Since readmission the true litmus test of the health, or otherwise, of Springbok rugby has tended to come against France. In 1992 Naas Botha’s team won their first overseas Test in more than a decade 20-15. It was a result owing everything to passion, and a week later when something more was required to win in Paris, South Africa went down 29-16.
Eight months later a Bok team that was still wet behind the ears lost a home series to the French and they came awfully close to losing the World Cup semifinal against the same opponents in Durban in 1995. But that 19-15 epic was the turning point for South Africa: it removed the fear factor.
The Bok tourists of 1996 and 1997 won four out of four Tests on French soil and the last of those results stands out as the outstanding performance in the famous 17-match unbeaten run.
It was the final game to be played at the Parc des Princes, before the French Rugby Union adopted the sparkling new Stade de France across the city from the famous old ground. The Boks won 52-10 and the French crowd that booed its own players gave those under Gary Teichmann and Nick Mallett a standing ovation.
A week earlier in Lyon, South Africa had only won narrowly, 36-32. It wasn’t a bunch of no-hopers that they walloped in Paris but a team of legendary names such as Fabien Galthie, Thierry Lacroix, Phillipe Saint-Andre, Abdel Benazzi and Laurent Cabannes.
If that was the high point of Tests between the two nations, the low point came in 2001 under the coaching of Harry Viljoen and in 2002 under Rudolf Straeuli. The Boks lost 20-10 in Paris and a year later 30-10 in Marseilles. Both games seemed less like Tests than men against boys: a well-coached team of hardened internationals against shapeless rabble.
Those were the dark days of post isolation Springbok rugby, so sink to your knees and thank your lucky stars that they are behind us. Saturday’s Test under the lights at Stade de France will bring the curtain down on a second hugely satisfying year in charge of the national team for Jake White.
Last year’s tour was clouded by poor results and an ill-judged political correctness in the selection procedure. The year ended with a Tri-Nations title in the bag, but the jury was out on the true worth of White’s team. Needing to prove himself all over again, the coach made his critics eat humble pie all season long.
To put it all into perspective, two previous regimes had entrenched the idea of crisis management as endemic to the job of Springbok coach. But White’s biggest selection quandary this week was whether to bring in a player — Breyton Paulse — who was not part of the touring squad.
He is in the happy position of knowing that defeat against yet another very good French side will not be regarded as a national disgrace. One month early it may be, but that knowledge counts as the greatest Christmas present of all.