Ken Borland

It may be mischievous to say there are a handful of White quota players in the Springbok World Cup squad, but there certainly are players who can count themselves most fortunate that Heyneke Meyer obviously has such a high opinion of them.

There are the walking wounded of Jean de Villiers, Fourie du Preez, Duane Vermeulen and Coenie Oosthuizen, and overseas-based players like Schalk Brits and Morne Steyn who have been chosen ahead of younger talent that has excelled in Super Rugby.

I fully back the selection of De Villiers – he has performed for the last four years both in terms of his own play and the captaincy, and his tenacious return from a serious knee injury and then a fractured jaw should be applauded. Having worked so hard to be fit for the World Cup, De Villiers will undoubtedly bring immense hunger to the tournament. Jesse Kriel and Damian de Allende are the in-form centres but are both inexperienced in high-pressure situations, so there’s no question De Villiers is there on merit.

Meyer is undoubtedly gambling on Du Preez and Vermeulen, who have not played a Test this year, but if they do come off they are the sort of players who can win you the World Cup, so I support their inclusion as well, even though there are major question marks surrounding them.

But there must be something else going on that the rugby media are not aware of when it comes to the selection of Oosthuizen. For all the talent he undoubtedly possesses, he has done little in a Springbok jersey and hasn’t played a Test since last November. He only completed half the SuperRugby season and at the end of June he had his third neck operation in four years.

Meyer hopefully knows something we don’t when it comes to Coenie, otherwise his selection is utterly insane. What’s more, it sends an incredibly negative message to Vincent Koch, Marcel van der Merwe and Steven Kitshoff, three up-and-coming props.

And the argument that Oosthuizen is in the squad because he can play on both sides of the scrum doesn’t hold water when you consider the problems he has had at tighthead and the fact that Trevor Nyakane is more than capable of switching between loosehead and tighthead as well.

The World Cup squad selection just highlighted more inconsistency from Meyer as he is willing to gamble on the 50/50 (at best) fitness of players like Oosthuizen, but not on Marcell Coetzee, the outstanding Springbok loose forward in the Rugby Championship this year.

The recall of players like Zane Kirchner and Morne Steyn also disappoints me because it signals the intention of Meyer to return to the same brand of rugby the Springboks played in 2012/13. The backline does need some attacking spark, which is why Jesse Kriel and Willie le Roux would be in my first-choice starting XV. I did not agree with the rave reviews Kirchner received after the Buenos Aires game – he was solid but he really offers nothing extra in attack.

Kriel, Pat Lambie, Lwazi Mvovo and JP Pietersen can all play fullback should something happen to Le Roux. Incidentally, I would also have chosen Lionel Mapoe ahead of Pietersen to bolster the midfield stocks, with the 29-year-old veteran battling to regain the form of old that made him an integral part of the 2007 and 2011 World Cup teams.

The selection of Kirchner has wasted the extra place Meyer was gifted by only choosing five props, instead of the six he thought he had to at the start of the international season. The demands of World Cup rugby surely compel one to choose more forwards and the coach could have had both Siya Kolisi and Coetzee in his squad, but instead the backs received an extra player who I really don’t believe is going to provide the brilliance that wins you the World Cup.

The selection of Steyn and Brits is another slap in the face of transformation because it ignores the outstanding Super Rugby form of Elton Jantjies and Scarra Ntubeni.

My World Cup squad – Willie le Roux, Lwazi Mvovo, Jesse Kriel, Damian de Allende, Jean de Villiers, Lionel Mapoe, Bryan Habana, Pat Lambie, Handre Pollard, Elton Jantjies, Fourie du Preez, Ruan Pienaar, Francois Hougaard, Duane Vermeulen, Marcell Coetzee, Willem Alberts, Schalk Burger, Francois Louw, Siya Kolisi, Victor Matfield, Lood de Jager, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Eben Etzebeth, Jannie du Plessis, Frans Malherbe, Marcel van der Merwe, Bismarck du Plessis, Adriaan Strauss, Scarra Ntubeni, Trevor Nyakane, Tendai Mtawarira.

