It is just over seven years since South Africa last played Samoa and things have changed. In 1995 Michael Jones was playing for his adopted country of New Zealand, having begun his Test career with Samoa in the heady days when the International Rugby Board (IRB) looked more kindly on the notion of one man, two countries.
Jones scored the first World Cup try in 1987 and went on to become a candidate for the title of best All Black ever. But he never lost the quiet, religious nature that links most of his countrymen, and after ferocious Test matches he would happily repair to the team hotel, take out his guitar and hold impromptu gospel meetings with other All Black ”islanders”. Now Jones, the great ”Iceman”, is an assistant coach for Samoa.
In 1995 they were known as Western Samoa, to differentiate them from the neighbouring island of American Samoa, so called because it was closer to the American mainland and tended to prefer basketball to rugby.
Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury strip, for so long the true barometer of all things American in this newspaper, placed the unscrupulous ”Duke” on American Samoa for some years as the fictional United States attaché. Trudeau could get away with stories concerning virgin sacrifices because his audience knew no better.
But the sport of rugby union has got to know Samoa well over the past decade, largely due to the fact that they contested the quarterfinals of the World Cup in both 1991 and 1995. Instead of being drawn either from New Zealand or Samoa, their players now campaign all over the world and are particularly revered in Britain where statesmen such as Pat Lam and Vaiga Tuigamala gave the kind of yeoman service that is but rarely forthcoming from foreign imports.
Lam scored a try against Wales at the Millennium stadium during the 1999 World Cup as Samoa made it two out of two against the hosts in Cardiff. In 1991 Lam had played among the other unknowns who beat Wales at the old Arms Park. Sitting next to me in the press box that day was the late Clem Thomas, a British Lion in South Africa in the 1950s. Spotting the word ”Ladbrokes” on my phone Clem mistook me for a bookie and shortly after kick-off he took out a large wad of cash, saying: ”What odds on these fellows beating us?”
On Saturday at Loftus no such upset is expected. Samoa are in a rebuilding phase and thanks to the IRB’s new eligibility rules can no longer draw on the likes of Frank Bunce and Stephen Bachop, both of whom played for them at the 1991 World Cup before being capped as All Blacks. Any islander who now believes he is good enough to play for the All Blacks can no longer afford to play for Samoa, for as soon as he does he becomes ineligible for New Zealand.
Notwithstanding that, Rudolf Straeuli can expect a decent test for his new-look Springbok side and cannot afford to take anything for granted. He has resisted the temptation to rush Butch James straight back at flyhalf, so Werner Greef will start a Test match for the first time at fullback, before a likely second-half change that will bring James off the bench and send Andre Pretorius to the last line of defence.
There are eight changes to the side that beat Argentina 49-29 in Springs last week, but four of them are injury related. Nevertheless the recall of Victor Matfield will be eagerly scrutinised, particularly the manner in which he gels with Hottie Louw.
Matfield and Louw would have been many people’s lock pairing for the first Test of the year rather than the fourth. Louw was disappointing last week, but has the ability to perform at this level; Matfield has had three weeks to look at himself in the mirror after Straeuli’s decision to axe him for disciplinary reasons. If he has a big game on his home ground, Straeuli’s legend as a manager of men will grow a little more.
If the two big men can learn to play together in a complementary fashion, with Louw providing a focal point for driving mauls and Matfield ruling in the lineout and the loose, Straeuli may be able to throw away all his other plans for the engine room.
Equally there will never be a better chance for three young men to get a step ahead of their rivals in the front row. Faan Rautenbach, Danie Coetzee and Lawrence Sephaka have never scrummed together before this week, but time is running out in Straeuli’s hunt for combinations. If, together with Matfield and Louw, they can provide the missing dominance up front this may turn out to be rather an important Test match after all.