Ken Borland

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus may be downplaying the importance of winning the inaugural Nations Championship, but filling his team with World Cup winners and first-choice regulars to play England at Ellis Park on Saturday makes it clear how seriously South Africa are taking their opening Test of the year.

With only the injured Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu absent, the backline is probably the one Erasmus would name if it were the World Cup final on Saturday. And up front are all the formidable old names – the now-established first-choice loose trio of captain Siya Kolisi, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Jasper Wiese; Eben Etzebeth and Ruan Nortje in the second row, and Ox Nche, Malcolm Marx and Thomas du Toit in the front row.

One can probably vigorously debate whether Grant Williams or Cobus Reinach are the number one scrumhalf; but Williams has played 28 Tests already and can no longer be called inexperienced, while Reinach has not played any rugby since his injury on Stormers duty at the end of April.

Du Toit may or may not be South Africa’s best tighthead prop, but English pundits have nothing but praise for him, the 31-year-old having taken the European game  by storm during his three years at Bath. With Wilco Louw fatigued after a tough URC campaign, the Sharks-bound Du Toit gets an early chance to lay down a marker in the Springbok jersey, his mobility for a high-paced game at altitude being a plus.

It is fit and proper that Erasmus and the Springboks are taking England so seriously, in contrast to many South Africans who expect them to be filling their boots against Steve Borthwick’s visitors.

Yes, England struggled in the Six Nations, but let’s not forget that at the start of this year, it was this weekend’s clash at Ellis Park that was creating the most excitement for the early rounds of the new Nations Championship. England had risen to third in the world rankings thanks to their unbeaten run through their Autumn Internationals, including a 33-19 dismantling of the All Blacks, and them versus South Africa seemed to be a match-up between the two most in-form teams on the planet.

The momentum was lost in the Six Nations, until England nearly beat champions France in Paris. They looked back on the up again and showed that they do still have some potent weapons.

“Our mindset is just to win another Test match and I’m pretty sure England are the same. The Barbarians match was a nice warm-up and it helped get the guys into the structure, but this is now a big Test. England are always tough, their strength in numbers is really good, many of their players were in the Premiership final so their standard is very high,” Erasmus warned when announcing his team this week.

“There are not a lot of games against England in our squad and it will be all about how quickly we can get cohesion, alignment and playing together. England should have won their last game against France, they only just lost, and having been here a while, they’ve probably adapted to altitude.

“We’ll have to see how they run the ball, but they have a young and energetic side that fits an open, running game. We’ll have to get the better of them facet by facet of the game, try and win by dominating the different departments of the game.

“This is a big year for us, there are young guys there in our squad but they don’t have a lot of caps and next year is the World Cup. The priority is to keep our momentum and belief, so we’re just trying to win, we won’t be chasing bonus points. If we win all our games, we’ll win the Nations Championship.

“We just want to try and get on the front foot, get momentum, but it’s not going to be easy. Which is why we’ve chosen a more experienced side. If it goes well on Saturday, then we can use more youngsters in the next few weeks,” Erasmus said.

The double World Cup winning coach’s caution is also justified by history: the last Test the Springboks played at Ellis Park was their embarrassing 38-22 defeat to Australia on August 16 last year, while the last time they played England in Johannesburg was on June 16, 2018.

On that occasion, the Springboks won 42-39, recovering from a horror start in which they went 24-3 down. It was just Rassie’s second Test as head coach and Siya Kolisi was the first Black African to lead South Africa in a Test match. The lesson from that game was that momentum can shift very quickly at Ellis Park.

Last year’s defeat to the Wallabies provided another salient lesson and warning – it is easy, given how fast-scoring matches can be at Ellis Park, to get carried away. The Springboks were near-perfect in the opening quarter, leading 22-0 with some scintillating rugby. But then they hit a speed wobble, over-played and Australia were well-deserved winners.

