The curtain comes down on a difficult international season for the Springboks at Ellis Park on Saturday. In 2005 the Boks won three of their four Tri-Nations encounters and could actually claim to have had a better competition than in 2004, when they won it. This time around, though, Jake White’s team has been relegated to the ”also-rans” column.
The coach earned some respite from his critics by ending the All Blacks’ unbeaten year in Rustenburg last week, but it would be wrong to assume that everything in the garden is now rosy. It was, after all, a one-point win at altitude against a team that had spent the week at Sun City and had annexed the trophy a full month previously. When you’ve lost five in a row, though, a win is a win is a win.
The only trouble now is that the team will be expected not just to squeak home against Australia this week, but to conclude the season in style. Fortunately, history is on the side of the Springboks.
Since readmission in 1992, the Wallabies have won just twice on these shores and have drawn a complete blank since a one-point win in Durban in 2000. Even more damning for the visitors is the fact that they have not won a single Tri-Nations match away from home for five years.
The last time South Africa played Australia at Ellis Park was in 2002. Brent Russell was at flyhalf wearing the number 20 jersey befitting his original selection on the bench. Andre Pretorius got injured during the captain’s run on the Friday and Rudolf Straeuli went with the maverick Russell instead of calling up the prosaic Louis Koen. Russell wore number 20 because Pretorius’s jersey didn’t fit him.
It was a terrific game of rugby, full of ebb and flow and finally won by the Boks with a last-minute try by Werner Greeff. The Western Province fullback then slotted the conversion to turn a tied game into a 33-31 win. Then, as now, the relief of finally winning a Tri-Nations game informed the delirious celebration of the crowd.
As a harbinger of what was to come, however, the Ellis Park result was a blind alley. The Boks went on tour at the end of the year and lost all three Tests, while Russell’s promotion to his favourite position proved to be a glorious exception to the rule. He has never played flyhalf at international level since and only rarely at provincial level.
This week White’s shameful treatment of Russell continued. Having shunned him on the overseas leg of this year’s Tri-Nations, he sent him back to his province. When Bryan Habana complained of headaches following last week’s Test, Russell and JP Pietersen were summoned from the Sharks to join the Bok squad. But while Pietersen is set to make his Test debut at fullback, Russell’s name is not even among the replacements.
Instead, White has moved Wynand Olivier from centre to wing and reunited Jaque Fourie and Jean de Villiers in midfield. As so often during his tenure, White’s justification for playing a man out of position is about size, rather than ability. If the latter were the criterion here, then Breyton Paulse would replace Habana and Russell would be on the bench.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though, for Pietersen’s belated selection could light the blue touch paper of the Bok back line. We have been waiting all year for the coach to be bold in his selections and this is a classic example.
There are areas of doubt and uncertainty about the Sharks fullback. Pietersen’s tackling is suspect, his kicking from hand inconsistent and his error rate too high. But he is long and thin like a piece of spaghetti and has the ability to make respectable defences look as full of holes as a colander. He is also 20. Remember that when people jump on him and cite his lack of basic skills.
Remember that, too, when people start harping on about the ”solidity” that Percy Montgomery brings to the team. Percy was young once, too, and selected out of position by Nick Mallett ahead of the prodigiously gifted Andre Joubert. It took him, at a conservative estimate, five years to learn how to play fullback. He survived on pace and a big left boot.
Pietersen deserves the same indulgence. If handled correctly, he could become a legend. Of course, it is far more likely that he will be handled poorly, told that he isn’t good enough to play fullback and shifted out to the ”safety” of the wing where he will be rotated with other black players for a decade of lost opportunities.
But this is no time to be pessimistic. After a season of conservative selections and underachievement, the Springbok team has a lean and hungry look. It is an enviable blend of youth and experience and it is playing at its favourite venue against a less-than-stellar Wallaby outfit. If ever there was going to be a stylish win, this is it.