There is something about French rugby that confuses South African players. In Johannesburg in 1958 the French fullback, Pierre Lacaze, headed the ball into touch to avoid being tackled by the stampeding Springbok back row.
According to the late Mickey Gerber, Lacaze’s opposite number on the day, this audacious act so nonplussed the Bok forwards that they promptly fell to pieces and lost the game 9-5.
Forty years later a Stellenbosch student by the name of Pieter de Villiers decided to try his luck playing club rugby in France. Overlooked by Western Province, De Villiers quickly made his mark as a tighthead prop at Stade Français and ended up playing 68 tests for his adopted country.
In 2001 he was given the honour of leading France on to the field for a Test match at Ellis Park. Written off before the game, France won 32-23.
In the dressing room afterwards De Villiers spoke about the culture shock of going from Stellenbosch to Stade Français. He said: ”Training was very casual by contrast to some of the koppestamp sessions I was used to, but when it ended the whole squad would stay on and play touch rugby. Suddenly I was expected to be able to run, pass and kick, and I just wasn’t used to it. I was a tighthead prop — I scrummed, I didn’t know what to do with the ball.”
Now, of course, there is a Peter de Villiers in charge of Springbok rugby, one who does not include an ”i” in his Christian name, but who also expects his props to be able to run and handle like backs. This De Villiers has presided over a remarkably successful season, but the omens suggest that it is about to unravel.
Alarm bells should have rung when the original tour was tampered with — not once, but twice. Promises of large cash advances meant that midweek games against two English clubs were added, despite the fact that the Boks were not playing a Test against England. No matter, said the brains trust, we’ll keep the Test side in cotton wool and send a development side to play Leicester and Saracens.
Last week’s defeat against Leicester achieved nothing apart from ending the tours of Gurthro Steenkamp, Jannie du Plessis and Chilliboy Ralepelle. The latter lasted all of 19 minutes before aggravating a foot injury. Someone has to carry the can for this: Ralepelle was deemed not fit enough to play for his province, the Blue Bulls, in the Currie Cup final, yet six days later he captained the Springboks and didn’t make it past the first quarter.
There are those who will say, so what? But there has been way too much muddle ahead of this week’s Test in Toulouse for comfort. One team flies to England to play a club game, the other stays in Johannesburg to train. The advance guard then flies to France and the Test team flies to England to train. The two finally meet up in Toulouse on Tuesday, by which time there are three new tourists — Wian du Preez and Adriaan Strauss from Free State and CJ van der Linde, who plays for the Irish team Leinster.
After Friday’s Test the second team will fly back to England and the Test side will go on to Italy. This is no way to run a tour. Sir Clive Woodward tried something similar with the British Lions in New Zealand in 2005 and had his World Cup-winning halo smashed to smithereens. It has been so long since the Boks played anything but Tests on tour that they have clearly forgotten how it works.
So John Smit and his merry men are expected to emerge as butterflies from the chrysalis to beard France in Toulouse. The form lines suggest they are capable of winning. They have lost only two Tests all season.
By contrast France, under coach Marc Lievremont, have been awful for the best part of two years. His scatter-gun approach to selection means that he has no idea what his best team looks like. But his selection for Friday night isn’t half bad and its stated intention, to match South Africa’s physicality, should make the tourists sit up and take note.
The absence of Jean de Villiers and François Steyn from the Springbok team will be keenly felt and those who recall the way the Sharks’ front row buckled against Free State in the Currie Cup semifinal will fear for the same players in green and gold.