Springbok coach Jake White has sent Enrico Januarie, JP Pietersen, Pierre Spies and Lawrence Sephaka back to their respective unions to get some much needed mileage in their legs and shred off a few kilograms.
But it is not doom and gloom for the quartet, as they will have to report back to the Bok camp in Pretoria on Sunday ahead of the All Blacks Test at Loftus Versfeld.
”The thinking from everyone is that they haven’t played much rugby and this weekend gives them an opportunity to do so in the Currie Cup before they come back and join us again on Sunday. This is to add value to them going forward. The provinces are also happy to get those players to bolster their teams,” White said.
At the same time, White will be deciding on the exclusion of Andre Pretorius and Danie Rossouw from the squad after both players suffered injury scares.
Pretorius is suffering from shin splints while Rossouw seems not to have fully recovered from his hamstring strain suffered on the overseas leg of the Tri-Nations.
Butch James also failed to practice on Tuesday with the squad, suffering from a bout of diarrhoea, but is expected to recover soon.
”I’m going to make a decision tonight [Tuesday] after consulting with the medical staff and we’ll make an announcement tomorrow [Wednesday]. After the prognosis we’ll see if we can keep the guys in the team or bring in other players,” White said.
White is making good use of the two weeks training time the Boks have, and has acquired the services of former Western Province and Eastern Province coach Alan Zondagh, who put the Boks through their paces at Tuesday’s afternoon training session at St Stithians College.
Zondagh has been hauled into the ailing Springbok set-up to inject new ideas and help the team end their four-match winless streak.
”We have to try and add value where we can and Alan has coached overseas. He’s been a coach for about 26 years and has coached provincial rugby, and has some nice ideas that can add value to us. We sat down and planned over the last week.
”We are not moving away from what we’ve been doing; we have just add here and there and maybe a couple of fresh ideas and a bit more stimulation. I’ll use him for the rest of the week and maybe a day or two leading up to the Test. He sees things from the outside, which maybe when you are inside here we don’t see,” White said.
White is also confident that the Boks can turn things around now that they are back in South Africa.
The problem he identified as being the main contributor to the Boks’ downward spiral has been the failure to get the scrums, lineouts, attack and defence working in unison.
”It is nice to be home and we have a proud record here. Things are looking up with the guys practising in an environment we are comfortable with. We haven’t executed things as well as we wanted to. In the coming weeks we will strive for our lineouts, scrums, attack and defence to work together at the same time,” said White.
And these training sessions could prove critical for White as the Boks face the All Blacks in two consecutive Tests before concluding their Tri-Nations with a Test against Australia. — Sapa