Johannesburg - 1995 World Cup-winning lock Mark Andrews says Victor Matfield is too old to command a starting position in the current Springbok side.
Matfield, 38, originally retired after the World Cup in 2011 but returned in 2014 for the Bulls with a two-year contract with the focus on being part of the 2015 Bok World Cup squad.
“You can never take away what Victor has done, but I know when you’ve been in the game a very long time it’s very hard to play with the commitment and the passion it takes when you’ve been there a long time,” said Andrews, on Wednesday, when members of the 1995 Springbok team met up at Ellis Park to commemorate the 20-year anniversary since they won the Rugby World Cup for the first time.
“You know the shortcuts, you also know to clean an oke out at full pace can hurt. So you wait for a Willem Alberts to clean him out, and kind of close up the defensive line. “In a World Cup, you need to have a mindset that you will write yourself off to secure the ball at the breakdown. And I think Victor is past that stage in his career.
He’s become smart. “I think the experience he can give off the field for the squad will be phenomenal. You can’t take that away. The experience and knowledge he has in lock play is incredible. When it comes to those quarters and semis, you need to have guys who are prepared to die in that jersey and write themselves off for that ball.”
Andrews recalled vividly what it took to be an enforcer in the team, and how crucial that role was in that 1995 World Cup campaign starting off with South Africa’s 27-18 victory over the defending champions Australia, in Cape Town. “I remember in 1995 facing Australia, they had all the old campaigners.
They didn’t want to face me trying to kill them. At that stage I would’ve killed anybody on the field for the ball, I really would have. “At the end of my career I would’ve been geeing on the young guy next to me and saying boet you better go knock these okes out here.” Andrews believed there were suitable candidates to fill the number five spot in the Springbok jersey.
“If Pieter-Steph du Toit comes right he will solve that number five problem. Du Toit is just the perfect lock. I’ve played against and watched some incredible locks over the last 20 years, and Du Toit has some of the best attributes of the great locks. He can carry a ball, he can tackle, he can take a lineout, he can defend a lineout.
“He can work a defensive line, he can work the game. His kick-offs are phenomenal where he chases the kick. For me, he is just an incredible player. “In the World Cup, even though he’s fairly inexperienced, playing with an experienced pack and some great loose forwards a guy like Pieter Steph will become a key part of our World Cup campaign. If he’s not there, we have some problems at number five.”
Andrews also hoped Bulls lock Flip van der Merwe’s decision to make himself unavailable for the national team was not final. “Flip van der Merwe would be a big option for me. I heard he has made himself unavailable, which is a big scare for me. He’s one of those guys, even though someone needs to give him a rulebook to make sure he doesn’t give away four penalties a game, he is just great at securing the ball.
“World Cups are about possession and securing the ball, you can’t kick all the time. Because if a side brings it back at you, you’re going to be tackling all the time. There’s a time to kick, and also a time to just hold the ball. When you hold that ball, you have to secure it.
“So you have to have guys who are owning the breakdown and making sure your halfbacks are getting clean ball. One thing Flip does is that he secures the ball. There’s a big lump of meat coming at you with attitude and we as South Africans need that. That’s how we play our rugby, just look at Bakkies Botha. At every breakdown, opposition would be thinking they don’t want to be at the breakdown when he’s coming in.”
Just having a player of the ilk of Van der Merwe in the team line-up would add the intimidation factor for opposing players said Andrews. “It’s like boxing, there’s a psychological element to playing any game of rugby, especially a Test match where you know there are players out there who can hurt you, and you don’t want to be out there when they target you.
“Bakkies was one of those, Flip is one of those. We have some very talented locks like Eben Etzebeth, a great runner but doesn’t like to do the hard stuff. He likes to carry the ball. You’ve got Willem Alberts who is a great runner, but you end up with Alberts cleaning up and hitting rucks because the rest of the guys aren’t there. It’s just about the mix of the tight five.”
ANA