Ken Borland

The pressures of being the Springbok coach are well-documented and the fact Heyneke Meyer has gone very grey on top attests to them, but the time has surely come for the man behind the wheel of our Rugby World Cup campaign to (if you’ll excuse the mixed metaphor and dig at his past employment) grab the bull by the horns.

The match against Argentina today is the penultimate one the Springboks will play before the World Cup and, while all the other contenders are auditing the stocks at their disposal and mixing and matching their teams, Meyer is sticking to the tried and tested.

The fear of losing is a terrible affliction in South African rugby, as mentioned in this column before, but the Springbok coach is doing the confidence of his back-up players and the chances of his team being able to ride the inevitable injuries that will happen between now and the end of October no good at all.

The most disappointing selection for me this weekend is that of Pat Lambie on the bench. The fact that Handre Pollard is the first-choice flyhalf for the World Cup is all good and well, but what if the 21-year-old again struggles in the heavier conditions of the northern hemisphere or is ruled out by injury? He is already struggling with concussion, making his selection for a fourth weekend in a row even more unnecessary.

Having previously said the matches against Argentina will be used to get back-up players on the park, Meyer has now consigned that idea to the rubbish bin, the fear of losing being the reason.

“Pat hasn’t played a lot but I just felt… you still have to go and win the Test match. If it wasn’t South Africa you probably could have played a lot of players, but in South Africa you have to win. That’s most important.

“I probably wanted to give Pat a run at 15 but I thought that we have to have some kind of continuity in this game. He’ll probably come from the bench and play there,” was Meyer’s thoroughly unconvincing answer when he was asked why Lambie was not getting a starting place in Durban. So Pollard is the Springboks’ only flyhalf at this stage.

It really does not matter much in the bigger picture, although it would be a highly disturbing result, if the Springboks had to lose to Argentina these next two weeks, so Meyer should really be showing a bit more faith in the back-up players. Especially Lambie, who won him Tests against Australia and New Zealand last year and was an assured performer on the end-of-year tour, and has done more than most to delay any thoughts of Meyer getting the axe until it is now too late.

By delaying the introduction of fringe players, Meyer has made it clear that his favoured starting team for the World Cup has already been chosen and any changes will only be by accident, with Jesse Kriel and Lood de Jager the two bolters who have played their way into the picture.

Meyer has also shown a lack of sensitivity towards transformation by not giving Lwazi Mvovo a starting berth on the wing and Black fringe players like him, Siya Kolisi, Scarra Ntubeni and Oupa Mohoje can certainly blame a lack of opportunity if they don’t make the World Cup squad. Bryan Habana, Willie le Roux and Kriel must all be assured of their World Cup places so why play them again?

Kolisi could also surely have started ahead of another World Cup certainty in Marcell Coetzee, while De Jager and Etzebeth are similarly assured of their places.

Obviously it’s been a giant mistake to think of these pre-World Cup matches as some sort of World Cup trial; Meyer’s mind is pretty much made up and his focus is on winning these games, as fleeting as that success may be. The irony is that by not beating New Zealand and Australia, he has only dug himself deeper into a hole.

Whoever runs out for the Springboks against Argentina, the way to beat them as convincingly as the Wallabies and All Blacks have managed is by moving the ball away from the contact zones. Quick hands and fewer collisions means less rucks and less chances for the Pumas to slow the game down. In all previous Rugby Championship matches they have managed to drag the Springboks down to their level, but the fear of losing also makes it hard to play with any freedom.

Sharks CEO John Smit is hoping to regularly hear the applause of 30 000 people at Kings Park this year as his team mount a strong SuperRugby challenge, but he’s hoping too that other South African franchises are also pushing hard for the title because that will be the greatest benefit to the Springboks’ World Cup campaign.

Smit told The Citizen that there are enormous benefits to be gained from SuperRugby for the Springboks, remembering how crucial the tournament was in 2007 when he led South Africa to the World Cup crown in Paris. Earlier that year, the Bulls and Sharks had competed in the SuperRugby final, with the Bulls snatching a dramatic Bryan Habana-inspired one-point victory.

“The big thing in 2007 was that the Bulls and Sharks had such successful campaigns and so we were very well prepared for the World Cup. If you’ve got a SuperRugby title-chase to focus on, then the World Cup doesn’t become a distraction and SuperRugby was the best platform and preparation for our win in France.

“I hope it’s the same case this year and we have two or three teams right up there because you’re playing against the guys you have to beat at the World Cup. The players should go out intending to win SuperRugby this year and your best-performing players should be the Springboks. That’s what happened in 2007, we had the guys to win the World Cup and they were confident and well-prepared from SuperRugby,” Smit said.

