Contrary to what you may have heard, beating England at Twickenham on Saturday should be a doddle. All South Africa have to do is win their scrums and lineouts and avoid giving away penalties within 60m of their own posts. Easy.
Unfortunately the tale of this tour is the team’s inability to achieve any of the above, and we haven’t even mentioned the failure to protect the ball in contact, which has led to unacceptably high turnover counts.
In the circumstances even assistant coach Tim Lane has been at a loss for excuses, falling back on the suggestion that the shocking reverse against Scotland may have been because the team was already thinking ahead to England. Lane was with a very different Springbok squad last year when coach Harry Viljoen and captain Bob Skinstad both admitted early on that the tour would stand or fall on the result against England.
He should know that running on to the field at Twickenham, hoping that Springbok minds will automatically focus and all the inconsistencies of the past two weeks will instantly disappear, is an idea doomed to failure. It might work at a neutral venue, as it did in Paris at the 1999 World Cup, but at fortress Twickenham England have now won 17 in a row.
Under Viljoen the Boks entered the corresponding fixture last year with the most one-dimensional game plan of all; make your tackles and force them into conceding penalties. The consequence of this criminal lack of ambition was a record defeat (29-9) and, whatever the doomsayers on this tour might say, by far the worst Springbok display since readmission.
This year was supposed to be different. Under Rudolf Straeuli the Boks rediscovered their ambition in the Tri-Nations and, despite soft conditions, were expected to run rings around Scotland last week. That they did not came down to just three things; scrums, lineouts and turnover ball. Which is where we came in.
The lineouts were actually much better than the previous week against France, as Lukas van Biljon seemed at least to be on nodding terms with his locks, unlike James Dalton the week before. What was missing was a banker somewhere in the line, a source of guaranteed possession, but since Victor Matfield was at home in Pretoria nursing his injured ankle it was always likely to be a problem area.
The scrums were a major problem, however. Winning his first cap at tight head, Deon Carstens discovered what many have before: namely that the diminutive Tom Smith is a bugger to scrum against. At loose head Wessel Roux discovered that he doesn’t know much about wet-weather scrumming, while the lack of bulk in the lock partnership meant that there was no second line of defence for the retreating front row.
As for turnover ball, it must surely begin and end with fundamental flaws in technique. It may be that Straeuli’s inexperienced side have not yet learned the value of possession, which is nine tenths of the law. It is simply unacceptable to put together four phases in adverse conditions and then either lose the ball forward in an ill-advised attempt at passing, or have it knocked loose by a tackle because it is held loosely under one armpit.
The bad news is that none of the above shortcomings has a quick fix. The England front row is a class above its counterparts in Scotland and, although Martin Johnson will probably not last to the World Cup, he and Ben Kay make up a formidable lock partnership. Together England has, as you would expect, an old-fashioned ball-winning tight five, one that allows their back row free rein.
England are a good side at the moment, one that stands just 80 minutes away from completing a Tri- Nations Grand Slam in successive weekends. So it is something of a shock to discover that the old triumphalism that tends to creep in whenever England win even one in a row against Southern Hemisphere opposition, has been conspicuous by its absence.
England beat a very raw New Zealand team by three points two weeks ago, but there was no attempt to suggest that revenge had been duly administered for the defeat at Twickenham in the 1999 World Cup. That was the last time England lost a game at Twickenham and Jonah Lomu scored the match-winning try. A fortnight ago he got two more and England ended up scrambling in a match they should have won by 15 points.
They showed more character last week in beating Australia by one point after being 12 points down 15 minutes into the second half. They clawed their way back with some typically immaculate kicking from Jonny Wilkinson and then scored the clinching try with a multi-phased move as impressive as anything seen this year.
And yet with all they have achieved there is the nagging feeling that this England side is not quite there. A couple of early scores against them, and a few injections of confidence rather than cortisone for the Springboks, and the unthinkable might happen. In the real world this England team is 15 points better than South Africa at Twickenham, but we have seen things from Straeuli’s teams this year that do at least give us the right to dream.