At Newlands on Saturday we may be treated to a preview of the 2007 World Cup final; host nation France are among the favourites, while the resurgence of Springbok rugby under coach Jake White has not been ignored by the bookmakers.
It would, however, be extremely unwise to use events in Cape Town as a form line for the most important trophy in the game.
For one thing, France are out of season. For another, the Springbok team is beginning to fall apart. With the Tri-Nations less than a month away, White has to come to terms with the fact that he will have to try to build a racing car from spare parts.
The great Schalk Burger now heads the list of sick and wounded. That vast bull neck is damaged and will require a fusion operation. As White put it during the week, losing Burger is like losing three players in one.
It means that his team to play the French will be missing its two most important cogs: Burger and Jean de Villiers. The latter is due back in time for the Tri-Nations, but the grim speculation that Burger may have played his last game of rugby should focus the coach’s mind on the obstacles that lie ahead.
There are many reasons why the Springboks have been a good side for the past two years, including having a sapient coach. White has made a virtue of finding players to perform specific roles since taking the reins.
He got the best out of fringe players such as Gerrie Britz and Wayne Julies by explaining what he requires of them, safe in the knowledge that when his first-choice men are fit, the fringe players will return to provincial rugby.
But great teams contain great players, people who transcend the game. For two years the Boks have been able to call on Burger, De Villiers, Bryan Habana and Victor Matfield. That particular quartet would make Old Malthusians Fourths into a competitive unit.
It must by now have crossed White’s mind that he may have to begin the World Cup without any of them, for such is the attritional nature of the modern game. In which case he can either bemoan his ill fortune, or get on with producing a winning team.
If he chooses the latter, at least he has done it before. It is just less than a year since South Africa lost 30-12 against Australia in Sydney. The Mandela Challenge defeat was the heaviest since White had taken over as coach, but it served an important purpose.
Hitherto, White had stuck rather dogmatically to the players who helped win the Tri-Nations in 2004. In the wake of defeat, he shook off his conservative mindset and, when the two sides met again in Johannesburg two weeks later, there were no less than eight changes to the Bok side. South Africa won 33-20, and it was the Wallabies rather than the Springboks who limped through last year.
It seemed at that stage that two players in particular symbolised the move away from a Springbok side that had become stuck in a rut: De Wet Barry and Danie Rossouw. Both brought tremendous physical presence to their roles, but neither was capable of lighting the blue touch paper to ignite the firework of creativity.
Yet, true to his dictum that Springbok caps should not be thrown around like so much confetti, White kept the pair in the mix. This week both are back in the starting line-up, something that would have seemed impossible after that Sydney defeat.
Impossible, that is, if rugby were the game of chess it is so often compared to, instead of the collision sport it really is. You could not ask for a better exemplar of what Burger brought to the side, for both the recall of Barry and the changes in the back row are a direct result of the big fellow’s absence.
White has wisely decided to retain Rossouw at lock, moving Joe van Niekerk into Burger’s position and recalling the admirable Pedri Wannenburg at number eight.
Barry gets his chance because of other injuries, but the casting vote probably went with him because of his ability to ”fetch” the ball in the manner of a flank at the breakdowns.
Barry and Rossouw are fine examples of the modern professional rugby player, but White must know that he cannot win the World Cup with either in his starting line-up. Consequently, the 13-match, unbeaten home run that the Springboks currently enjoy is under threat.
The French came closest to breaking that successful run when they earned a 30-30 draw in Durban last June. It will be the same again this time, and if the French should win, it would serve to emphasise exactly how hard life is going to be for the Springboks without the prodigious Burger. Get well soon, Schalk.