Ken Borland

Free State Cheetahs coach Hawies Fourie believes both Francois Steyn and Rosko Specman should be in the Springbok squad to play against the British and Irish Lions, and Saturday’s match against the Toyota Invitation XV will pretty much be their only chance to show the wider public why.

Both the powerhouse Steyn and the hot-stepping Specman will feature in the Cheetahs starting backline on Saturday in a match that, from a team perspective, provides important preparation time for the Currie Cup. But all eyes will be on the players wearing the No.12 and No.11 jerseys.

“I’m pretty sure Frans will be playing for the Springboks this year so this might be his last game for us until November/December. But Rosko deserves to be in the Springbok alignment camps as well and I’m pretty sure he’ll make the final squad. He’s made the choice to concentrate on XVs because the Lions tour is so special, only happening every 12 years.

“Rosko is one of our hardest workers, he’s always doing extras and is on top of his game. I can see his confidence in training and he’s doing everything at 100% pace. This game is an opportunity for Frans and him to get match-sharp because there’s going to be a lot of competition for places in that Springbok squad. Other players have had four weeks to impress, so this chance is very important for those two,” Fourie said on Thursday.

Oom Frans and Uncle Rosko are not the only Springboks in the Free State team Fourie announced on Thursday, with Oupa Mohoje eager to remind everyone of why he has won 19 Test caps for South Africa as well, and veteran scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar leading the Cheetahs into battle on Saturday.

“We all know Ruan is also definitely still good enough to play at Springbok level and I wouldn’t be surprised if they press his button if they get injuries,” Fourie said.

Free State Cheetahs team: Clayton Blommetjies, Craig Barry, Dries Swanepoel, Frans Steyn, Rosko Specman, Brandon Thomson, Ruan Pienaar, Jeandre Rudolph, Oupa Mohoje, Andisa Ntsila, Rynier Bernardo, Victor Sekekete, Aranos Coetzee, Wilmar Arnoldi, Cameron Dawson. Bench – Louis van der Westhuizen, Schalk Ferreira, Conraad van Vuuren, Jacques Potgieter, Aidon Davis, Tian Meyer, Howard Mnisi, Duncan Saal, Chris Massyn, Alulutho Tsakweni.

Covid-19 vaccines are not yet freely available to most South Africans, but the Springbok rugby squad is going to get early vaccinations before they embark on their hectic schedule of international games both at home and overseas.

The Springboks, as well as those named in South Africa’s Olympic Games squad, will be getting the last thousand doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine used in the Sisonke project to inoculate health workers. If these vaccines are not used in the next week or so, they will go to waste.

The South African Medical Research Council (MRC) are behind the Springboks being vaccinated, saying it will enable them to travel much more easily by the middle of June and do their jobs, fulfilling their ambassadorial roles for South Africa. Waiting for the Pfizer vaccinations would not be practical because that requires two doses 42 days apart and then another 14-day wait before recipients are cleared for travel.

SA Rugby, whose financial survival depends on the Springboks getting back on to the field and playing this year, have said they will not comment on the matter, but sources close to the Springbok team have confirmed they are going to be vaccinated soon.

The Springboks host Georgia for two warm-up Tests on July 3 and July 10 before heading into their high-stakes series against the British and Irish Lions. After that the Rugby Championship starts in August with two Tests against Argentina in South Africa, before the Springboks are on their way to Australasia, where travel restrictions are very strict, to play the remainder of the tournament.

The move will be seen as controversial in some quarters because there has already been lots of criticism of ‘queue jumpers’ getting the vaccine before the over-60s who are meant to be protected first.

But the Olympic Games are scheduled start in less than two months on July 23, so those participants don’t have time to wait.

MRC head Professor Glenda Gray has said elite sportspeople will be part of the many clinical trials that will be ongoing while the vaccines are being rolled out nationwide. With case numbers rising, the country is widely predicted to go into a third wave of infections as it heads into winter.

South Africa is behind most developed nations in terms of vaccine roll-out and the Springboks, who have not played since winning the World Cup in November 2019, are in danger of falling behind the rest of the rugby-playing world.

