Ken Borland

Having gambled and lost with his selection of Elton Jantjies at flyhalf, Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber bravely tried to limit the damage to his player’s confidence after the first Test against Wales at Loftus Versfeld.

Jantjies endured a miserable first half of skewed kicks out-of-hand, missed shots at goal and a dropped ball that led to a try, and was substituted before the start of the second half with the Springboks 18-3 down. Barring a few exceptions, the whole team had been sub-par in the first half, but with the help of pugnacious input from the bench, they staged a stirring comeback to win 32-29.

It is only right, though, that Nienaber stand up for Jantjies because the player was put in an invidious position by being selected for the first Test with, as the coach himself said after the game, “less than 30 minutes of game-time this year”.

I can understand why the risk was taken with Jantjies, who has only just recovered from a shoulder injury and whose club did not make the playoffs of Japan’s Rugby League One. The 31-year-old has also had the mental stress of being charged with malicious damage to property and contravention of the Aviation Act to deal with, before those charges were withdrawn after he agreed to pay for the damage he caused to an aeroplane flying back from Turkey.

Flyhalf is one of the few areas where the Springboks are lacking depth and the management were obviously planning ahead in case first-choice Handre Pollard suddenly gets injured. If Jantjies then had to come in and play with so little rugby under his belt, it could have been even worse.

The World Cup winner does now at least have 40 minutes of game-time, and hopefully the trauma of it has not dented his confidence too much.

Nienaber tried to sugarcoat his replacement as being because “he had given everything”, but when he said “he hasn’t played any rugby” he was closer to the reason why.

Despite the fan furore, Jantjies is still a player who has much to offer the Springboks. What he is capable of when in form definitely adds some attacking spark to a team which, for long periods of the first half against Wales, looked desperately in need of some offensive verve.

How he bounces back from this calamitous showing is what matters now.

Veteran Springbok fullback Willie le Roux may have ceded the No.15 jersey to Damian Willemse for the first Test against Wales in Pretoria on Saturday, but he will still be on the bench, with coach Jacques Nienaber saying he is “crucial to our attacking game-plan”.

The 32-year-old Le Roux, who gets more than his fair share of criticism, could earn his 73^rd cap on Saturday at Loftus Versfeld and statistics prove the value he adds in often being the spark for the South African attack.

Acoording to a tweet released by Opta statistics on Tuesday, Le Roux has made the most offloads (40) and try-assists (35) of any Springbok since making his Test debut in 2013.

“Willie has lots of experience and he brings a lot to the team through the week,” Nienaber said on Tuesday. “He has knowledge to impart for the youngsters.

“I know people have lots to say about Willie, but look at how many times he makes the last pass to allow us to score a try. You must be able to see space and create to do that.

“What Willie does for our attack is outstanding. Sometimes he looks average in other areas and he always gets criticism, but the reality is he does lots and is crucial to our attacking game-plan,” Nienaber said.

While South African fans have been loving the exciting new talent that has exploded on the scene through the United Rugby Championship, Nienaber said youth will have to wait to be given its head.

“It was a tough selection to get to the final 23, but we have a plan in terms of what we want to achieve. We could have selected other players who would not have dropped the team,” Nienaber admitted.

“Hopefully we will see those guys operating in the near future for the Springboks. To get youngsters into the team is always a balancing act. You want to do it when you have momentum, because that makes it easier for them.

“And the only way to get momentum is by winning. It’s not easy to bring new guys into the team when the confidence is low.

“Sure, new faces will bring a bit of energy and renewal to the team, maybe some creativity, but you also want to be able to build that momentum,” Nienaber said.

Bulls Currie Cup coach Gert Smal has made clear how disappointed he is in how the once-great competition has been “devalued” and it seems sponsors Carling Black Label are also concerned about the “loss of prestige” in what was once one of the strongest brands in South African rugby.

The Bulls, trying to contend in two tournaments at the same time, made it to the semi-finals with their mix-and-match squads, but eventually the URC had to take priority and they went down 30-19 to Griquas last weekend at Loftus Versfeld.

