Ken Borland

Jean de Villiers has amazed many people with his recovery from a serious knee injury and more recently a broken jaw, but he says he gets inspiration from his fellow World Cup squad members.

“Injuries are definitely part of rugby, but it’s the way you come back and learn from those hardships that counts. For me, it’s been about a broken jaw and I felt like a teenager again with braces!

“But this is a great bunch of guys who all have a great story to tell. Some of the guys have been through so much – Schalk Burger who was fighting for his life two years ago, Schalk Brits, who ruptured the ACC ligament in his knee last year and was out for five months, Pieter-Steph du Toit and his injuries …

“So a lot has been said about my past at World Cups, but I’m more concerned with the future. I’m ready to give everything and I’m happy with where I’m at in my recovery. In two weeks I’ll be able to take contact and I’ll definitely be able to play the first game,” De Villiers said at the weekend announcement of the 31-man squad for the World Cup, which begins for South Africa on September 19 against Japan in Brighton.

The selection of De Villiers has not been popular with everyone, and Heyneke Meyer and his Springbok squad have been lambasted by many critics in recent weeks. Many of the naysayers have been opportunists with little involvement or passion for rugby, but former Springbok coach Peter de Villiers, who has a short memory when it comes to his own many shortcomings in the position, has had particularly harsh words which have no doubt hurt more than most.

“For me, it has been tough. You wait so long to play and then we lose to Argentina and I broke my jaw. A lot else happened that week, but I’ve seen how much this squad has grown over the last couple of weeks, we’ve pulled closer with the emotion of the guys being left out.

“For me, the criticism shows that people do care about the Springboks. We’re open to criticism if it comes from a position of wanting the Springboks to do well. If nobody was interested in the Springboks, we’d be in trouble.

“There will be criticism and if it adds value then we’ll take that in the right light and we can only be stronger for it. If nobody cares, well we don’t want to be in that position,” captain De Villiers said.

Meyer himself showed the height of diplomacy when he was asked about former coach De Villiers, although there was perhaps a subtle put-down in his response.

“I truly respect Peter, he’s an awesome coach and human being and he did a lot for South African rugby. He’s a great diplomat and he made a great difference in people’s lives. I wish him all the best in future because we need people at grassroots level,” Meyer said with what sounded distinctly like sincerity.

Judging by his performance at a SuperSport networking luncheon this week, Jean de Villiers definitely has a future as a comedian and television personality, such was the brilliance of his timing and the sheer sense and empathy with which he spoke.

De Villiers has made his name of course with the superb timing he displays on attack and defence in the Springbok midfield and let’s hope the 34-year-old’s next major appearance on SuperSport is as captain of the World Cup squad in England.

Coach Heyneke Meyer is certainly hoping so and, whatever the haters say about taking “old-age” players to the World Cup, experience is the common thread that runs through every winner of that tournament and Meyer would be stupid to undo the last three years of preparation in order to choose flavour-of-the-month players now that the curtain is about to go up.

The one certainty about the 31-man World Cup squad that Meyer finally announces is that there are definitely going to be some very unlucky, excellent players missing out.

Unfortunately, De Villiers’ centre position is one of the areas where the Springboks are relative paupers.

Assuming that the captain will be fit (and he certainly thinks he will be), then his midfield partner is likely to be Jan Serfontein or Damian de Allende. Meyer has already said that he will be taking 18 forwards to the World Cup, so that leaves space for just 13 backs, three of which have to be scrumhalves – Fourie du Preez, Ruan Pienaar and Francois Hougaard as a utility back.

Three flyhalves would also seem necessary with Pat Lambie, Elton Jantjies and Handre Pollard, who can also provide centre cover, the frontrunners. Someone like fullback Jesse Kriel, because he can also play in midfield, could provide additional cover and, if there is a new cap in the squad then the Bulls prospect will probably by the man. If De Villiers doesn’t make it, then Lionel Mapoe will probably be next in line, especially since he can play outside centre, where the Springboks are particularly thin.

JP Pietersen, if he can regain his best form, obviously brings the ideal combination of experience and versatility, being able to play wing, fullback or outside centre.

Lock is the other worrying position with Eben Etzebeth and Victor Matfield the only contenders who are currently fit. Meyer said he favours a split of four locks and five loose forwards in the squad, with nine front-rowers compulsory, so Pieter-Steph du Toit, who can play flank as well, is a vital selection and Lood de Jager, if fit, or Teboho Mohoje will be the other second-rower .

But injuries could mean Meyer is forced to include uncapped players like Jacques du Plessis or Ruan Botha.

The coach is going to be given sleepless nights by the conundrum facing him at loose-forward. How do you choose five from the wealth of talent that is available?

The Springboks have been well-served by Francois Louw, Willem Alberts and Duane Vermuelen as a starting trio, so who backs them up?

Schalk Burger will probably be one of the two extra loosies by virtue of his experience and ability to play all three positions, which leaves the fifth back-row spot to be fought over by Marcell Coetzee, Mohoje, Warren Whiteley, Nizaam Carr, Arno Botha, Siya Kolisi, Jaco Kriel and Pierre Spies!

The incumbent Springbok front row of Tendai Mtawarira, Bismarck and Jannie du Plessis is going to be given a tremendous run for their money by Trevor Nyakane, Adriaan Strauss and Frans Malherbe, while the third complete front row required should be made up of Coenie Oosthuizen, Scarra Ntubeni and either Marcel van der Merwe, Julian Redelinghuys or Vincent Koch.