The former Springbok captain is also hoping that Sharks rugby emerges from an unhappy 2013 in which crowd numbers dropped dramatically at King’s Park in response to an unpopular non-possession based game plan employed by Jake White.

“We’re still 14% behind on our season ticket sales but I’d like to see more than 30 000 people at King’s Park on Saturday for our opening game against the Cheetahs. Time will tell, it’s a big challenge, but we’ve been working hard on our marketing, getting the fans closer to the players, having open days and more interaction, whereas they were removed before.

“We had a good squad last year and we could have won the competition, but the environment possibly wasn’t good enough. This year we have an even better squad and a better environment,” Smit said.

The “better environment” is mostly due to Smit letting go of White in what must have been a tough decision for South Africa’s longest-serving Test captain to make; fortunately he has found a top-class replacement in Gary Gold, a former Springbok assistant coach.

“It’s been a pretty seamless transition and Gary has put in place such instrumental plans. He, Brendan Venter and defence coach Michael Horak were all at London Irish together and Gary has fitted in as if he’s been here the whole time.

“So there’s nothing too new happening with the team, Gary understood the vision and his arrival has certainly been a positive,” Smit said.

In terms of the Sharks’ SuperRugby rivals, Smit expects a fierce derby against the Cheetahs this weekend, even though their small pool of players means they will find it hard to maintain a challenge throughout the competition, while the Stormers have a history of success behind them.

But Smit is most concerned by the Bulls, who he says have been able to gather a powerful squad together in Pretoria.

“The Bulls are going to pose a far bigger challenge this year. In the last two or three years, they’ve come a long way, quietly going about their business, and they’ve made some key signings, especially those three Free Staters who will have a massive impact in the pack.

“Pierre Spies is back off the bench and, in the meantime, Victor Matfield will captain the side. Not too many squads have that sort of depth of leadership,” Smit said.

Pierre Spies, who was named as the captain for the season, will start the Vodacom Bulls’ SuperRugby campaign on the bench but someone with even more experience will be leading the team as they take on the Stormers in a crunch opener at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

Victor Matfield, starting in his beloved number five jersey, will captain the Bulls for a competition-record 83^rd time, while also extending his appearance record for the franchise to 139, as he starts a 16^th season of SuperRugby.

Bulls coach Frans Ludeke said on Wednesday that the decision had been made to ease Spies back into action off the bench, with Arno Botha starting at eighthman, after both Springbok loose forwards were asked how they preferred to manage their comebacks from lengthy injury problems.

“We want the best way for them to come back so we asked them how they felt and we believe the best option is for Pierre to be eased back into action and make a huge impact this weekend in the second half. Starting with Arno is horses-for-courses in a way, there’s no specific reason but Pierre has been out for a while and Arno had no issues in the warm-up games. We believe another week coming off the bench will be the perfect start to the season for Pierre and we’ll take it week-by-week after that,” Ludeke said at the team announcement at Loftus Versveld on Wednesday.

Matfield, who is a strong contender to captain the Springboks at the World Cup if Jean de Villiers does not recover from knee surgery, said for him the appointment was only a temporary one.

“I’m just a stand-in and hopefully Pierre will be ready next week. There’s also Adriaan Strauss who can lead the side, but it’s his first game for the Bulls since 2006, maybe that’s why the coach didn’t pick him, Deon Stegmann did an outstanding job in the warm-ups and in the backs there’s Handre Pollard,” Matfield said.

Hooker Strauss, who played eight games for the Bulls as an U21 star, will start together with fellow Cheetahs imports Trevor Nyakane and Lappies Labuschagne, while the other interesting selections see Piet van Zyl starting at scrumhalf and Francois Hougaard on the left wing. With Pollard as the starting flyhalf there are high hopes the Bulls will sparkle on attack.

“Akona Ndungane and Travis Ismaiel are both not fit and Francois played really well against Saracens on the wing, you can see he enjoys playing there, so that contributed to the decision at scrumhalf. But Piet played especially well in the warm-ups, he makes an impact on front-foot ball and his decision-making was sharp, while Rudy Paige [on the bench] has a good kicking game and game-management skills,” Ludeke explained.

Jacques du Plessis, who will no longer be calling Loftus Versfeld home after this SuperRugby season and is another player who impressed in pre-season, will partner Matfield in the second row, while Jan Serfontein and JJ Engelbrecht will be the centres in a combination that has worked very well before.

Perhaps the most crucial selection, however, is that of the experienced Werner Kruger at tighthead prop and he will have plenty of work to do in giving the Bulls a stable foundation at scrum time.

