By Peter Bills
He flew in to London early on Monday morning and the Springbok management told him to get some sleep.
That would have shattered Kabamba Floors. The all-action Cheetahs open side flanker looked keener to don his training gear and join the rest of the Bok squad for their morning work-out.
Floors has flown in to London and landed South African coach Jake White with a giant conundrum. Does he select Floors for the team to play England at Twickenham on Saturday and risk ending up with egg all over his own face? Or will he go the conservative route, take the easy way out and only put Floors on the bench?
This decision could have a significant bearing on White's immediate future as national coach. If he's seen to be big enough to plunge Floors straight into the Test team at Twickenham, thereby confronting head-on the very real possibility that Floors could stuff the coach's original decision not to pick him for the tour right down his own throat, then we'd see the mark of the man.
At some stage in everyone's lives, we all have to put our hands up and concede we've made a misjudgment, we've messed up. Someone, somewhere, does something that proves us wrong. But it's the big men, willing to risk being proved wrong, who emerge tall from the experience.
It's only a hunch at this stage, but if Kabamba Floors plays against England on Saturday, he will cause them one hell of a lot of problems. England haven't had a quality open side flanker, a genuine raider, since Neil Back retired. Like South Africa, they've tended to choose bigger players in the role and got by that way.
But Floors could prove an absolute handful, a real nuisance to England on, well, the floor. His pace, his sharp anticipation, his running skills are all valuable traits, but it's his ball-hunting instincts that might bother England a whole lot more than the big Springbok back row managed at Twickenham last Saturday.
When you are national coach, you must expect criticism. Get it ever so slightly wrong, and the mutterings start. Get embroiled in a losing run, as the Springboks currently are, and outright revolution is preached in some quarters. That is to be expected, but then surely White ought to be able to expect a more mature attitude from his own bosses.
However, support for the coach is equally conditional. You cannot back him if he makes completely the wrong call. In those circumstances, you have to say so.
White must pick Floors in the starting line-up for Saturday. That decision would send out a message to all young South Africans; namely, that the Springbok coach is prepared to risk being proved wrong in his original view of a player. That's no crime, but it would be a sad indictment if the Springbok coach wasn't prepared to start with Floors in case he embarrassed White with his display.
Coaches of national teams have to be bigger than that, and White is. Therefore, whatever the other component parts of his back row for this Saturday at Twickenham, Floors should start at open side flanker.
Unleash this exciting player and see what happens. Keep him on the bench, fudge the tough choice and just bring him on for the last 15 minutes and we'll know a lot less about Floors but a lot more about the Springbok coach.