Smal’s point was that unless the top players in the country are involved, the Currie Cup becomes devalued. And next year it is likely to be even worse because the top five franchises will have an extra European competition to contend with.

Arne Rust, the Carling Black Label Brand Director, told The Citizen the situation with the URC and the Currie Cup taking place concurrently was not ideal.

“It’s been hard to manage and it seems the Currie Cup has lost a bit of prestige. We would love to get that back,” Rust said.

“We would like to see the importance of the Currie Cup heightened rather than it becoming a development tournament.

“We’re not worried there aren’t any Springboks, but we would like the premier local players to take part, we want to see the next generation of Springboks in the Currie Cup.

“The possibility of it becoming an U23 competition is a question we’re not sure about, we want the Currie Cup to be a showcase, to still feature the premier players,” Rust said.

With the European season running from September to June, and with 2023 World Cup arrangements also coming into the reckoning, there is a growing groundswell of opinion that perhaps the Currie Cup should be played at a different time.

With the Springboks usually off-limits for the Currie Cup anyway, there should be a way that SA Rugby can fit the famous event into the second half of the year.

“If SA Rugby can create more daylight for the Currie Cup then that is always good for us,” Rust said. “We are going to have some detailed calendar conversations in future.

“We would like to see the Currie Cup come into its own, it has such a rich heritage and history. We would love it to be more esteemed and prestigious,” Rust said.

With Smal using words such as “sacred” to describe the Currie Cup, and suggesting SA rugby should “rather put the famous trophy away in a glass box or a museum unless they restore its respect”, it is clear there is still a strong emotional connection to the tournament.

*Rugby fans wishing to select their team for the Carling Champions Match against Italy A on July 2 in Gqeberha can still do so by buying a 750ml quart or 500ml can of Black Label and follow the instructions on the pack, or go to carlingblacklabel.co.za or use Facebook Messenger.

Proteas coach Mark Boucher would love his batsmen to go out and show more intent in T20 cricket, but he knows they first of all need to be equipped to do so and he said on Tuesday that captain Temba Bavuma will be one of the players he will be working hard with ahead of the World Cup in October.

Bavuma’s series strike-rate of just 103.38 came under the spotlight when South Africa wasted a 2-0 lead in their T20 series in India, but Boucher on Tuesday backed his captain in unequivocal fashion, highlighting that many of his problems were due to the outstanding performances of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the player of the series, up front with the new ball.

“Temba struggled, there’s no doubt about it, so as coaches we have to sit down and ask why? It was one bowler that he struggled against – Bhuvneshwar. Most guys did against him, he’s a fantastic bowler in those conditions and when the ball swings a lot then he is very dangerous. And the new ball was going up-and-down a lot,” Boucher said.

“We will look at giving him more options, but it’s quite difficult to change up during a series while you’re travelling and playing. Temba had also not played much cricket before the series.

“Against other bowlers, his strike-rate was fine, there were no issues. He wants to score quicker and his stats outside the powerplay are very good. He gets boundaries in different ways than say a Rassie van der Dussen or an Aiden Markram.

“There is space for a guy who can stabilise the innings and we see him in that mould. Temba loves a challenge, look how he has come through in Test cricket. He’s a tough cricketer and captain and we certainly do need him. I’ll be working extra hard with him and the bowling machine,” Boucher said.

The coach was also frank about the batsmen needing to embrace a new, more adventurous way of playing that he is trying to institute.

“You need the technical know-how to be able to play the shots, but your mindset also needs to be open to raising your strike-rate,” Boucher said. “By doing that you get your confidence up.

“In terms of mindset, you need to really trust the plan. And it’s not just about playing maverick cricket, we need to be smart too. It’s a new way and we don’t want to just go back to our default of a year or so ago.

“The batsmen need to commit to the new philosophy and not have doubts. You’re not going to win the World Cup if you don’t have the right mindset and the way India and England play is the way forward.

“Some batsmen are not used to taking a risk inside their first six balls, and especially in the third game we saw that, there was not enough intent. We didn’t pull the trigger to put the bowlers under pressure,” Boucher said.