It’s hard to believe today, but when South Africa last played Uruguay they were the reigning World Champions and would remain so for a further fortnight. It was hard to believe then, too, for against ‘Los Teros” the Boks were simply terrible.
There were, as ever, mitigating factors. The match was played in front of about 3000 people at a soccer ground, Hampden Park, and the opponents were a bunch of no hopers boasting just one professional player, Pablo Lemoine at tight head prop.
Uruguay’s captain, Diego Ormaechea, was a 40-year-old vet and their coach, Daniel Herrera (back this time as manager), worked for the Disney Corporation. But it was noticeable that the only Mickey Mouse tactics emanated from the Boks and that Ormaechea’s skills at eighth man were far better suited to the conditions than those of Bob Skinstad.
The Boks duly won the match 39-3, but made few friends along the way. They also lost a key player in Brendon Venter. The Bloemfontein medic had been rushed back into the side after spending a couple of seasons at London Irish.
Venter qualified for Springbok selection by playing in the Currie Cup for Western Province and, in the time honoured manner of those exiled to Europe returned, not as a pariah, but as a conquering hero ready to lead the Boks to glory with his silky skills at inside centre.
That was the propaganda passed around the press box at the time, but you only needed a short-term memory to recall the acts of thuggery that followed Venter around the rugby field and it was not surprising to see him jumping in where tight forwards fear to tread at the edge of a ruck in the game against Uruguay.
He was duly red carded for stamping close to the head of an opponent by Australian referee Peter Marshall, and despite the offer of a particularly large portion of humble pie at the subsequent appeal, that was the end of the tournament for Venter.
But according to Joost van der Westhuizen – captain then as he will be on Saturday -Venter’s exclusion was largely insignificant in comparison to the big issue. It seems that the team and the coach, Nick Mallett, were heading for a divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.
Having beaten Uruguay the Boks went out on a jag and, on Monday, convened a meeting to which Mallett was not invited. There it was decided to kick Mallett’s game plan into touch and return to the pick and drive tactics that had served the team so well in 1998.
It worked splendidly against England in the famous Paris quarterfinal where Jannie de Beer dropped five goals and was almost good enough to beat Australia at Twickenham in the semi-final. It is a chastening thought today to recall that if things had gone only slightly differently in extra-time it would have been South Africa who benefited from playing an emotionally drained France in the Cardiff final, not Australia.
We could have gone through two World Cups undefeated. Don’t laugh, it nearly happened. In which case, why are we so gloomy at the prospects for 2003? Well, for one thing a 9, 10, 12 partnership of Joost, Louis Koen and De Wet Barry is hardly going to set hearts pounding among the rugby romantics and for another, that big oaf Danie Rossouw has gone straight into the test team following the withdrawal of Corne Krige.
If ever there was a chance to start with a bang then Rudolf Straeuli had to pick Schalk Burger, not Rossouw, and his fullback should have been Jaco van der Westhuyzen, not the hopelessly over praised Werner Greeff. It won’t matter, of course, for Uruguay will be duly beaten, but England are next and if the coach is keeping his powder dry for that match then he is wrong to do so.
Uruguay would lose to the Falcons 19 times out of 20, but that should not lure us into believing that we’ll see another all hands, no feet, extravaganza like the one at Springs that ended the World Cup ambitions of Jean de Villiers. Instead expect another relatively low scoring hard grind that will give England even greater confidence than they have already.