Brisbane – The midfield battle between emerging international star Damian de Allende and a former nemesis of the Springboks, Matt Giteau, has become one of the big talking points in the build-up to the Rugby Championship match between the Wallabies and the Boks at the Suncorp Stadium on Saturday.
Giteau, given an international lifeline by Australia coach Michael Cheika after four years in the Northern hemisphere wilderness, seemed to save his best for Tests against the Springboks in the past.
With Bernard Foley almost certainly playing at 10 with Will Genia as his halfback partner, Giteau has been running at 12 at training this week, and De Allende has an opportunity to measure himself against one of the greats of the game.
“We have certainly been doing our homework on Giteau,” Boks defence coach John McFarland said yesterday. “He is hugely respected in Europe for how he has played since leaving Australia and I think it is great for the game that a player of his quality is on course for the World Cup.”
The game needs stars, and South Africa have an emerging one of their own in the Stormers centre. “Damian has been huge,” McFarland said.
“We have looked at Giteau’s strengths and weaknesses, just as we do any other player, and it will be a surprise if either overwhelms the other. I can’t see Damian being dominated.”
The Boks are unlikely to make wholesale changes for the game. There has been no opportunity to gauge what changes there might be because the team has trained just once – a closed session yesterday at the Anglican Church Grammar School – but coach Heyneke Meyer has said he wants to err on the side of caution in selection.
He wants to give Handre Pollard another chance to sort out his kicking woes rather than drop him after his three from seven return last week at Newlands.
He knows what he has in Patrick Lambie and the latter’s comeback looks reserved for the big match against the All Blacks at Ellis Park.
It would also make sense to keep the loose trio intact after Marcell Coetzee and Francois Louw played so well last week. Meyer is worried about the brilliant ability of Wallabies flanks David Pocock and Michael Hooper to win contestable ball on the ground.
“Turnover ball is the Holy Grail, most tries come from turnover ball,” McFarland said. “The winning and losing of a game can come down to how many turnovers you force and how many you prevent the opposition from getting,” he said.
“And when you get that unexpected, sudden ball, you have unstructured defence in front of you, and you have got to have the skill and vision to move the ball to attack the exposed weakness in defence.”
In Super Rugby this year, the teams that made the semi-finals also happened to be the teams that were best at offloading in the tackle – the other sure way to put a defence under sever stress.
The Highlanders and Hurricanes were a joy to watch as they continually broke the opposition line after the ball carrier slipped a pass away to support runners. The Brumbies and Waratahs, the other semi-finalists, were not far behind in this department.
But it does not bother McFarland that no South African teams made the semi-finals and only the Lions showed a willingness to keep the ball alive rather than take contact.
“Yes it was lovely rugby to watch because an offload in the tackle almost guarantees a line-break, and often then a try, but Test rugby is a different game,” he said. “The pressures are too great to play that way because every Test match is like a final.
“It is worth remembering that our defensive record in the Northern hemisphere conditions where the World Cup will be played is a proud one,” McFarland said. “We have conceded just seven tries in our last 10 matches up there, including two unbeaten tours.”