The mark that Jean de Villiers has made on the game in South Africa can be judged by who remains from his debut Test against France in Paris in 2002. Of the match day 22, only five still play the game professionally. Flyhalf André Pretorius is easing into retirement with the Leopards, and replacement lock Marco Wentzel is doing likewise at the Sharks. Eighth man Joe van Niekerk is about to begin his eighth season with Toulon, and Bakkies Botha remains part of coach Heyneke Meyer’s Springboks.
But Botha, who made his Test debut alongside De Villiers in the same 30-10 defeat to France, is a fringe member of the squad, there principally because of the number of injured locks unavailable to Meyer.
De Villiers, by contrast, is the captain of the side in his 100th Test and acknowledged by both friend and foe as one of the finest centres ever to play the game. Indeed, had his first two seasons at international level not been lost almost entirely to injury, De Villiers might now be the most capped Springbok of all time, instead of merely the fifth to reach the milestone of a century of caps.
Of that cold night in the November of 2002 at the Stade Velodrome in Marseilles, De Villiers can have little recollection. In the sixth minute he was stretchered from the field in agony, his knee ligaments torn so badly that he didn’t play again for nine months. He returned for the Springboks in a World Cup warm-up game against Samoa in Springs and suffered a shoulder injury that kept him out for another eight months.
By the time the 2007 World Cup rolled around, De Villiers was a fixture in the side and his partnership with Jaque Fourie was being favourably compared with the greatest centre combinations in history. The injury bug struck again, however, and he lasted just 44 minutes of the Springboks’ opening match against Samoa in Paris.
As it turned out, De Villiers’s detached bicep allowed the 19-year-old Frans Steyn to assume the number?12 jersey. Steyn’s subsequent performances at the World Cup were of such quality that De Villiers’s pre-eminence in the inside centre berth was questioned for perhaps the only time in his career.
As it happened, the roles were reversed at the next World Cup in 2011. This time it was Steyn who was injured against Samoa at the North Harbour Stadium in the Springboks’ final pool match. De Villiers had been warming the bench during the tournament but the removal of Steyn from the equation, followed by the latter’s subsequent move to France, handed him back his old position.
De Villiers’s first game back in the starting line-up was at the “Cake Tin”, as Wellington’s stadium is fondly known. It was the now infamous occasion when the Boks were bundled out at the quarterfinal stage by a bizarre series of refereeing errors from Bryce Lawrence.
Free rein
It is intriguing to recall that, even though Lawrence gave Wallaby flanker David Pocock free rein to create unpenalised havoc at the breakdowns, the Wallabies only won 11-9. Intriguing because De Villiers was involved in the move that should have settled the nerves and the result four minutes into the second half.
The Boks swept forward down the right-hand side; 30m out, De Villiers broke the defensive line and released the flying fullback Pat Lambie, who raced down the right-hand touchline and scored under the posts. The favourites rejoiced, there was a collective sigh of relief among Bok supporters – and then it became apparent that the referee had decided that De Villiers’s pass was forward.
It was one of those moments when time stands still. Given the enormity of the occasion, Bok skipper John Smit decided against remonstrating with Lawrence, happy in the knowledge that his stuttering team had finally found its mojo and that more tries would be forthcoming shortly. But they never materialised and in the depression that followed the final whistle, perhaps only Lambie and De Villiers dwelt on the try that never was and the decision that was just plain wrong.
There is a pleasing symmetry to the fact that De Villiers will win his 100th cap at the Cake Tin and that, after an injury-blighted season, Lambie is again in the match day squad, although this time on the bench.
South Africa has never won at the Westpac Stadium, as the Cake Tin is officially known.
But the Cake Tin has only been around since 1999 and Wellington’s previous Test match venue, Athletic Park, was relatively kind to the Boks. They played to a 0-0 draw there in 1921 and won there three times between 1956 and 1998.
Five years have now passed since Ricky Januarie’s audacious chip and chase clinched victory over New Zealand in Hamilton. Amazingly, it was the Boks’ third win of the season against the old enemy. Since then, a solitary 18-5 win in Port Elizabeth in 2011 is all they have to show from nine meetings.
Having lost a game they should have won against the Wallabies last week, it is stretching credibility to expect them to win a game they should lose against the All Blacks.
But their captain has spent his career defying expectations and deserves a game to remember from his team.