Smiles have been rare in the Bok camp recently, but Springbok coach Jake White managed to produce a few after his team’s practice session at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Tuesday.
They were not really smiles of joy after the All Blacks had announced a slightly weaker team earlier on in the day, but more because the Boks managed to put together a successful training session.
There seems to be some enthusiasm back in the Bok camp with White at his tactical best — board and all — out on the training field.
”I am happy. Today we’ve been able to train with a full squad and even had some guys to defend against. I had the board out here just to remind the guys of what we need to do on the field and they responded well to it because they could see what I was talking about.
”We also had a lot of time on the ball because that is what I want us to do, play more with the ball,” White said.
And it seems that White has not been insulted by coach Graham Henry’s selection opting to diplomatically shower the All Blacks backline with praise and hardly mentioning the forwards except for Greg Rawlinson.
”They have a very good backline out there. This is probably their best backline. I know Greg from his days at DHS when he played for the second team. I tried to convince him to come play for the Springboks, but when a guy gets picked for the All Blacks you must admit that he can play a bit,” White said.
In hindsight, there is a good reason to White’s happiness.
He will probably select a front row that consists of journeyman Os du Randt, John Smit and CJ van der Linde, while Victor Matfield and Johan Muller are likely to complete the tight five.
At loose forward, Solly Tyibilika, Juan Smith and Jacques Cronje might be the men tasked with stifling many of the All Blacks’ attacks while providing plenty of grunt when the Boks need to go forward.
It is in the backline that White has his trump card with the centre pairing of Jaque Fourie and Jean de Villiers back together and flyhalf Butch James looking strong.
One more reason why White would be smiling from ear to ear is that he would have the opportunistic Akona Ndungane and Bryan Habana out on the wings in their happy hunting ground of Loftus, where they have become accustomed to every blade of grass.
Who wouldn’t be all smiles when presented with a slightly weaker opposition with a team looking at getting back into their stride? — Sapa