Cape Town - One of the things Stormers coach Allister Coetzee loved to talk about at his press conferences in 2015 was “building capacity”. In other words, getting replacement players on par with the starters so that there isn’t a crisis when injuries do occur.
For the most part the Stormers got it right, until they were exposed when they lost captain Duane Vermeulen and Schalk Burger ahead of the match against the Brumbies.
Glancing at the Springboks, you have to ask yourself if coach Heyneke Meyer has built enough “capacity” in key positions over the last four years to sustain the national team at the World Cup.
Will the Boks be able to cope in a World Cup semi-final against the All Blacks if they lose a Victor Matfield, a Jaque Fourie or a Fourie du Preez on the eve of such an important match?
South Africa have always been blessed with outstanding loose forwards, but for some reason we seem to be a bit light in the second row stocks these days.
The scrumhalf position is also a bit of a concern, especially because Du Preez injured his knee last week. The severity of the injury will be revealed today, but if the veteran doesn’t make it, will a Faf de Klerk or a Rudy Paige be able to back Ruan Pienaar up on the biggest stage of them all?
The same goes for Matfield, who at 38 years old is running on his last few litres of diesel. What makes Matfield’s situation even worse is that the two replacement No5 locks in the squad, Pieter-Steph du Toit, who is still recovering from knee injury, and rookie Franco Mostert have two international caps between them.
Meyer is a coach who leaves nothing to chance, but it seems that he has taken a bit of a gamble on Matfield. And why not? He is one of the best line-out forwards to ever grace the game, and a player who always plays his best rugby on the biggest stage.
But will he be able to handle give or take 12 more Test matches?
Then there is the outside centre position, where three inside centres, Jean de Villiers, Jan Serfontein and Damian de Allende, have done duty over the last few years.
Juan de Jongh has again been overlooked, as Meyer has opted for the impressive Lions man Lionel Mapoe.
But De Jongh has got a lot more international experience, and if he was given a shot over the last four years he could have arguably been a better international player, who knows the ins and outs of the No13 jersey.
JP Pietersen is best suited on the right wing because he is a player who thrives in space. But he also missed an awful lot of tackles at outside centre for the Sharks this year.
Things would obviously have been better if Andries Bekker was available for the World Cup as cover for Matfield, or if Du Toit had spent more time on the field over the last three years than on the physio’s bed.
Meyer also didn’t know that Francois Hougaard’s play at No9 would drop so alarmingly over the last few years, as he seems to be a better winger than a scrumhalf at the moment.
Players moving to Europe and Japan have also not helped the situation.
But the coach only has only himself to blame for not throwing the net wider when he took over in 2012.
And hopefully it doesn’t come back to haunt him when the Boks start their World Cup campaign against Japan on September 19.
He has just five matches left until the global showpiece and it’s going to be interesting to see how he juggles this squad in terms of game time.
While he said he isn’t too worried about most of his stalwarts’ Super Rugby form, he may now have to settle on a team and play his stars in most of the remaining matches, starting with the match against the World XV next weekend at Newlands, to get some rhythm going.
But Meyer may also want to expose some of the rookies, who he is going to take along to the World Cup, to the rigours of Test match rugby against the likes of Australia and New Zealand.
Hopefully for Meyer the likes of Matfield, Du Preez and Fourie do make it through to the World Cup unscathed.
They have all the “capacity” in the world.
Springbok squad:
Willem Alberts, Schalk Brits, Schalk Burger, Marcell Coetzee, Damian de Allende, Faf de Klerk, Bismarck du Plessis, Jannie du Plessis, Eben Etzebeth, Elton Jantjies, Bryan Habana, Cornal Hendricks, Zane Kirchner, Steven Kitshoff, Vincent Koch, Siya Kolisi, Jesse Kriel, Willie le Roux, Francois Louw, Frans Malherbe, Victor Matfield, Teboho Mohoje, Franco Mostert, Tendai Mtawarira, Lwazi Mvovo, Scarra Ntubeni, Trevor Nyakane, Rudy Paige, Ruan Pienaar, JP Pietersen, Handré Pollard, Morné Steyn, Adriaan Strauss, Heinke van der Merwe, Marcel van der Merwe, Warren Whiteley
Injured/conditioning squad:
Heinrich Brüssow, Lood de Jager, Jean de Villiers, Fourie du Preez, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Jaque Fourie, Patrick Lambie, Lionel Mapoe, Coenie Oosthuizen, Cobus Reinach, Jan Serfontein, Frans Steyn, Duane Vermeulen
Cape Times