/ 13 November 2014

Five is more than small changes

Getting a run: Scrumhalf Cobus Reinach gets a chance to start against England.
Getting a run: Scrumhalf Cobus Reinach gets a chance to start against England.

If Heyneke Meyer is to be believed, his selection for this week’s Test against England at Twickenham was largely decided before the start of the tour. The mere fact that the Springboks lost heavily against Ireland is, therefore, irrelevant. But it is not often that an international coach changes five players in his starting team from week to week.

When the side was announced on Wednesday, Meyer actually said: “It’s not to say that those guys are the scapegoats … I put it on record.” He went on to say that the real purpose of this tour is to see which players perform under pressure and which don’t. He singled out the change at scrumhalf in that respect, where François Hougaard is replaced by Cobus Reinach.

Meyer said: “You have to see how guys play under pressure and that’s why I gave Cobus a start. At Twickenham in front of 80 000 people it’s an unbelievable pressure situation for him.”

Pressure is what turns coal into diamonds, however, and the Sharks scrumhalf will play knowing that if he gets it right he has a real chance of going to next year’s World Cup. How pleased his coach is with Reinach’s performance will determine how much game time he gets, for the normal substitution on the hour mark surely cannot apply here.

Go and fix it
Such was Hougaard’s bad day against the Irish that he is somewhat fortunate to have remained in the match day squad. Meyer might have been bold and selected the French-based Jano Vermaak, a late inclusion in the tour when Ruan Pienaar was deemed not fit enough to remain last week. He justified his decision by saying: “After a loss … I like to keep the same team so they can go and fix it and that’s why I kept the same 23.”

What he is trying to convince his critics of is that the modern game does not differentiate between the starting team and the bench. In most tests the whole squad gets a run at some time and it is fair to say that there is little to choose between the five swapped players in this instance.

Cornal Hendricks has been a revelation this year, but while JP Pietersen may lack the cutting edge of times past, his superior defence will be crucial against England. Adriaan Strauss and Bismarck du Plessis are the two best hookers in the world and it makes sense to rotate them. Schalk Burger has been released by his Japanese paymasters for only two games, so Meyer would be foolish not to start him now.

Pig’s ear
The change at scrumhalf is mirrored by that at flyhalf and this is where the coach must have had some sleepless nights ahead of Wednesday’s announcement. Handré Pollard did not cover himself in glory against Ireland. His opposite number, Johnny Sexton, gave the youngster a lesson in how to control a game in northern hemisphere conditions. And yet how is it possible to rate Pollard’s game when his scrumhalf made such a pig’s ear of possession?

It is disingenuous to suggest that Reinach’s selection for his first start opened the door for his provincial teammate, Pat Lambie, to start ahead of Pollard. In reality the pair have played little rugby together. Lambie hardly featured at age group level for the Sharks because his prodigious talent propelled him straight into the senior side aged 19. Then, when Reinach graduated from the under-21s, Lambie was either away with the Boks or, as has been the case this season, injured.

If it happens that Reinach fails to take his chance against England, Lambie will be saddled with the same problems that Pollard faced against Ireland. Dominant at the line-outs and secure in the scrums, the Boks were strangled by a flat- lying Irish defence that coped easily with a Bok game plan that owed more to rugby league than the union code.

Few have been willing to concede, however, that the result may have presaged more than simply a bad day at the office for the Boks. It is possible that Ireland is an awakening giant. They were competitive but not dominant for so long under the coaching of Declan Kidney and the captaincy of Brian O’Driscoll.

The new regime led by displaced New Zealander Joe Schmidt has clearly made great strides, particularly in the realm of physical fitness.

And on the subject of New Zealand, the Bok management will have spent plenty of time studying the All Blacks’ narrow defeat of England last Saturday. Richie McCaw’s side looked a shadow of the record breakers we have become accustomed to, yet they overcame England with a refusal to buckle under pressure, married with a staggering tactical naivety from the hosts.

Scrumhalf Danny Care, clearly under instructions from coach Stuart Lancaster, spent the second half “box kicking” away the hard-won possession of his forwards. Care, usually a dangerous runner with a slick pass, thus kept New Zealand in the game. Reduced to 14 men after a questionable yellow card, the All Blacks then showed England how to play, refusing to surrender the ball in their reduced state and winning the 10-minute period 3-0.

It is often said that champions find ways to win games they should lose. The current All Blacks have been so successful for so long that defeat is simply never considered. Man for man the Springboks can match the world champions, but they lack the self-belief that would take them to the next level.