Bulls team: 15-Jurgen Visser, 14-Bjorn Basson, 13-JJ Engelbrecht, 12-Jan Serfontein, 11-Francois Hougaard, 10-Handre Pollard, 9-Piet van Zyl, 8-Arno Botha, 7-Lappies Labuschagne, 6-Deon Stegmann, 5-Victor Matfield, 4-Jacques du Plessis, 3-Werner Kruger, 2-Adriaan Strauss, 1-Trevor Nyakane. Reserves – 16-Callie Visagie, 17-Morne Mellet, 18-Grant Hattingh, 19-Pierre Spies, 20-Rudy Paige, 21-Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 22-Jesse Kriel, 23-Dayan van der Westhuizen/Neethling Fouche.

Sharks coach John Plumtree has instituted what superficially looks like a cleanout of players as his team try to get their SuperRugby campaign back on track at the home ground of the defending champions, the Chiefs, on Saturday.

Plumtree has made 11 changes to the team that lost to the Cheetahs last weekend in Durban, but some are just positional switches and others have been forced upon him as the KwaZulu-Natalians battle an injury epidemic.

Jean Deysel will captain the team, and the burly loose forward is sure to lead from the front. Regular captain Keegan Daniel will watch from the bench, as will another standout loose forward, Marcell Coetzee.

Francois Steyn, who led the team while Daniel was injured, is back in the starting line-up, but this time the even burlier Springbok will be playing outside centre as Paul Jordaan has succumbed to a knee injury.

Jannie du Plessis returns to anchor the scrum at tighthead and there are other key decision-makers in the starting line-up like Pat Lambie at flyhalf, Meyer Bosman at inside centre and Odwa Ndungane on the wing to lessen the impression that Plumtree is throwing a second-string XV into battle in Hamilton.

But there is inexperience in the team as well, with Piet Lindeque, who normally plays in midfield, on the left wing and Lubabalo Mthembu starting at eighthman in just his second SuperRugby outing.

Apart from Daniel and Coetzee, other regular starters who are being kept in cotton wool on the bench are hooker Kyle Cooper, lock Franco van der Merwe and scrumhalf Cobus Reinach.

Perhaps the most interesting selection is that of Joburg-based flank Derick Minnie, who will fulfil the ball-scavenging job, at number six. The Lions star will want to show just why he was one of that ill-fated team’s best players – and perhaps earn himself a guaranteed SuperRugby contract along the way.

Although it will irk anxious Sharks fans who are lamenting two successive losses, it seems that Plumtree has taken the pragmatic view that his best available XV would probably lose to the mighty Chiefs anyway and get further exhausted after travelling to New Zealand; targeting tour games against the Highlanders, Reds and Force instead for valuable away wins with a refreshed team to reignite last year’s finalists’ campaign.

The other losers from last weekend’s round of South African derbies were the Southern Kings, who were blanked 34-0 by the Bulls the weekend after returning home from their glorious overseas tour.

The Kings have really pulled together impressive support from fans in the Eastern Cape region, but this weekend they face a new challenge: A local derby away from home, against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.

The Kings are no longer unknown quantities and the Bulls showed them some bald facts about SuperRugby last weekend. But the extra week at home will have done them good and Cheetahs coach Naka Drotske’s biggest worry may be that his side will be a touch complacent after their fabulous start, with mental fatigue creeping in as they still have not had a bye.

The Cheetahs should win if they produce similar performances to when they tamed the mighty packs of both the Stormers and Sharks.

But if the Cheetahs are a bit off their game – and maybe that’s due after nine straight weeks of action – and the Southern Kings once again do the unthinkable and win, it could lead to quite an indaba in the corridors of the South African Rugby Union.

Victory for the Kings could lift them to within five points of the Stormers, who are now on tour, raising the possibility of last year’s conference winners having to play promotion/relegation against the Lions later this year.

But for the Kings to win, they will need to raise the bar quite some distance from last weekend’s performance. They have sensibly returned to the impenetrable loose trio of Jacques Engelbrecht, Wimpie van der Walt and Cornell du Preez that has served them so well this season, with Luke Watson, ever a talking point, on the bench for when the game opens up.

Waylon Murray completes a pair of Springboks on the bench as Ronnie Cooke has been preferred at outside centre, with Siyanda Grey and Michael Killian on the wings.

Fortunes have changed so quickly in the South African Conference this season and, at the moment, it is the Bulls who are sitting pretty at the top, after breezing to a bonus-point win over the Kings last weekend.

They were singing an entirely different tune just three weeks ago when they returned from overseas with three straight defeats and they will be desperate to beat the Waratahs at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday to also quieten down talk of a union in crisis due to a rumoured player exodus sparked by some salaries being halved.

The Bulls have left out fetcher flank Deon Stegmann from their match-day squad, but the way hooker Chiliboy Ralepelle competed at the breakdowns last weekend, he shouldn’t be missed as coach Frans Ludeke has preferred the combative trio of Pierre Spies, Arno Botha and Dewald Potgieter, with the physical presence of Jacques Potgieter on the bench.

