While results on the field may be far from satisfactory, the South African Rugby Union (Saru) was in a bullish mood this week. With the Boks not due to play a Test match for another fortnight, the attention has shifted to internal structures and to the disciplinary hearing of the coach.
Peter de Villiers was due to appear before Sanzar judicial officer Jannie Lubbe SC on Friday on a charge of alleged misconduct. Noises emanating from Saru suggest that the coach will receive their full support and it might even be the case that Saru president Oregan Hoskins will seek an apology for what many are calling frivolous charges.
What De Villiers actually said on Fox TV in Australia was: “I’ve got my own observations about the last two [Tri-Nations] Tests and maybe I can’t say it in public, but we do have a World Cup in New Zealand next year and maybe it was the right thing for them to win the games so that they can attract more people to the games next year.”
The New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) took umbrage and instituted the misconduct charge via Sanzar protocols. But consider what happened last weekend after the All Blacks thumped Australia to all but wrap up the Tri-Nations title. It was Australia’s eighth loss in a row to New Zealand under the coaching of Robbie Deans.
Deans was once a rival for the All Blacks coaching job with the current incumbent, Graham Henry, and many New Zealanders expected the former Crusaders coach to replace Henry after the All Blacks lost in the quarterfinals of the last World Cup. This is what Henry had to say last Saturday: “Personally, if I had eight losses in a row I’d find it very difficult to handle, to be frank. You’d feel under a lot of heat.”
Bear in mind that the two sides meet again this week in Christchurch, Deans’s old stamping ground. Now consider whether Henry’s statement is more or less defamatory than De Villiers’s.
Ultimately, all parties should be ashamed of themselves for poor conduct in a public space, but Sanzar is wasting time and money on a case that cannot be won. Time to close the book and move on.
Saru has a new chief executive, Jurie Roux, who, with luck, will be more successful than the others in keeping a lid on De Villiers’s public statements. He starts on September 1 and must be happy it wasn’t August 1, because this week De Villiers said in an online chat on the Saru website: “A winning Bok coach is a superman; a losing Bok coach is a ‘clown’ — I’ve learned to take both with a pinch of salt.”
Once the trivialities of Friday are over and done with, De Villiers must turn his attention to repairing a badly damaged Springbok ship. As has been pointed out many times, it is no longer a case of handing out a bunch of new caps. There is too much vested interest: dropping senior players does nothing to improve the bottom line, for you still have to pay them till the end of their contracts and now you also have to pay the new boys.
However, if we assume that the Tri-Nations is done and dusted by the time the All Blacks arrive in Soweto it would be foolish not to have a look at some of the resources running around in the Currie Cup at the moment. Several Bulls players are in need of a rest and that opens up three key places.
At fullback, Zane Kirchner should make way for outrageously gifted 19-year-old Sharks player Pat Lambie. At lock, Bakkies Botha is unavailable for a while longer and Andries Bekker is out for the season, so it may be time to give a proper cap to the ever-reliable Steven Sykes, also of the Sharks.
And with lack of game time counting against Tendai Mtawarira, the brute force of the Cheetahs’ Coenie Oosthuizen should be used in place of Gurthro Steenkamp.
Bryan Habana remains the most potent attacking threat available, but he has bigger fish to fry than playing in a dead-rubber. There’s a Grand Slam tour at the end of the year and a World Cup next year. Send him on safari and bring back JP Pietersen to operate alongside Gio Aplon and give Juan de Jongh some game time at inside centre.