If selecting a team is all about chemistry then successive Springbok coaches have discovered to their cost that certain volatile components when put together display a fine tendency to explode. So it should come as no surprise that Jake White’s Bloemfontein training camp has hardly been an unqualified success.
Due to injury, three players from the Springbok coach’s original squad of 23 will play no part in the first Test against Ireland. Percy Montgomery’s on-again-off-again hand injury is the latest setback, which is ironic given the fact that White’s decision to recall Monty was based upon a love affair with his feet rather than his hands.
The need for a reliable place-kicker has therefore thrust Gaffie du Toit back into the limelight. On Wednesday Du Toit will be part of the Springbok team that will play against a Central Districts side in Kimberley. Among those looking for a happy omen will be André Markgraaff, the chairperson of the Bok selectors and the man who brought Du Toit to Kimberley six years ago to play for Griquas.
Back then it was the former Matie’s ability to break the line and drop preposterous goals that brought him to national prominence and his place-kicking was regarded as a secondary concern, being about as reliable as a baby’s bottom. Exactly the same could be said back then for Montgomery’s place-kicking and it is bizarre to think that one left-footed spray painter will replace another in the number 15 shirt for the first Test against Ireland.
It is quite possible that a certain Braam van Straaten will be watching from the stands on Wednesday, for the former Bok centre and flyhalf has signed to play Currie Cup rugby for Griquas when the new season begins in July. His presence should provide a cautionary reminder to the national selectors about the value of old fashioned virtues. How White must wish he had a kicker of Van Straaten’s quality to call on.
The other injured players have been more easily replaced. Using the 20/20 vision that hindsight provides it is possible to conclude that Joe van Niekerk should never have been selected in the first place. Attempting no doubt to protect an old injury, he picked up a new one in training and limped out of the squad with a groin strain.
That Van Niekerk’s replacement should have been Jacques Cronje reflects rather better on the selectors than their ill-judged decision to recall Montgomery. Based upon form in the Super 12, Cronje would have been no better than third choice behind Adri Badenhorst and Russell Winter, both of whom gave their all for the Stormers and Sharks.
By contrast, Cronje’s performances for the Bulls became less impressive the longer the season went on, which perhaps only goes to show that Derick Hougaard was not the only flower to wither under the guidance of Rudy Joubert. Cronje is the real thing and the possibility of having him, Schalk Burger and Juan Smith together on the field must bring a warm feeling to White, who coached all three to the under-21 World Cup in 2002.
The third injury was to the unfortunate Jacque Fourie who, if he ever maintains fitness for a couple of years in a row, may yet become a Springbok legend. Fourie’s replacement is Henno Mentz of the Sharks, the number one surprise package of the season in this country.
With White seemingly unwilling to give Brent Russell a starting berth, Mentz is set to go straight into the Test side on the left wing. That’s always assuming that he makes it through two more weeks of training unscathed, of course, for the fact of the matter is that two dozen or so athletes running into each other on a daily basis creates almost as many problems as it solves.
We will never go back to the days when international sides met on Thursday, trained on Friday and played on Saturday: when, in the immortal words of Willie-John McBride, ‘the coach was the thing that drove you to the groundâ€.
But sometimes it seems that the relentless pursuit of chemistry ends with too many players queuing at the pharmacy.
Being a former schoolteacher, White would probably point out that he is less interested in chemistry than in alchemy, for the whole point of the extended stay in Bloemfontein is to try and turn base metals into gold. Green and gold, that is.
Inevitably White’s team is headed for a fall. Having solved their pay dispute, Ireland arrive with a full strength squad next week. They are a settled and powerful unit, far removed from the rag-tag bunch that played and lost two Tests in this country in 1998.
Against a similarly settled South Africa, Ireland would be the bookmakers’ favourites for a historic series win. Against a side being built from scratch as part of a national structure engaged in internecine warfare, they might even be odds on.
It is White’s job to change those perceptions over the next fortnight, so if you hear some odd noises emanating from Bloemfontein don’t worry, it’s just another all-night session in the lab.