The international season ends for the Springboks this weekend when they take on the Wallabies in
Bloemfontein. After that there is a two-month gap ahead of the Grand Slam tour to Britain and Ireland at the end of the year. A number of players will be released to play Currie Cup rugby for their provinces, but some significant names will be resting, not just from the Currie Cup, but from the end-of-year tour.
That’s assuming that management stands by its stated aim to rest key personnel ahead of the World Cup year, 2011. It is not far-fetched to suggest that new agendas will be placed on the table before the squad assembles for the European tour. There will be talk of “building momentum” and “looking at combinations” and the unions hosting the Tests will expect nothing less than a full-strength Springbok team.
The problem right now is that few people can put hand on heart and announce that they know what a full-strength Springbok team looks like. Following the dismal trip overseas at the beginning of the Tri-Nations and the last-minute collapse in Soweto there have been advances and retreats.
At the head of the queue for a rest comes Bryan Habana. A generally lacklustre season culminated in the fumble that allowed James O’Connor to score from the restart in Pretoria last week. The great opportunist and fastest rugby player on the planet needs to be kept fresh and should be sent on a six-month sabbatical.
At the other end of the spectrum is Jean de Villiers. The Western Province centre returned to form with a bang against the Wallabies and what he needs more than anything else is to play top-level rugby.
If, as seems likely to be the case, John Smit does not go on the Grand Slam tour, De Villiers would make an intelligent and eloquent captain.
It is no coincidence that the return of Juan Smith has galvanised the back row. His enforced absence, like that of Fourie du Preez, has served to remind us what is missing when he doesn’t play.
Send him off to the bush for some precious R and R and welcome him back with open arms when the international season begins again next June.
The real dilemma ahead of next year’s World Cup concerns the tight five. Will Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha make it to New Zealand as a pair?
In Botha’s absence it is plain to see that the partnership is more than the sum of its parts. Whatever happens, Matfield does not need to go on tour, but Botha does. He needs game time.
Assuming Smit does not tour, Bismarck du Plessis will be the first choice hooker and his elder brother, Jannie, has done enough to be considered the first choice tighthead prop.
At loosehead there is depth, with Tendai Mtawarira waiting in the wings for Gurthro Steenkamp to have something less than a great game.
Behind the scrum the departure to Ireland of Ruan Pienaar has been camouflaged by the emergence of Francois Hougaard, the man of the match at Loftus.
The post-season tour should be an opportunity to try out a new flyhalf alongside Hougaard, the gifted Pat Lambie of the Sharks. The fact that Lambie is equally at home at fullback gives an added dimension to any side he plays for.
Despite a dismal international season, the Springbok coach is still in a much preferable position to his Wallaby counterpart, Robbie Deans. Peter de Villiers has talented players in every position. Deans has had to resort to threats to those players he has to get them to lift their game.