Cape Town - The build-up to Saturday’s final engagement of the year for the Springboks has come against the backdrop of the confirmation that two past stalwarts won’t be going to England next year for another taste of the World Cup.
There has been a mixed reaction from critics and fans to the decisions made by Bakkies Botha and Jaque Fourie to call time on their international careers.
Those who feel the Boks are in danger of going to the World Cup with an old squad that requires too much off-field maintenance welcomed it and hoped that it would be the start of a trend, while those who believe experience is the most crucial ingredient for World Cup success greeted the news with alarm.
I wouldn’t qualify as a card carrying member of either camp. I believe you require a mix. There are three veteran players, and here the word veteran applies to the guys who were first blooded at international level in 2003/2004, who I would regard as indispensable to the Bok chances of winning their third World Cup. They are Bryan Habana, Fourie du Preez and Victor Matfield (JP Pietersen is too but I don’t brush him as a veteran as he made his debut in 2006).
Matfield is only an indispensable because Pieter-Steph du Toit has been injured the whole year. The heir apparent to Matfield hasn’t been able to develop at international level like he should have had he played this year and had Matfield tutoring him, and it would be a push to expect him to take the role of line-out leader at the World Cup when he boasts so little experience.
Japan-based Andries Bekker is younger than Matfield and is understood to be talking to the Sharks about a possible return to Super Rugby next year, but there is always a question mark over Bekker because of the chronic back injury that forced him to go to Japan in the first place. I like the look of Ruan Botha for the future, but right now I can’t see any other option for Meyer at No 5, and Matfield’s return has been fortuitous.
For the rest, there are players, such as Fourie, who might have added value to the group, as indeed do skipper Jean de Villiers and Schalk Burger, but I wouldn’t argue that any of those players are indispensable and when it comes to the two retirements this week, I don’t see any need to ring the alarm bells.
To be fair to Botha, the big enforcer was always going to retire from international rugby around about now. He made it clear when interviewed in Edinburgh this time last year that he was not on a long-term plan and was effectively just helping out and enjoying the moment. Eben Etzebeth has played three years of international rugby and shouldn’t require further mentoring, and there is also Lood de Jager, Flip van der Merwe and Jacques Potgieter.
With Fourie there is more of a potential hole to fill as the incumbent midfield is made up of two inside centres, but then maybe coach Heyneke Meyer has erred in not being more aggressive in unearthing or developing a No 13. Perhaps he was banking on Fourie being at the World Cup, and that was why JJ Engelbrecht, who he persisted with throughout the 2013 southern hemisphere season, was thrown away last November.
But banking on Fourie was being optimistic. He never did what Du Preez did by ending the debate about him still being good enough when he played three games on the last end-of-year tour. He was his usual impregnable self on defence but he appeared to lack his old explosiveness on attack.
So while calling for a complete clean-out of veterans would be stupid, the Botha and Fourie retirements should be welcomed on the basis that reducing the number of older players is a good thing. To win the World Cup, the Boks are going to need to win three or four tough games on consecutive Saturdays, and to do that you require plenty of youthful energy, both in the games themselves and on the training field between matches.
The Boks’ inability this year to back up good performances has been carried on during this tour, and it has confirmed misgivings about the Bok ability to win three big games on the trot next October with an old team.
Regarding the immediate objective of winning on Saturday, perhaps Meyer made a mistake by not backing youthful energy against Italy last week, thus giving that match greater relevance and the stalwarts the chance to arrive at the Millennium Stadium feeling refreshed.
The last match of an end-of-year tour is always a tough one mentally. When it is against England it is never a problem. To a Bok an England jersey is like a red rag to a bull. It isn’t quite the same with Wales which is why my confidence in the Boks ending the year with a win isn’t exactly sky high. What they may have though is the leg up given them last week by the All Blacks, for that physically bruising and ultimately heart-breaking encounter might have sapped some of the drive from a Welsh team that for an hour last week was in sight of claiming the rugby scalp that nation most covets.
Weekend Argus