Four years of meticulous planning and building a squad of 30 versatile players is what South Africa coach Jake White will be banking on when the Springboks launch their challenge for World Cup honours on September 9.
Since his first day in charge of the national side in 2004, White said he would spend his years between then and now building a team that could seriously stake a claim for the William Webb Ellis trophy. He was won and lost Test matches in between, but recently stated he had the 30 players he believed could do the job for his country.
However, since the announcement of his squad, star loose forward Pierre Spies has been ruled out of the tournament because of a lung illness, leaving White with just one specialist number eight in his squad, veteran Bob Skinstad.
Promising hooker Bismarck du Plessis joined the squad in Spies’s place. White is also sweating on the fitness of Danie Rossouw, the man-mountain who can play lock and among the loose forwards, and flanker Wikus van Heerden.
Besides these injuries to worry about, White has a fairly settled squad with the pack his big weapon.
With veteran Os du Randt, captain John Smit, locks Bakkies Botha and Victor Matfield and workhorse Schalk Burger leading the charge, the Boks are unlikely to be dominated in the set pieces or in the driving mauls and at ruck time.
Matfield is in a class of his own in the line-outs and should secure plenty of ball for his forwards and backs to work with.
And at the back, the Boks will rely heavily on the experienced Fourie du Preez at scrumhalf to keep the team going forward. Not only does Du Preez possess a good boot from the base of the scrum, but his eye for the gap has left many a defender clutching at straws.
While there may be concerns about flyhalf, where Butch James is expected to be the first choice, there is plenty of experience alongside him in the creative Jean de Villiers and Jaque Fourie, while in Bryan Habana the Boks have a genuine try-scoring machine who may just turn into a world superstar after the tournament should he manage to do what Australian wing David Campese did in 1991.
While the Boks have failed to set the world alight in the creativity and attacking departments, they’ll be powerful up front and rely on a strong defensive system to win them their matches.
Scoring against the Boks won’t be easy and teams will have to be wary of giving away penalties in their own half because in veteran fullback Percy Montgomery they have a goal-kicker par excellence.
And in young prodigy Frans Steyn, they also have a player who’s capable of putting over drop-goals from anywhere in the opposition half, as he showed in the Tri-Nations game against Australia in Cape Town earlier in the year.
The Boks have also pulled off a major coup ahead of the tournament with the appointment of former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones to assist White in the technical aspects of the game.
Jones effectively takes the place of Rassie Erasmus, who’s been appointed as head coach of the Super 14 team, the Western Stormers.
Under White, the Boks won the 2004 Tri-Nations title, and in 2006 beat England at Twickenham for the first time in 10 years.
South Africa were knocked out at the quarterfinal stage of the 2003 World Cup in Australia after winning the title on home soil in 1995 and reaching the semifinals in Wales in 1999.
Coach
Jake White
Springbok coach Jake White took over a demoralised national team at the start of the 2004 season and just months later they’d moved from sixth to second in the International Rugby Board rankings.
The 43-year-old led the Boks to the 2004 Tri-Nations title, while in 2005 they finished second to New Zealand after winning three of the four matches.
White’s other big triumph came in November of last year when an under-strength Bok side beat England at Twickenham for the first time in 10 years.
White began coaching while a teacher at Jeppe Boys’ High, he served as Nick Mallett’s technical adviser in 1998 and coached the South African under-21 team to the world title in 2002.
Key player
Schalk Burger, flanker
A serious neck injury restricted the openside flanker to just two appearances in the green and gold last season, but he’s returned with a vengeance in 2007.
At 1,93m tall, Burger offers the Boks an extra line-out option, but it’s his fetching role in the team the Boks will be relying on against the likes of Australia’s George Smith and New Zealand’s Richie McCaw at the World Cup.
Burger’s general work rate around the field is unmatched in the Bok team and he’ll again be asked to secure ball for his teammates at the breakdown points.
Since debuting for the Boks at the 2003 World Cup, Burger’s gone on to play 30 Tests and was voted IRB player of the year in 2004. — AFP