Using Manie Libbok at flyhalf worked marvellously when the Springboks were in charge and on attack, but his game management was exposed when the Wallabies fought their way back into the contest. It seemed on that day that Libbok had only one gear – flat out – and their game eventually spiralled out of control, a bit like what has happened to English cricket with their Bazball.

This Saturday at Ellis Park will be the first Test since then that Erasmus is using Libbok in the No.10 jersey. The injury to Feinberg-Mngomezulu nows gives the former Stormers star the chance to show that the effective job he has done coming off the bench since then can be repeated from the start.

“I have a clear understanding what my role is. I need to go out there and lead with my voice, drive the team around the park and make sure we execute our game plan. I need to do my exits, make sure we are in the right areas and play with the right balance,” Libbok told SuperSport this week.

“It’s especially about looking after the forwards, not wasting their energy and overplaying them. I need to handle the pressure, kick at the right times and get in their territory,” Libbok said, perhaps in reference to the feeling that the Springboks had shot their bolt way too early against the Wallabies last season.

South Africa are going to have to box smart against England and it will require a much more controlled performance from them if their proud record against the Red Rose in Johannesburg is not going to go the same way as their one against Australia went to everyone’s shock last year.

England have not won at Ellis Park since 1972 and anywhere on the Highveld since 2000, while Australia’s previous win at the intimidating venue came in 1963 and they had not triumphed anywhere in South Africa since 2011.

England are a competent side across the board and the Springboks will be looking for a knockout blow via their usual weapons of physical dominance at the gainline and in the set-pieces, with a lethal backline able to both create space and take advantage of what materialises thanks to their mighty forwards.

It is going to be a nervous week for Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber ahead of the first Test against the British and Irish Lions in Cape Town because, as the disappointing performance of the SA A pack against the Bulls showed, if anything more goes amiss with his first-choice line-up then the home side are going to be seriously vulnerable.

Nienaber has claimed that not even he knows when the likes of captain Siya Kolisi, ace flyhalf Handre Pollard and wing Makazole Mapimpi will clear their Covid protocols. The availability of those three players will be his foremost concern this week, but there are other departments that are looking a bit thin at the moment too.

While Kolisi’s absence, alongside that of Duane Vermeulen, leaves Pieter-Steph du Toit to marshal an inexperienced loose trio, the situation at lock is even more concerning. Franco Mostert and Eben Etzebeth are the first-choice pairing and both have been outstanding in the warm-ups. But, with Lood de Jager and RG Snyman not yet fit, their back-ups – Marvin Orie, Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg and Jean-Luc du Preez – have been underwhelming.

Frans Malherbe being Covid-positive has raised questions about the depth at tighthead prop and, while Steven Kitshoff is consistently excellent in the No.1 jersey, who the loosehead prop replacement is going to be is an interesting question with Ox Nche reportedly also being infected with the virus.

There is good news at hooker though with the reported returns to training of Bongi Mbonambi and Scarra Ntubeni meaning Nienaber will not have to field the uncapped Joseph Dweba or Fez Mbatha off the bench.

Elton Jantjies looked in solid form against the Bulls and is an experienced campaigner who can step in for Pollard, while Sbu Nkosi or Aphelele Fassi are both capable stand-ins for Mapimpi. Scrumhalf Cobus Reinach and eighthman Kwagga Smith were the other players who were blameless in the weekend loss, but both were not overly impressed with the quality of performance put up by SA A.

“We had a lot of opportunities that were not taken, instead of being simple we tried something that was not on too often. It’s important to not go out of alignment as a squad, we all have to do our job and we need to put our game-plan on them. There were small individual things that were good, but we did not collectively stamp ourselves on the Bulls,” Reinach said.

“It was an opportunity to get some game-time, which we have not had a lot of, and we knew the Bulls would be desperate, but I think we underestimated how much they wanted to prove a point. We didn’t dominate up front and that’s where the trouble started. We lacked that bit of x-factor and there were a lot of mistakes. We need to sharpen up and get the basics right,” Smith said.

