Cape Town - Should the Boks run the Aussies off the park on Saturday at Newlands or should they grind out a win with the percentages and kicking game? Cape Times rugby writer Ashfak Mohamed and Cape Argus rugby writer Zelim Nel face off on the issue.
Zelim Nel - Kick
The Boks shouldn’t commit to a shootout against the Wallabies on Saturday but, without the sniper rifles required to fire up a lethal percentage game, they may have no choice.
With Fourie du Preez and Ruan Pienaar out injured, Francois Hougaard will feed the scrum. The all-action Bulls halfback is an inspirational competitor who will challenge the Wallabies as a line-break threat, but who does not have the boot to keep the opposing back three on their toes.
Speaking of the Aussie back-three... like the Super Rugby champion Waratahs, the Wallabies have a bloke at fullback called Israel Folau. By rugby standards, he is a freak of nature.
Players capable of breaching well-organised defensive lines on their own are in extremely rare supply. Folau is joined by All Blacks gamebreaker Sonny Bill Williams on the exclusive short-list.
The rangy Aussie fullback arms the Wallabies with a get-out-of-jail free card. Any time their attack sputters, Folau can be trusted to get across the gain-line, putting the pressure back on the defending team.
The game-changing phenom allows Australia to laugh off the idea of kicking the ball.
The Boks don’t have that luxury. With Hougaard at No 9, they are also too short-staffed to mount an aerial assault, despite flyhalf Handré Pollard’s tactical expertise.
Consequently, coach Heyneke Meyer appears to have resigned himself to taking the Wallabies on at their own game.
Hougaard is capable and eager to exploit gaps around the fringes, while Oupa Mohoje will boost the pack with speed.
However, it remains to be seen whether the decision to load the bench with four grizzled veterans was the right one.
Meyer rightly believes that Bismarck du Plessis, Bakkies Botha, Schalk Burger and JP Pietersen have the experience to close out a tight contest, but experience is seldom the top priority for impact players.
With the possible exception of Pietersen, these veterans are past their physical prime. Bakkies turned 35 on Monday this week.
The whole concept of an impact player centres on the physical mismatch created when a fresh, nimble athlete comes off the bench in the final quarter to take advantage of flagging rivals. The Boks would have been better served by the experience of this savvy and abrasive group in the early exchanges. The 270-cap quartet also run the risk of becoming redundant reinforcements if the Wallabies take an early lead and the hosts are forced to chase the game.
In such an eventuality, Meyer will wish he’d started Burger ahead of Mohoje, Pietersen instead of Jan Serfontein or Cornal Hendricks, and that he’d kept Lood de Jager on the bench instead of Botha.
Ashfak Mohamed - Run
There’s no question that the Springboks should run the Wallabies off the field at Newlands on Saturday.
Let’s be honest about this - there is no way that this Wallaby team should be living with the Boks, let alone play on the same field. That is why it was actually embarrassing to see Heyneke Meyer’s team roll over and die in their last match against Australia in Perth.
The fact that it was such a tight game in Perth was due to the Boks not backing themselves enough on attack. They were way too cautious with their gameplan, despite the wet conditions caused by heavy downpours just before kickoff.
Poor old Willie le Roux, normally an excitement machine, had to be reduced to a kicking machine as he hoofed the ball back time and again, sometimes directly into touch, going against his natural instincts entirely and robbing the Boks of their main attacking weapon.
The Boks have just the right man to get their attack going in the shape of Francois Hougaard. The Bulls star made his name in the past as a dashing halfback capable of breaking open defences around the rucks with his incredible speed and stepping abilities, and it is vital that coach Meyer gives him the licence to play his natural game.
We all know that Hougaard is not the best tactical kicker around, but he needs to put those awful box-kicks away - preferably in a box - and have a full go at the Wallabies with ball-in-hand. He should use tactical kicks for variety and not as his chief weapon.
And then there is a heavyweight bench of outstanding operators, all capable of starting a Test, who will make a huge impact in the second half. Bakkies Botha and Schalk Burger might be over 30 and have been brought in from overseas clubs, but imagine the looks on the Wallaby players’ faces when they see these two Bok legends charge out on to Newlands pitch with about 30 minutes to go?
Bok coach Meyer has stated that it is easier to “grind” your way to victories away from home as it’s more difficult to get front-foot ball and attack.
But I say there’s no time for “bump and grind” - whether you are home or away. The Boks should rather “bump and run”, and they proved in Brisbane last year when they scored four terrific tries against Australia that show they can embrace a positive mindset away from home.
Now that they are back on home soil, there’s even further cause for making the ball do the work instead of bashing into defenders. Even the notoriously fickle Cape Town weather is set to play ball, but will the Boks?
If they are serious about being worthy challengers to the All Blacks, on Saturday at Newlands is the time to prove it.
Cape Times