What would a Springbok team announcement be without controversy? Since the end of isolation, all that has really changed is the greater focus upon representivity.
In 2004, the public is bemused by the inclusion of Boland wing Jongi Nokwe in Jake White’s squad of 33. In 1992, it was Botha Rossouw, a back-row forward from Western Transvaal.
John Williams pulled Rossouw out of the hat for the first post-isolation tour to France and England in 1992. Thanks to this sudden celebrity, Rossouw was able to leave Die Mielieboere (the quaint name by which Western Transvaal were known in those far-off days) and played for, among others, the Blue Bulls. Which brings us to the crux of the argument against the composition of White’s tourists: there aren’t enough Bulls among them.
In days gone by such an oversight would have been dealt with by the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) president well before the fourth estate got to peek at the list of names. In June 1994, for instance, Louis Luyt interrupted his reading of the list of Springboks to tour New Zealand and left the room.
When he arrived back to complete the announcement, Lance Sherrell, the much-travelled flyhalf who at that stage was turning out for Northern Transvaal, had replaced the name of Joel Stransky on the list. Springbok coach, Ian McIntosh, was mortified, but Luyt had other loyalties, one of which was to Northerns president Hentie Serfontein. There weren’t enough players of a blue hue in the squad, so Stransky had to go.
Two years later the newly appointed Springbok coach André Markgraaff refused to appear in front of the cameras at Kings Park to announce the shocking truth to the watching public and so it fell to your correspondent. World Cup-winning captain Francois Pienaar was no longer good enough to play Test rugby and had been replaced in the tour squad by Theo Oosthuizen.
The fact that, at 32, Oosthuizen was three years older than Pienaar and that during a decade in the game had never come close to being capped by his country mattered not one whit. What counted was that he was a) not Pienaar and b) a valued member of Markgraaff’s beloved Griquas.
So astonishing was this particular selection that the media guide printed for the tour could not find a picture of Oosthuizen in rugby kit at short notice. So he sits for posterity behind his office desk, wearing a business suit, holding a pen and squinting in owlish bewilderment behind a pair of John Lennon glasses. Less than a year later, he retired from rugby.
Alongside the above examples of selectorial nonsense, White’s inclusion of Nokwe, Tim Dlulane and Solly Tyibilika do not raise anything more than a mild burp on the Richter scale. Indeed, had any or all of the above been white Afrikaners few reporters would even have raised an eyebrow.
In fact, had the same trio been based in Pretoria, White might even have been praised for his ability to blend transformation with achievement. Instead, he and his fellow selectors (among them the great survivor, Markgraaff) have been pilloried for announcing a squad of 33, fully one-third of which consists of players of colour.
Edmund Blackadder’s response to the contumely of the press might have been along the lines of, ‘For you, Baldric, the Renaissance was just something that happened to other people.†White’s response was more confrontational, which is something he may have to tone down if he is to remain in his job until his contract expires at the conclusion of the 2007 World Cup.
In short, he told the Bulls management, via the media, that before they get their noses out of joint over a couple of non-selections, they might first care to wrap the country’s best scrumhalf in cotton wool.
It is the prerogative of any coach in any sporting code to have around him people whose abilities he trusts. In retrospect, there was no great mystery to some of White’s more mercurial selections this year. He simply went back to players he knew from his days as national under-21 coach.
So, White’s selections are as one-eyed as everyone else who has held his job. The only difference is that they are based upon ability rather than provincial allegiance. As the instigator of one of the greatest comebacks since Lazarus, White deserves some deference.
He also needs to justify some of the odder selections with performances on the park. After all, Rossouw, Oosthuizen and Sherrell made three ‘Bok tours between them, played in a total of 12 games and never got anywhere near representing South Africa in a Test match. The moral of this story is a simple one: political selections, like the truth, will find you out.