It is just one month since the Springboks flew home from Australia with their tails between their legs, having been drubbed 30-12 by the Wallabies in Sydney. Back then Bok coach Jake White was being castigated for playing too few players of colour, and for imagining that he could beat Australia by kicking the ball to them.
Three Test matches later the Springboks are ranked number two in the world, White’s greatest critic, André Markgraaff, has resigned from the South African Rugby Union (Saru), there are players of colour all over the place and it is Wallaby coach Eddie Jones who is staying up late revamping his CV to impress prospective future employers.
Last year South Africa won the Tri-Nations championship despite winning just two of their four games. This time around they might win three and yet fail to retain their title, but whatever happens from here on in, White knows that he has the nucleus of a team that can win the World Cup in 2007.
That humiliating defeat in Sydney taught many lessons. White was pilloried for suggesting that Wallaby prop Bill Young would have been chased away had he deigned to turn up at Stellenbosch University claiming to be a front-row forward.
And not merely because Young does not speak Afrikaans. This time around White has been quick to admit that no Springbok pack has dominated its Wallaby counterpart in the past two years.
In fact, the Bok management team has taken a leaf out of former England coach Clive Woodward’s book. They don’t insult the opposition’s manhood anymore, choosing rather to explain to the media the illegalities endemic to this week’s opponents, hoping that the information will filter down to the referee. Two weeks ago it was the All Black lineout, this week it’s the Wallaby scrum.
As a former television analyst himself, a certain amount of humble pie had to be digested before White could learn to stop shooting from the hip in press conferences.
It was a similar story in team selection. White spent 12 months justifying his faith in Jaco van der Westhuyzen at flyhalf, but it took defeat in Sydney to convince him that there was another way.
Upon returning home, White said: ”When Percy Montgomery was off the field having a cut to his face attended to during the Sydney Test, it brought home to me just how much we relied on his long left-footed kicking and reliable goal-kicking. It’s funny how something like that, our reliance on Percy, only really comes into focus when he is not there and I think we really need to be looking at our all-round kicking game as well as the introduction of a top-class goal-kicker.”
That change in outlook paved the way for the return of Andre Pretorius, but, perhaps more importantly, it allowed White to drop De Wet Barry and pick Jean de Villiers at inside centre.
Overnight the coach went from being afraid of missing a few tackles to acknowledging the old saw about attack being the best form of defence.
Having dropped one of his 2004 stalwarts, White was able to open his eyes to a few other selection conundrums. Principal among these was the make-up of the back row. Perhaps without intending it, White had got stuck with a loose trio bereft of pace, but it took defeat in Sydney to reveal the fact.
Even Schalk Burger, the International Player of the Year in 2004, was not exempt from criticism but the nation breathed a collective sigh of relief when White not only left out Danie Rossouw for the next game, but dropped him from the squad entirely.
White was part of Nick Mallett’s coaching team when for most of 17 unbeaten Test matches the back row consisted of Gary Teichmann, Rassie Erasmus and Andre Venter. In Rossouw he thought he saw echoes of Venter, but he was wrong.
Like Rossouw, Venter was maddeningly willing to take the hit, but he was also a ball player with pace enough to be a key member of the Springbok Sevens team that almost won the inaugural Sevens World Cup. By contrast, Rossouw is a sloth with hands like feet. It took defeat in Sydney for White to admit that.
Rather like having a lump of lard stuck in the U-bend of a sink, it’s only when the obstruction is cleared that you realise what you’ve been missing. The joyous display of running rugby at Ellis Park two weeks later was like watching a flock of racing pigeons freed from their cages.
Inevitably the Tri-Nations Tests that followed failed to match those flights of fancy in the rarefied Johannesburg air, but it is germane to record what White has achieved ahead of the business end of the tournament.
He has, of course, managed to deflect criticism away from Saru for doing everything except administer the game. But, more importantly, his team has won two close games without playing to more than 60% of its ability. Such profligacy will not do away from home, but fortunately the opposition is imploding while the Boks are improving.
The Wallabies are down to their third-choice flyhalf for Saturday’s game in Perth, and both captain and coach are under pressure to resign. That’s the sort of build-up to a Test match that is usually the sole preserve of a South African team. No wonder White is being so diplomatic in his statements this week.
As it transpires, the result of the game is actually irrelevant, because to win the Tri-Nations the Boks will have to beat New Zealand in Dunedin next week. The pleasing thing to report is that in the highly unlikely event of South Africa continuing their dismal record away from home there is absolutely no need to panic, because whether this team wins the Tri-Nations or not, we already know it can seriously play the game.