South Africa have endured a tough time on their current tour but coach Jake White believes the experience gained by his young squad could pay dividends come the time of the 2007 World Cup in France.
Back-to-back defeats by Ireland and England have shattered the Tri-Nations champions’ hopes of completing a Grand Slam of victories over the four home nations and left them in desperate need of a morale-boosting victory over Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday.
But White also has one eye on the future, a fact reflected in the seven changes he has made from the side beaten 32-16 by England at Twickenham last weekend.
”I’m trying to take the long and the short view,” he said, before joking: ”It is just at this stage the short view is not working.”
White is acutely aware that the pattern of results in international rugby in recent years point to it being extremely difficult for any southern hemisphere side to succeed England as world champions in three years time.
But he is determined to ensure the Springbok squad that touches down in Paris arrives knowing exactly what to expect in terms of tactics and conditions.
”There will be things that I’ve learned on this tour that are going to help us with our preparations for the next couple of years in these conditions,” he said.
”That’s got to be a positive. And then last week seeing a 21-year-old guy like Bryan Habana scoring a try at Twickenham when I know that, all things being equal, he will be part of the World Cup squad in 2007 and we play England in our pool.
”It is nice for him to have felt that whole atmosphere and play against players he will play against in three years time.”
Lions centre Habana, who scored his try as a substitute against England, will start a Test for the first time on Saturday, on the left wing.
White’s side also includes two debutants in the pack, flanker Solly Tyibilika, 25, and prop Gurthro Steenkamp, 23, a veteran of the under-21 team that White coached to victory in the 2002 world championships.
The South African coach admitted he was looking for an ”intensity increase” from his injection of youth.
”A lot of them have not played rugby for a while, so you’ve got some fresh legs and a lot of guys who really want to get on the field,” he said. ”I’m hoping that sort of energy gets sent through the rest of the team.”
The debutants can expect a tough workout against a pack that is the strongest element of a Scotland team that is showing signs of improvement in the wake of their disastrous Six Nations campaign earlier in the year, in which they lost all five matches.
Forwards coach Gert Smal admits that South Africa’s scrum play has been the most disappointing aspect of the performances on tour so far.
”The lineouts I think we did fairly well — we’ve lost four balls over the tour, I think but the scrum has been disapppointing and we have been doing a lot of work on the basics this week.”
White said he would tell his players to forget about the defeats of the last two weeks and voiced confidence they would not succumb to the pressure of knowing that a third loss is likely to see them savaged back home.
”There is always that fear of failure in Springbok rugby,” he said. ”Any guy who pulls on the jersey and does not believe that he is playing for the players that have played before him and for the standards they have set has not bought into what playing for South Africa means.”
Among the big names missing on Saturday will be flanker Schalk Burger, named as the international players’ player of the year this week but a huge disappointment against England, centre De Wet Barry and winger Breyton Paulse.
White said all three could have played if required but, with the strength of the side Argentina will field against the Springboks in Buenos Aires next week still unclear, preferred to allow them to recover from niggling injuries. – Sapa-AFP