Probable Springbok World Cup squad – Willie le Roux, Jesse Kriel; Cornal Hendricks, Bryan Habana, Francois Hougaard; Jan Serfontein, Jean de Villiers, Damian de Allende; Handre Pollard, Pat Lambie, Elton Jantjies; Fourie du Preez, Ruan Pienaar; Duane Vermuelen, Willem Alberts, Francois Louw, Schalk Burger, Marcell Coetzee; Victor Matfield, Eben Etzebeth, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Teboho Mohoje; Jannie du Plessis, Bismarck du Plessis, Tendai Mtawarira, Frans Malherbe, Adriaan Strauss, Trevor Nyakane, Marcel van der Merwe, Scarra Ntubeni, Coenie Oosthuizen.

I never met Senzo Meyiwa or dealt with him, but by all accounts he was a wonderful human being and obviously a very talented footballer. A person being cut down before their prime, especially in such violent, totally senseless circumstances, is always a great tragedy.

But this crime had a whole extra layer of circumstances surrounding it, in the form of Meyiwa, married with a child, being murdered at his girlfriend’s house, with whom he has another child.

While I unreservedly mourn the death of Senzo, a thought occurred to me while I considered the tawdry situation – imagine if this had happened to one of our other national captains. Imagine if Jean de Villiers or Hashim Amla, both married, were actively pursuing an adulterous relationship and had children outside of marriage. What would the reaction be?

Top-class sport is all about discipline and many coaches will tell you that a player who is ill-disciplined off the field will struggle to be disciplined on it.

However much of a hero Meyiwa was on the football field, it is yet another moral failure of our country to not recognise that this was a person who broke his marriage vows, humiliated his wife and tore apart his family.

Whether or not Senzo planned to marry Kelly Khumalo, either his son by her or his daughter with wife Mandisa Mkhize were going to grow up without the regular influence of a father in their lives. There are numerous studies that point to the negative influence an absentee father has on children’s education, future relationships and even their ability to function properly in society. I would wager that the thugs that conspired to take Meyiwa’s life are, ironically, from fatherless families themselves.

And before people point to culture and say it was acceptable for Meyiwa to have his bit on the side, may I point out that many black commentators I have read are terribly disappointed by his behaviour.

If we as humans use “culture” as an excuse to propagate destructive behaviour then we are never going to progress. Such evils as slavery and Apartheid were considered culturally acceptable as well, and the oppression of women is still practised in many cultures around the world.

There seems to be a double standard at play here. If it had been revealed during Oscar Pistorius’s court case that he had been cheating on girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, the public would probably have clamoured for him to get capital punishment!

Not all top-class sportsmen are saints and I’m sure if we had all the information about our national heroes we would be shocked, but perhaps Bafana Bafana can take a leaf out of cricket’s book where the ProteaFire campaign is as much about how Amla’s world number one team performs on the field as about how they behave off it.

Springbok captain Jean de Villiers praised his team for standing up in the last 10 minutes and beating Australia in their Rugby Championship Test in Cape Town, putting aside the disappointment of two narrow defeats overseas.

South Africa lost 23-24 in Perth against Australia and 10-14 to New Zealand in Wellington, and looked on their way to another close loss when they trailed 8-10 going into the last 10 minutes at Newlands.

But a scintillating finish saw the Springboks score three tries to complete a 28-10 victory that was flattering if one considered how they struggled in the first hour to make headway against a brave Australian team.

“You will have disappointments along the way, as in life, but the important thing is the way you respond to it. We didn’t play badly abroad, a couple of things went against us and we lost. But part of the process is working on our mistakes; the goal is the World Cup next year, but we want to see if we can improve every week.

“The way we stuck together in the last 10 minutes, we showed intent and that’s how we want to play. All 23 players put their hands up and it was probably in the top 10 of best games I’ve played in, it was a special performance,” De Villiers, who scored two of the three late tries, said.

That the Springboks were able to up the tempo at the end of the match, with the Wallabies visibly tiring, was down to the massive impact made by their bench and the squad’s improved conditioning.

“The bench were brilliant, they were able to up the tempo. Sometimes I get criticised for choosing older guys, but I think it was the right decision to go for more experience on the bench. Bakkies Botha, Schalk Burger, Bismarck du Plessis, Pat Lambie and JP Pietersen were all very good and they made an unbelievably big difference,” coach Heyneke Meyer said.

“I always put an unbelievable emphasis on fitness because you just don’t have the time with the Springboks, but we’re almost there. This result was great for the fitness because there was no way we could have come back at the end without it. The Wallabies had flown to Cape Town and we threw the ball around in the last 10 minutes and it worked.”

Outstanding eighthman Duane Vermeulen, who was the Springboks’ best player before injuring his ribs, and veteran wing Bryan Habana (blow to the head) are the two injury concerns for the Test against the All Blacks in Johannesburg this weekend.

“if we play like we did tonight – exactly how we planned, sticking to our structures in the first 60/70 minutes and then breaking them down in the last 10 – then we’ll have a good shot next week. We were close against the All Blacks in Wellington and we just didn’t get there, but we just need to make sure we prepare well and put the hard work in this week,” De Villiers said.