Johannesburg - Springbok coach Allister Coetzee faces a selection headache of note ahead of his team’s Rugby Championship Test against Australia in Brisbane on Saturday.
Coetzee could stick to the tried, tested and found wanting combinations he has been loyal to since taking over the reins of the team in June or he can make radical changes to the side in order to salvage pride and ignite the team’s performance in the wake of their recent loss to Argentina in Salta.
It has become obvious that those players Coetzee has been loyal to have not repaid the coach’s faith in them.
While the burning issue of who should become the next Springbok captain in the aftermath of Adriaan Strauss’ resignation last week rages on, the reality of finally making changes in the starting XV could help the Springboks regain some of their aura, which has been lost in the past year after historic losses to Argentina and Japan before disaster in Salta added more insult to injury.
As much as Coetzee is desperate to remain loyal to those players he believes can carry out his vision towards the 2019 Rugby World Cup, there is a more immediate problem of resuscitating their Rugby Championship campaign which suffered a major dent in Salta.
Coetzee is likely to dig his heels in when it comes to retaining Strauss as captain and starting hooker but he will have to think differently when it comes to the make-up of his second row and loose forwards.
Eben Etzebeth remains the best No 4 lock in the country and while his performances of late have been below his standards, he is still a vital cog in the Springboks machinery when it comes to raising the ante in the physical stakes.
However, Etzebeth’s combination with the out of sorts Lood de Jager has been an issue for the Springboks and even though De Jager is unparallelled at his best, it has been his poor form and continued selection ahead of the in-form Pieter-Steph du Toit that has tarnished the reputation of the reigning SA Player of the Year.
De Jager’s year has been rocked by injury that saw him only play in a few games for the Cheetahs in Super Rugby and only featured in the first Test against Ireland during the June inbound series.
But Coetzee handed De Jager a starting berth in the past two Tests to the detriment of his line-out functioning at its optimum and losing an edge in the early exchanges with Du Toit only coming onto the scene in the latter stages of the game.
Du Toit is solid in the line-outs but his biggest asset is his capabilities with ball in hand and his high work rate, crucial elements which the Springboks have been lacking in their five Tests under Coetzee.
The energy which Du Toit has been able to inject into the side when coming off the bench has been tangible while he hardly put a foot wrong in the two Tests he started against Ireland in June. He also added impetus to the Springbok backrow when moved to blindside flank after Franco Mostert was brought into the reckoning in that dramatic fight back in the second Test against the Irish at Ellis Park.
Coetzee will also be tossing and turning in his sleep as he tries to make peace with the fact that one of his trusted generals in Francois Louw is also struggling with form and should make way for the hard-running Jaco Kriel.
The painful truth is that Louw can no longer keep up with the pace of the game nor be a disruptive force at the breakdowns and at 31-years-old is highly unlikely to be in the reckoning for the World Cup in three years’ time.
Kriel, on the other hand, has shown consistently in Super Rugby that he is amongst the best openside flanks in the game and has put any doubts of his capabilities at international level with his robust and tireless toil when coming off the bench in recent Tests.
With Kriel in the starting line-up against the Wallabies, it will be a seamless transition amongst the loose forwards with eighthman Warren Whiteley having played all of his rugby with Kriel at the Lions, while blindside flank Oupa Mohoje has put in commendable performances in the past two Tests to warrant him running out in the No 7 jersey.
Beyond being competitive on the ground, Kriel possesses explosive speed which is a handy asset to have when punching holes into opposition defences and carrying the ball into spaces, which the Springboks are so desperate to do.
The sensible thing to do for Coetzee now is to untangle himself from his loyalty to certain players and selecting them on reputation alone and he must now be loyal to form if the Springboks are to arrest their decline and be competitive enough against the Wallabies and All Blacks.
Coetzee’s selections this week could make or break his team as they face a Wallabies side that have their backs firmly against the wall on the back of six consecutive defeats.
Loyalty to the same players who have crippled the team already could easily lead to another loss.
The Star