History may be against the Waratahs – they have not beaten the Bulls since 2005 and have not won in Pretoria since 2002 – but the New South Welshmen showed last weekend versus the Chiefs that, when their game clicks, they are competitive against the best in the tournament.

If a practically all-Wallaby pack can get on top in the tight exchanges, then the Waratahs can rely on exciting backs like Drew Mitchell, Adam Ashley-Cooper and Israel Folau to put points on the scoreboard.

Just like last weekend, however, if the Bulls are on their game from the start, maintain the momentum of the last two weeks and get their passionate supporters behind them, then the Waratahs’ minds could dwell on their awful recent record against the three-time champions and not on the job at hand.

The Stormers embark on the first leg of their overseas tour when they take on the Hurricanes in Palmerston North on Friday.

The return of Bryan Habana is a welcome boost for the Stormers, but the Springboks’ leading try-scorer will probably be focusing more on the defensive aspects of the game than on running the ball.

Against the masters of broken-field play and the most lethal counter-attackers around, the Stormers are unlikely to be throwing the ball around as the Hurricanes are renowned for pouncing on the slightest error.

The performance of the inconsistent Stormers pack will be the key to the outcome as the defensive system masterminded by Jacques Nienaber still seems to be in good nick, with just nine tries conceded in seven matches, once again the best in SuperRugby.

A bonus-point win for the Stormers and defeats for the Bulls, Sharks and Cheetahs could see them climbing to the pinnacle of the South African Conference.

The Hurricanes have had the unwanted distraction this week of star winger Julian Savea appearing in the Wellington District Court on charges of assaulting his partner and the All Black’s absence does weaken the potency of the home side’s backline.

Teams

Stormers (v Hurricanes, Friday 9:35): Joe Pietersen, Gio Aplon, Juan de Jongh, Jean de Villiers, Bryan Habana, Gary van Aswegen, Dewaldt Duvenage, Duane Vermeulen, Michael Rhodes, Siya Kolisi, Andries Bekker, De Kock Steenkamp, Pat Cilliers, Deon Fourie, Steven Kitshoff. Replacements: Scarra Ntubeni, Brok Harris, Rynhardt Elstadt, Nizaam Carr, Nic Groom, Louis Schreuder, Damian de Allende.

Sharks (v Chiefs, Saturday 9:35): Riaan Viljoen, Odwa Ndungane, Frans Steyn, Meyer Bosman, Piet Lindeque, Pat Lambie, Charl McLeod, Lubabalo Mtembu, Jean Deysel, Derick Minnie, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Anton Bresler, Jannie du Plessis, Craig Burden, Wiehahn Herbst. Replacements: Kyle Cooper, Danie Mienie, Franco van der Merwe, Keegan Daniel, Marcell Coetzee, Cobus Reinach, Sbura Sithole.

Bulls (v Waratahs, Saturday 17:05): Jürgen Visser, Akona Ndungane, JJ Engelbrecht, Jan Serfontein, Bjorn Basson, Morné Steyn, Jano Vermaak, Pierre Spies, Arno Botha, Dewald Potgieter, Juandré Kruger, Flip van der Merwe, Werner Kruger, Chiliboy Ralepelle, Dean Greyling. Replacements: Willie Wepener, Hencus van Wyk, Wilhelm Steenkamp, Jacques Potgieter, Francois Hougaard, Louis Fouchè, Lionel Mapoe.

Cheetahs (v Southern Kings, Saturday 19:10): Hennie Daniller, Willie le Roux, Johann Sadie, Robert Ebersohn, Raymond Rhule, Burton Francis, Piet van Zyl, Phillip van der Walt, Lappies Labuschagne, Heinrich Brüssow, Francois Uys, Lood de Jager, Lourens Adriaanse, Adriaan Strauss, Coenie Oosthuizen. Replacements: Ryno Barnes, Trevor Nyakane, Ligtoring Landman, Frans Viljoen, Sarel Pretorius, Elgar Watts, Ryno Benjamin.

Southern Kings (v Cheetahs, Saturday 19:10): George Whitehead, Siyanda Grey, Ronnie Cooke, Andries Strauss, Michael Killian, Demetri Catrakillis, Shaun Venter, Jacques Engelbrecht, Wimpie van der Walt, Cornell du Preez, Rynier Bernardo, Steven Sykes, Kevin Buys, Bandise Maku, Schalk Ferreira. Replacements: Virgile Lacombe, Grant Kemp, David Bulbring, Luke Watson, Nicolas Vergallo, Waylon Murray, Siviwe Soyzwapi.

Other fixtures: Reds v Blues (Friday, 11:40); Brumbies v Force (Saturday, 11:40); Crusaders v Rebels (Sunday, 6:05).

Bye: Highlanders.

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