There are three weeks to go until the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand and the Springboks are not in great shape. After three consecutive losses in the Tri-Nations, Peter de Villiers’ men head into their final encounter on Saturday against New Zealand in the hope that victory will boost their spirits ahead of their defence of the Webb Ellis Cup.
Unfortunately, the team to meet the All Blacks in Port Elizabeth at 5.05pm seem to be riding on a wing and a prayer.
The team is what some would consider another exploratory line-up by De Villiers in the hopes that the right combinations will fire.
Among the five changes to the team which lost 14-9 to Australia, World Cup captain John Smit is on the bench behind Bismarck du Plessis at hooker, while Guthro Steenkamp slots in at prop.
Flank Willem Alberts gets the nod in his first Test start ahead of Danie Russouw and the pairing of Morne Steyn and Pat Lambie are reunited in their flyhalf and fullback pairing — even though the last time the two played in a similar pairing a few weeks ago it ended in disaster.
The team is also still without Schalk Burger through injury and Juan Smith — another member of our strongest loose trio — ruled himself out this week after failing to recover from an Achilles tendon injury he picked up during the Tri-Nations.
Add into this mix a backline that seems devoid of inspiration and attacking spirit, and you have a serious problem.
It would be safe to say that the Boks need a miracle, and quickly.
As expected, it is in this time of need that you’ll be hard pressed to find a Bok fan that is positive about our chances ahead of rugby’s most prestigious contest.
While many of the detractors are of the ardent “glass half-empty” variety, even the classically sanguine supporters of the green and gold won’t go out on a limb and say we could win the World Cup again.
Some naysayers lay the blame at the feet of De Villiers, labelling his successes as nothing but the ability to continue with Jake White’s winning team of 2007, but conveniently forget the current Brumbies coach almost lost his job before going to the World Cup in France.
After a horrible year in 2006, which featured a 49-0 loss to Australia and a horrendous end-of-year tour to Europe, White started 2007 with a similar amount of public confidence De Villiers is enjoying now.
White even did the same as P Div in resting several key players in the Tri-Nations preceding the World Cup and some were baying for his blood months before the team boarded the flight to Paris.
However, when Smit hoisted the competition’s trophy above his head, where were the hecklers then? My memory is a bit sketchy at times but I could have sworn they were revelling in the glory and swearing blind that they’d always been behind White — “The saviour of South African rugby!”, which is a sure sign of how fickle South African sports fans are.
Now, I am not calling for some kind of blind optimism to trump all rugby sense, but I would strongly urge all South Africans to rally behind the Bokke.
As we saw with the Bafana Bafana team which took to the field against Mexico in the opening game of the Soccer World Cup, it’s easy to see what happens when the nation is behind a team.
In the classic words of Mike and the Mechanics, “All they need is a miracle … All they need is you.”