The Springbok year began and ended with resignation. In January Harry Viljoen resigned as coach of the national team, while in November the team returned from Europe, tails between legs, resigned to the fact that South Africa is no longer among the elite rugby nations of the world.
Springbok supporters have spent the year clutching at straws and the abiding memory of the 2002 season will not be of the dazzling artistry of Brent Russell, nor the red carding of Jannes Labuschagne, but the porcine form and features of Pieter van Zyl.
Van Zyl was the oaf who managed to evade a swarm of security guards at King’s Park during the Tri-Nations test against New Zealand in Durban.
Incensed at some admittedly questionable decisions by Irish referee Dave McHugh, Van Zyl left his seat in the stands and entered the field of play.
Attacked from the blind side, McHugh fell heavily and dislocated his shoulder. In the subsequent melee van Zyl’s nose was broken by a well-aimed blow from AJ Venter, while a less accurate smite from an All Black flanker rearranged McHugh’s features. Van Zyl was marched off the field, blood streaming from his nose, belly escaping from his Springbok replica shirt.
Speaking to the press through the bars of a police van, Van Zyl claimed his actions were on behalf of aggrieved South African rugby supporters who were, he claimed, gatvol with one-eyed referees. Dr Johnson, who identified patriotism as the last refuge of the scoundrel, would have recognised him immediately.
Subsequently Van Zyl appeared in court dressed in an ill-fitting suit (the preferred garment of the scoundrel) and rejoiced in his R10 000 fine, saying that if this was the price he had to pay to get impartial referees for Springbok matches he would happily open his wallet. The full impact of Van Zyl’s actions did not manifest itself until some months later, however.
In the final test of a benighted season, South Africa were humbled 53-3 by England at Twickenham. They played for an hour with 14 men, due to the banishment of Labuschagne for an outrageously late hit on Jonny Wilkinson. Kiwi referee Paddy O’Brien savaged the Boks with a string of decisions that might, in other circumstances, have been differently interpreted.
In the post-match press conference, Rudolf Straeuli, the man who had accepted the poisoned chalice after Viljoen’s resignation, applied his mind to O’Brien’s performance. Harking back to Van Zyl’s unscheduled appearance in Durban, he was forced to admit that the Springboks are paying rather more than the R10 000 that came out of the Potchefstroom pariah’s pocket.
Two things are now painfully apparent: firstly, referees expect the Springboks to play dirty, and secondly, they expect them to lose. At the end of the tour South Africa had recorded record losses in successive weeks against France, Scotland and England. The hardest thing to bear, however, was that not too many rugby people were surprised.
The antecedents were there for all to see in the Super 12. Under Straeuli the Sharks had reached the final in 2001, but they lost all four of their matches at the beginning of the 2002 season. Arriving back from a miserable tour of the Antipodes, Straeuli handed the coaching reins of the Sharks to Kevin Putt and began his tenure as Bok coach on April Fool’s Day.
He travelled the country to scout for talent and with all four South African franchises out of the Super 12 semi-finals, he reintroduced the concept of the Springbok trials. And, against all predictions of a back-to-basics 10-man-grunt ethic, Straeuli revealed himself as a risk taker, a dweller on the threshold of total rugby.
Where Viljoen had talked the talk, but under pressure placed his trust in one-dimensional kickers like Braam van Straaten and Louis Koen, Straeuli walked the walk, delving into the South African Sevens team and pulling out two plums: Andre Pretorius and Brent Russell.
Suddenly a moribund backline had more playmakers in it than a touring theatre company. In Tests against Wales and Argentina Pretorius emerged not just as a broken-field runner, but as a place kicker of note. And when Straeuli rang the changes in the final quarter of those games, he was able to send Pretorius to fullback and give Russell his head at flyhalf.
In those heady days the sky seemed the limit for Straeuli’s team. Enter, stage left, a reality check known as the Tri-Nations. In retrospect it is even more apparent than it was at the time that the Springbok year was decided not by a dysfunctional defensive system, nor by rampant indiscipline, but by a cruelly inept refereeing display from Australia’s Stuart Dickinson.
At the Westpac stadium in Wellington a Springbok team took the field not quite knowing how good they were, but confident and content in their own company. Werner Greeff scored a great try early on and the Bok pack took their All Black counterparts by surprise with their athleticism and controlled aggression.
A few howlers from Dickinson later, the All Blacks were rampant and South Africa lost a game they should have won. They left the field still not knowing how good they were. The Springboks lost three Tri-Nations games in a row, the last of them being the now infamous Durban Test.
That they then beat Australia at Ellis Park seemed significant at the time, but less so now. The Boks set up a belated opportunity with time elapsed, thanks to a perfectly timed run by Greeff.
With no one else to turn to, Greeff slotted the conversion himself and trotted off the field apparently unaware of his newfound status as a national hero. That status lasted right up until the opening match of the post-season tour, and if you had to pick one player to personify the disaster of that three-Test trip, it would be the unfortunate Greeff.
The fearless defender of the high ball became an ill-coordinated rabbit; the scythe of defences went blunt overnight. It was not all his fault, however, for Straeuli found himself on a tough tour to the continent where the set piece is king without a tight five worthy of the name.
Despite all Straeuli’s good intentions 2002 was a year to screw up and forget about. It was a year that saw the curtain come down on the careers of Mark Andrews, Andre Venter and Willie Meyer, three hard men who for many and various reasons pulled on a Springbok jersey for the final time. They will all be missed.
Percy Montgomery, who marked Straeuli’s accession by trying and failing to hold him to ransom, will not. For his clear-sighted handling of the Montgomery case, and because he is a decent man, Straeuli deserves a pleasant festive season and a much better 2003.