Birmingham – There will be many questions answered by the final whistle of this evening’s trench warfare between the Springboks and Samoa, the most significant being whether there is any truth to the speculation of a growing rift between coach Heyneke Meyer and his senior players.
The great irony, of course, is that Meyer has been taking stick for the last two years for backing veterans and now, at the time of truth at the World Cup, there are whispers the Boks are not the “tight unit” they have repeatedly claimed to be.
Victor Matfield, at 37, and Jean de Villiers, 34, will not have taken lightly to being reprimanded in the headmaster’s office for allegedly not following instructions against Japan, just as the coach was furious that the wrong game plan was implemented in Brighton.
Are the players, coaching staff and management all on the same page? Are rumours of discord in the camp just that – spurious rumours?
We will know by how the Boks play – they have been told in no uncertain terms, as has the whole rugby world, how they must play from now onwards when Meyer laid down the law during a press conference on Wednesday.
Any deviation will not be tolerated by the coach and it is understood that the captain and vice captain will be pulled off the field if the following is not adhered to: tactical kicking to get into the right areas of the field; forward ball carriers led by Duane Vermeulen crashing the ball over the advantage line to gain momentum; relentless driving and mauling from line-outs; immaculate set pieces; vastly improved discipline and clinical breakdown play.
The ball can by all means be spread to the wings, but only after the dirty work has first been done. That is the trimmed down Meyer blueprint for the World Cup.
In other words, rugby played to South Africa’s strengths and Meyer’s fury at the plan staying on the blackboard in the change room in Brighton was summed up in this quote: “Why on earth did we play Japanese rugby against Japan?”
His senior assistant coach, Johann van Graan, succinctly put it this way: “We scored four tries, had a 100 percent return at set piece, had over 100 breakdowns of which we lost only four, and still lost the game so you have to ask why?
“It’s pretty simple: The discipline wasn’t good enough, we did not take our opportunities, and we did not play the way we were supposed to,” he said in answering his own question.
So to use a cliché, it really is the last chance saloon for some of the senior players just as it is for Meyer.
Another historical low in a first-ever defeat to Samoa could see the coach sacked midway through the World Cup, never mind after it …
In the eight games previously played between the teams, the average score has been 48-12 although a closer pointer to how this match could go was the 13-5 margin in favour of the Boks in the Pool match in Auckland in 2011.
Ten of the Samoan team that played that day are starting this evening, and most of the current Bok team were also involved in what was a spiteful affair, with the Boks prevailing that day only because their discipline held – but it was stretched to the limit by a Samoan team that played as if their lives depended on it (in terms of the World Cup it did, because a win would have earned them a place in the quarter-finals, the defeat meant they went home).
And “home” for nearly all of the team is in fact anywhere but Samoa, well during their playing careers, anyway.
Their squad in action this evening are drawn from the following clubs, with only one player, flyhalf Mike Brown, based in Samoa: Stade Francais (Paris), Bristol, the Hurricanes (NZ), Treveiso (Italy), Toulouse, Sale Sharks (England), London Irish, Northampton Saints, Newcastle Falcons (England), Cardiff Blues, the Sharks (Durban), Chiefs (NZ), Bordeaux (France), Agen (France) and Suntory Sungoliath (Japan).
The player from the Sharks is outside centre Paul Perez, who missed the Super Rugby season because of injury.
In short, Samoa are more like a Barbarians team.
Their coach, Stephen Betham, a genuine Samoan and not an imported Kiwi (most of the second tier teams at the World Cup have a foreign coaching staff) will have had little time to work with his charges, with European clubs notoriously stingy in giving leave to their players for international duty.
But what the Samoans do have is incredible passion, and that makes up for their comparative lack of resources.
Betham colourfully said: “We’re expecting massive warfare.
“But we can’t go to war with our hands and a pocket knife, we’ve got to bring a lot more.”
TEAMS
SOUTH AFRICA:15 Willie le Roux, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jean de Villiers (capt), 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Schalk Burger, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Beast Mtawarira.
Replacements:16 Schalk Brits, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Frans Malherbe, 19 Lood de Jager, 20 Siya Kolisi, 21 Ruan Pienaar, 22 Pat Lambie, 23 Jesse Kriel
Samoa:15 Tim Nanai-Williams, 14 Ken Pisi, 13 Paul Perez, 12 Rey Lee-Lo, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Mike Stanley, 9 Kahn Fotuali’i, 8 Ofisa Treviranus (capt), 7 Jack Lam, 6 TJ Ioane, 5 Joe Tekori, 4 Teofilo Paulo, 3 Anthony Perenise, 2 Motu Matu'u, 1 Zak Taulafo.
Replacements:16 Ole Avei, 17 Viliami Afatia, 18 Census Johnston, 19 Faifili Levave, 20 Vav, 21 Vavao Afemai, 22 Tusi Pisi, 23 George Pisi
Referee: Wayne Barnes (Eng)
Assistant referees: JP Doyle (Eng), Angus Gardner (Aus)
TMO: Graham Hughes (Eng)
Kick-off:5.45pm SA time - Saturday Star