Being a haven of inclusivity is something Siya Kolisi’s Springboks take very seriously and that also extends to how welcome new players feel in the system, according to centre Lukhanyo Am, one of the leaders in the group.

“The system here is player-driven and we are trying to minimise the gap between seniors and juniors because we are all pulling together in the same direction. The majority of the group is experienced and World Cup winners, we have a pool of senior players but the competition will always be there though, it’s a strength and a positive that we feed off each other.

“We’re not here for ourselves but for the jersey and the country. It’s a player-driven environment so we take ownership, there is shared responsibility and we are all helping where we can. It’s been really exciting to watch the youngsters and the up-and-coming players,” Am, who captains Kolisi at the Sharks, said.

Rosko Specman may be 32 years old, but the wing is one of the new faces in the Springbok squad and would love to consider himself as still being up-and-coming.

“There’s a great vibe in camp with all the different vibe guys from the different unions making sure we bring the energy. That makes it easy to fit in and I’m just trying to be like a sponge, getting all the information I can out of Willie le Roux and Cheslin Kolbe on how to get my game to the next level. Just to be in the same squad as Cheslin is wonderful,” Specman said from Bloemfontein.

Specman is a Free State Cheetahs player now, although he was on loan to the Stormers recently, the Springbok Sevens star having first made his name in XVs rugby with the Bulls. Although he has apparently privately referred to his departure last year from Loftus Versfeld as being contentious, he struck a more conciliatory tone this week.

“As one door closes another one opens, although I did not leave the Bulls on my own terms. But I have made peace with it, I see it as a turning point and maybe I didn’t do what the coach wants, maybe I was the problem. It just shows you in rugby that you can score a hat-trick in one game and then be gone for the next match.

“I also had a good time at the Stormers, I went there because I wanted to get game-time. But I have a good understanding with Hawies Fourie at the Cheetahs, and he might let me go to the Stormers again if I need game time. I’m 32 years old now but I’m still working hard. And it was Hawies who said I’ve been to the Olympics Sevens before but I haven’t been a Springbok before,” Specman said.

Richard Pybus has been one of the real legends of domestic coaching in South Africa, having won nine trophies with the Titans and Cape Cobras franchises, but he began his career guiding lowly Border into a position where they were competitive against the big guns of local cricket. So when the former Pakistan and West Indies coach says plans to change the domestic structure, increasing the top level to 12 provincial teams, are not addressing the true problems in South African cricket then his views should be considered seriously.

“It’s a terrible idea,” Pybus said of the plan to do away with the six franchises at the top table of domestic cricket. “They are trying to fix the wrong thing. The issue is the administration of the game and not franchise cricket. Why are Cricket South Africa in their current financial position? They should review that. Why pull apart a highly effective system, the same sort of model that has given Australia consistent success?

“The issue is not our model but getting our administration right. Our problems are not about the franchise game, that’s giving us what is needed, which is incredible competition, the best 66 players in the country going up against each other. The franchise system was directly responsible and supported our national team getting to number one. We want strength versus excellence, not to dilute that,” Pybus told The Citizen from his house in Hermanus.

The 55-year-old Pybus said the domestic system needed to reflect the differences between the high-performance needs of the Proteas pipeline and those of growing the game.

“Our cricket has lots of layers and it needs to be clearer whether those layers serve the recreational game or the Proteas, with a lot of layers not really serving either of them. A lot of our cricket should not be professional and any changes should be about strengthening that level. We have a brilliant, multi-cultural game and it also needs to be inclusive.

“The development programme does have some issues, there are not enough players coming from Black communities, but that has nothing to do with franchise cricket. There are geographical and historical reasons for those issues. Coaching is also a real problem and it will take a generation to transform that because we have pushed all our senior coaches out, that intellectual capital is gone,” Pybus said.