Stalwart Springbok prop Jannie du Plessis described the criticism he has had to face this year as character-building for him but extremely hurtful for his loved ones despite earning his place in the squad for a third World Cup appearance.

Du Plessis struggled for form during the Super Rugby competition as part of a dismal Sharks’ campaign, but as soon as the international season began, the 32-year-old confirmed that he is indisputably South Africa’s number one tighthead prop with a couple of powerful displays. He shrugged off suggestions that he was merely peaking at the right time.

“I think it’s by grace that I’m playing well now, I didn’t try any less hard at the start of the season. I want to see any player that doesn’t try his best whenever he runs out on to the field. I thought that the Sharks would actually win Super Rugby, we were experienced enough and we worked incredibly hard. Things just didn’t happen for us, so many games we could’ve won but it’s an unforgiving competition and just one missed tackle can mean you lose by two points. And then you play another top team and before you know it you’ve lost three in a row …

“So it was a disappointing Super Rugby season even though I put my heart and soul into it. You try not to listen when people call you too old or terrible. The humiliation makes you tough but it’s very hard for the people you care about; people say such bad things. So you do sit and reflect and think maybe it’s time to call it quits …

“But at the start of the Test season, the coach [Heyneke Meyer] told us a story about how things have different value for different people – a ring might just be stainless steel, but if it was your father’s wedding ring then it will have immense value for you. My effort has been no different and I’m happy with the faith the coach has shown in me and I believe we will win the World Cup,” Du Plessis said.

The veteran of 64 Tests said the thought of proving the critics wrong was also part of the motivation he felt before the tournament, where he and Bismarck will become the first pair of brothers to appear in three World Cups.

“You always feel under pressure because people have expectations and as a rugby player you always want to make people feel better. Everyone reacts in a similar way to criticism and that is to prove it wrong. But you learn how to discern between good criticism and bad criticism the older you get. Some people just don’t like the way you look, the way you talk or even just your hairstyle, so they’re going to criticise regardless,” Du Plessis said.

“The coach told me from the beginning that I was in his plans and I knew where I stood, so it wasn’t a total surprise,” debutant scrumhalf Rudy Paige said of his inclusion in the Springboks’ World Cup squad despite not featuring at all in the Rugby Championship.

Paige was chosen as one of three scrumhalves along with veterans Fourie du Preez and Ruan Pienaar, and seemingly leapfrogged Cobus Reinach, who was Pienaar’s understudy throughout the Rugby Championship.

But in a dismal tournament for the Springboks, Reinach’s decision-making was often exposed, most notably against the All Blacks when he took a free kick from the wrong place and had his try disallowed, lost possession by going on a solo attack, and also spread the ball wide when the gap had opened up for him to go through.

“The Bulls had an indifferent season, but I felt my energy and consistency were still good and I wanted to take that to the Springbok squad. Obviously I had to lift it at the Springboks and I was very happy just to observe Fourie du Preez at training, how he goes about things. He’s probably still the best scrumhalf in the world and I was learning every day,” Paige said.

The 26-year-old enjoyed an outstanding Super Rugby campaign and is an efficient, quick passer of the ball as well as having an immaculate kicking game.

“Cobus Reinach was injured for a lot of Super Rugby and I tried to give him game time but he never quite recaptured his form. Rudy provides really good service and he’s more or less like Fourie du Preez as a player. He has an unbelievable kicking game in the wet and great service, and unfortunately he got injured on the end-of-year tour,” coach Heyneke Meyer said when explaining his selection.

As for allowing a situation where Paige will go to the World Cup without having played any Test rugby, Meyer defended his management of the new cap.

“I wanted to play him in Buenos Aires, but the guys who let the country down in Durban had to go and fix it. Even the Australian squad has guys who haven’t played at all and I don’t think playing one Test will make that much difference,” Meyer said.

“That end-of-year tour opened my eyes to what I’m capable of and it made me hungry to be part of the Springbok team, I saw what the blazer means to them. I want to be part of that for most of my career and I need to improve my defence and adapt to international rugby as quickly as possible. My quick service and my kicking game are the things I back myself on,” Paige, the son of a delighted Congregational Church priest in Oudtshoorn, said.

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.