Just when it looked like the dust had settled on the selection of the first Springbok team of the season, Sharks scrumhalf Craig Davidson decided to have a dip at the coach. Davidson’s name was not among the 22 announced on Sunday so he went running to the papers and accused Bok coach Jake White of playing favourites.
It was a naive outburst that ignored the most fundamental aspect of team selection. Put simply, if you can’t play your favourite players then what’s the point of being coach? Kitch Christie had what he called his ‘lucky team†during the 1995 World Cup and if you weren’t part of that 15 you couldn’t force your way in.
Christie played André Joubert in the semifinal and final with a broken hand rather than break up his lucky team to include Gavin ‘Magic†Johnson. Right now, of course, there’s another Springbok fullback with a broken hand in the squad, but we’ll get to that later.
If Davidson had defended his corner from a less emotional viewpoint he might have garnered some sympathy. He was unarguably the best and most consistent South African scrumhalf on display in the Super 12 and when he wasn’t on the field the Sharks were something of a rudderless ship.
Meanwhile, the two scrumhalves selected by White — Fourie du Preez and Bolla Conradie — were not always the first choice of their respective coaches at the Stormers and Bulls. But in both cases players with Test match experience replaced them and the Super 12 is nothing if not a test of strength in depth.
Someone is always going to be disappointed and there are others who must look in the mirror and wonder what more they could have done. Daan Human at the Stormers, for instance, was, like Davidson, the best South African player in his position throughout the Super 12, improving on the form that saw him earn his Springbok colours two years ago.
Human began his career at Free State, where he quickly became known as ‘Klein Osâ€, and the irony will not be lost on him that his place in the big boys’ team has gone to his mentor, ‘Groot Osâ€. If there is a genuine example of White playing a favourite then the selection of Os du Randt is it.
He played in a deplorable Cats team all year and was rarely seen at the peak of his powers, but White regards Du Randt as something of a talisman. Way back in 1997 when he was part of Nick Mallett’s coaching team, White said a very wise thing about how teams are selected.
He said: ‘When the opposition knows that a Springbok team has been picked they only ask four things: is Henry playing, is Japie playing, is André playing and is Os playing?â€
Seven years down the line Honiball, Mulder and Venter have all retired, but Du Randt, at 32, is still a relatively young man in propping terms and if White believes he can rekindle the necessary fires then that is his prerogative as coach.
It was also on that happy 1997 tour that Percy Montgomery began life as the Springbok fullback, although it took a last-minute training injury to Justin Swart to get him into the side. Montgomery became a Mallet favourite and two years of bellowing by the public and press failed to convince the coach that Monty wasn’t fit to tie André Joubert’s shoelaces.
History will record, of course, that Montgomery assumed the number 15 shirt at the beginning of the best period for Springbok rugby in the 12 years since the end of isolation. That is just one of the reasons for White’s decision to pluck Montgomery from the obscurity of South Wales to participate — broken hand and all — in the opening Tests of the 2004 season.
Even so, you can’t help but feel that, in selecting Montgomery, White is preparing a rod for his own back far more so than is the case with the other forgiven foreigner in the squad, Jaco van der Westhuyzen.
Ultimately, of course, White’s team will stand or fall upon its results. Lose to Ireland and Wales and there will inevitably be changes ahead of the Tri-Nations no matter what is said about the primacy of continuity.
And Davidson may like to ponder his own past before second-guessing the future, for last year, as in this, he was the best South African scrumhalf in the Super 12. He forced his way into Rudolf Straeuli’s side at the expense of Joost van der Westhuizen and then signally failed to reproduce his provincial form at Test level. Players who do that are the hardest things of all for a coach to cope with, as White will no doubt find out over the next six months.