Ken Borland

Re: The matter between Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber and all the former national team coaches and players who have come out to criticise his selection for the second Test against Wales in Bloemfontein, which led to an historic first loss to the men from Cymru on home turf.

The defeat, following a fortuitous last-minute win in the first Test against a team that had been reduced to 12 men for some of the last 10 minutes, has put Nienaber and the Springboks in a concerning position – another loss in Cape Town on Saturday would give Wales the series and would be the first time South Africa have lost the majority of their mid-winter Tests at home since losing to the British and Irish Lions in 1997.

Losing the series to Wales would also put Nienaber under pressure to start anew, but then we have seen the next tier of players is not yet ready to take over judging by the way they let the Test in Bloemfontein slip. So in many ways, Nienaber really is between a rock and a hard place, with only a good victory in Cape Town on Saturday allowing him to wriggle into some breathing space.

The problem with being world champions is not only that you are the team with the biggest target on your backs, but that four years can be a long time in rugby and a side that won the previous World Cup might be just that little bit over the hill at the next showpiece tournament. It is the major reason why the defending champions have only retained their title once – the All Blacks going back-to-back in 2011 and 2015.

Coaches will naturally want to stick with the players they trust, the ones who won them the greatest prize in the sport. But they will also recognise the need to rejuvenate, to refresh their squad with new blood where necessary.

Thanks partly to the weakness of the rand and the number of foreign clubs eager to embrace South African talent, there is no doubt a fresh generation of exciting talent is starting to emerge at home, helped by the move into European competition.

Nienaber does need to look at them in the pressure of international rugby because some of them could well be key to defending the World Cup crown next year. But it is a balancing act and ideally you would want to introduce three or four players at a time with plenty of experienced, first-choice campaigners around them.

Perhaps Jake White is right and the fact that Nienaber has limited experience of being the head coach of a team led to him naively thinking that a squad with 19 changes to the 23 would be able to beat Wales.

I’m sure the number crunchers in the Randburg TV studios will know the answer, but I do wonder whether more people will watch the Springboks this weekend because the Test is a series decider or whether they prefer to watch a South African team sweeping all before them?

One thing is certain and White also made this point. The Springboks cannot rely on what won them the World Cup in 2019 working again next year. As we have seen with Wales, the opposition is getting better and better at countering the Erasmus/Nienaber game plan.

The Springboks need to grow, they need to change and evolve. I am sure Nienaber had this in mind with his selection for last weekend. It was a gamble that did not come off, much like playing the undercooked Elton Jantjies at flyhalf in the first Test. Sometimes the Springboks brains trust just try to be a little bit too clever.

Providing the first-choice players do the business on Saturday, it may just turn out to be a small step backwards, a valuable lesson, on the path to the 2023 World Cup.

Jacques Nienaber and Rassie Erasmus, the duo who became heroes by turning a Springbok side at its lowest ebb into world champions, are now trending towards zero in some critics’ eyes, with fellow World Cup winning coach Jake White the latest to take a potshot.

White, now spearheading the Bulls’ renaissance as director of rugby at Loftus Versfeld, took a thinly veiled swipe at Nienaber’s lack of coaching experience in a column he wrote for the Rugby Pass website on Thursday.

Criticising the decision to make 14 changes to the Springbok starting XV and suffering an historic first defeat to Wales on home turf last weekend in Bloemfontein, White said Nienaber should have learnt not to experiment at Test level in that fashion at junior or club level.

“Making 14 changes obviously didn’t work for the Springboks and personally, I think Jacques Nienaber missed a trick,” White wrote. “There’s an expectation that you win every time you play in South African colours and the margins in Test rugby are incredibly small.

“I’m told his rationale for picking that second Test team was because he … didn’t want them to just be playing a dead rubber in the third Test. I’d say I don’t think there should ever be a dead rubber Test when you’re playing at home.

“The job of a national coach is to win Test matches. National coaches shouldn’t use Tests to see if players are good enough, thats what A sides or training is for.

“You’re not a national coach to learn lessons. You learn that at age-grade or club level – I mean that sincerely – there’s a reason people go through a system to become national coach,” White said.

The often-outspoken coach added that Wales will love the prospect of a winner-takes-all contest in Cape Town and the situation the Springboks have put themselves in.

“What I’m expecting on Saturday is massive amounts of pressure that he [Nienaber] didn’t need. Nienaber could have won the Series and now he’s created a real cauldron in Cape Town.

“It’s at sea level, and the Welsh will be boosted by the fact they’ve contested Tests on the highveld. Wales will come brimming with confidence. I’ve coached against them, and the one thing they don’t do is go away.

“Going back to selection, when Sir Gareth Edwards, one of the greatest players of all time, said it was a slap in the face, I can’t believe it wasn’t a real motivation for the Welsh team.

“Wales won’t make changes to a winning team. With consistency comes confidence. It’s backs to the wall for the Boks and if they don’t get the proper game going, they could lose the series,” White said.

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.