of pennies dropping could be heard from the English media, who seemed to have concluded that kicking expert Naas Botha was on tour for reasons other than commentating for Supersport.
Viljoen’s opposite number, England coach Clive Woodward, was a good deal less enigmatic in his responses 24 hours earlier.
He said, “I believe Harry is taking the Springboks in the right direction and that they are currently the best side in the southern hemisphere.”
Woodward backed up his claim by citing the fact that South African had beaten and drawn with Australia this year and that they were still ahead of every other team in the world in the physical intimidation stakes.
This sounded a little like the kind of flimflam designed to lull teams into a false sense of security, but when I spoke to Neil Back, the dynamic flanker who captained England in their last two matches (in the absence of Martin Johnson) he said: “I have always admired the way South African teams play rugby. It’s a physical confrontation that demands complete commitment. That’s what rugby at the highest level is all about.”
Spending time in the England camp was a timely antidote to the negative thoughts surrounding the Springboks. They are not thinking about the lack of pace in the Springbok midfield, they are thinking about the power of the Springbok pack. They know that if the Boks get on top up front, Koen will have the space to do what he likes at flyhalf.
For as much as England were mightily impressive against Australia and for as much as they scored 134 unanswered points against Romania, England still have a habit of losing games that they really ought to win. They have lost only once in their past 13 matches, but that defeat happened to come against Ireland in Dublin last month, and it happened to deny them a Six Nations grand slam for the second year running.
English teams do not write off South African teams because, as they have become more familiar with them over the past decade, they have begun to understand what defeat means to the wearers of the green and gold shirt.
On the basis of what happened a fortnight ago in Paris it would be easy to dismiss the tourists’ chances. On the basis of the first 20 minutes of last week’s match against Italy it could be argued that the Boks don’t even belong on the same field as England. But as their captain, Bob Skinstad, says: “The success or failure of this tour will be decided by Saturday’s result.” In the circumstances there could be a lot of disappointed England supporters around on Saturday.