Mike Greenaway
London: It is business as usual for the front-line Springboks when they were selected en masse for tomorrow evening’s match against the USA, their final Pool B encounter and one in which Heyneke Meyer was initially tempted to play rusty fringe players and rest the weary.
But the coach said that nothing would ever be the same again in Springbok rugby since the infamous loss to Japan, certainly under his stewardship, and that plans he made months ago for this USA game had been shelved.
Meyer had to make two injury-enforced changes, though, to the team that started against Scotland — tighthead prop Jannie du Plessis has succumbed to the knee injury that has plagued him all World Cup and is replaced by Frans Malherbe, who has been impressive off the bench, and on the wing Lwazi Mvovo is in for Sharks teammate JP Pietersen (twisted knee).
Meyer has freshened up the bench and said that he would be giving opportunities to newcomers when the hard word work had been done and the scoreboard permitted him to make changes. Bulls scrumhalf Rudy Paige comes in for Ruan Pienaar and is set to make his debut and veteran Morne Steyn will get his first taste of international rugby this year having replaced Patrick Lambie on the bench.
Schalk Brits is back on the bench in a rotational switch with hooker Adriaan Strauss and Coenie Oosthuizen returns as prop cover.
“A lot changed in our mindset after that defeat in the first round and the lesson that lives with us is that you have to stay humble and respect every opponent,’ Meyer said, intimating for the first time that his players had in fact disrespected Japan and as Francois Pienaar put it “felt like they could just rock up and win as if it was a training exercise.”
Meyer added that with there being just four days between the Scotland and USA games, it would have been risky to make wide-scale changes because a new team would have had no almost no time to train together.
“Continuity has to be king,” Meyer said. “We need it because we are taking the USA as seriously as if we were playing the World Cup final; because it would be a gamble to break up established combinations; and because we want to the same team to keep on improving and increasing our momentum toward the knockouts.”
Meyer then quickly added: “But let’s not forget that we have in fact not yet qualified for the quarters. If we lose to the USA, and other results do not go our way, we could slip to third in the Pool (if a Bok loss is followed by Scotland beating Samoa and Japan beating the USA in the very last Pool match of the tournament on Sunday.”
Meyer’s thinking on selection would also have been influenced by the fact that after this short turnaround between games, the Boks have the reward of a ten-day break before the quarter-finals.
“I really mean it when I say we are not looking past the USA,” Meyer said. “We have learned the hard way that there are no easy games”
Meyer said that he had come close to giving veteran Schalk Burger a break (he has a slight pectoral injury) and bringing big-hitting Willem Alberts into the side but in the end felt that Burger’s inspirational form was taking a lot of leadership pressure off new captain Fourie du Preez.
“That was a tough call, but resting Schalk would have meant appointing a new vice captain. The captain is new and needs assistance,” Meyer said. “Schalk is playing some of his ever best rugby and we just felt that he is too beneficial for Fourie, and hopefully we can give Willem increased game time off the bench this time.”
Springbok team
15 Willie le Roux, 14 Bryan Habana, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Schalk Burger, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira. Bench:16 Schalk Brits, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Coenie Oosthuizen, 19 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 20 Willem Alberts, Rudy Paige, 21 Morne Steyn, 22 Jan Serfontein.