South Africa is famous for its loose forwards and it is a measure of our tremendous depth in that department that Roelof Smit, who toured with the Springboks in 2016, can only get a game of top-flight rugby when he turns out for the Toyota Invitation XV to play the Free State Cheetahs in Bloemfontein on Saturday.

A 25-man squad for the Invitation XV was announced on Wednesday and includes a fully-fledged Springbok in wing Jamba Ulengo, who played a Test against Wales in 2016.

Smit was chosen for the 2016 end-of-year tour as an openside flank, having burst on to the scene that year as one of the Bulls’ young stars. His only appearance on that tour was against the Barbarians, and although he scored a try he did not play in one of the Tests against England, Italy or Wales and so is not considered an official Springbok.

And since then he has suffered numerous injuries. Even a move to the Lions has not helped and he has fallen down the pecking order there as well after being knocked down by another spate of injuries. Last year he only returned to action in October, but suffered a calf injury in the new year and then yet another knee injury at the end of February.

Ulengo made a fine start to Super Rugby Unlocked action last October but has since rather faded from view at the Lions. But he has picked himself up numerous times in his career and Saturday gives him an opportunity to get himself back into the limelight.

Also amongst the backs named in the Invitation XV is Innocent Radebe, one of the most exciting schoolboy flyhalves in the country whose senior career has also been dogged by much bad luck. He was named by Peter de Villiers as his Eastern Province captain, only to fracture his hand three minutes into his first game in the kick-off series at the start of this season.

Toyota Invitation XV squad

Forwards: Dan Jooste (Sharks), Jean Droste (Cheetahs), Jeandre Labuschagne (Sharks), Johan du Toit (WP), Khwezi Mona (Sharks), Kwenzo Bloze (WP), Marnus van der Merwe (Cheetahs), Michael Kumbirai (Sharks), Mihlali Mosi (NMMU), Reinier Viljoen (Cheetahs U20), Roelof Smit (Lions), Ruhan Straeuli (Lions), Sazi Sandi (WP), WJ Steenkamp (Bulls).

Backs:  Corne Smit (WP), Dillon Smit (Lions), Innocent Radebe (EP), Jamba Ulengo (Lions), Jason Alexander (WP), JP Duvenhage (Shimlas), Keegan Johannes (Bulls), Leolin Zas (WP), Richard Kriel (Bulls), Shane Bolton (Shimlas), Tristin Leyds (WP).

When Sharks coach Sean Everitt loans out most of his starting line-up to the Springboks this week, it will give him the chance to work with the players who are likely to play for the bulk of the rest of the year and fix the problems that were evident in their weekend loss to the Stormers.

This is a bye week for the South African teams in the Rainbow Cup and the Springboks will be holding an alignment camp. Then the stars will return for the last two weeks of the competition and what has now become a three-horse race for a place in the June 19 final against the European winners, following the Sharks’ weekend loss to the Stormers and the Lions upstaging the log-leading Bulls.

“Playing local derbies four weeks in a row has been really tough and it takes a toll physically. The guys deserve some rest and we’ll now have a week to work hard on the larger squad, get them ready for the Currie Cup. It’s a good opportunity for me to work closely with them, make sure they are ready to rock ‘n roll.

“Losing two in a row won’t give me sleepless nights, but I’ll be pondering how to fix the problems. And I’m not worried because the problems are fixable; if there was a lack of effort, enthusiasm or energy then we would be in trouble, but you can’t question the effort of the team, they worked hard and gave everything against a very powerful Stormers pack,” Everitt said after their 22-25 defeat at Kings Park.

The Sharks intimated that they would rather have taken on the Stormers with the sun out, instead of the overcast, wet weather which forced them into an arm-wrestle against one of the better packs in the competition.

“The Stormers always try to slow us down, we scored tries from quick lineouts and quick taps in Cape Town, that’s a part of our game and we got reward for that in our last match against them. We want to play a fast tempo of rugby but it was difficult in these conditions, especially late in the second half, when it rained quite hard. We had dominance for the first 30 minutes and for patches in the second half.

“But the lineout is a massive source of possession and a big contributor to the number of tries you score. We did really well in the first half, but we were under the pump in the second half, the Stormers have three really good jumpers, some really tall timber. So there’s a lot of hard work ahead on that, that’s the main area that let us down, while we also had lapses in defence,” Everitt said.