Ex Sport 24
Cape Town – There’s a welcome bit of catch-up in rest and recuperation going on ... to the benefit of the Springboks’ prospects in what could be a particularly tight, enthralling 2014 Castle Rugby Championship.
On Saturday, no small tally of pivotal Wallabies and All Blacks will go at each other hammer and tongs in the Super Rugby final between the Waratahs and Crusaders in Sydney (11:40 SA time).
The cream of South Africa’s players will have their feet up for a change – no doubt revelling in every big hit from the comfort of their TV rooms -- and that’s no bad thing on a day that will also mark a fortnight to the start of the Championship.
It is a situation that is unfortunate on the one hand in indicating this country’s shortcomings in the premier southern hemisphere franchise competition this year ... but the unceremonious exit at the semi-final stage of last SA survivors the Sharks certainly aids Bok coach Heyneke Meyer’s preparations. (AS NOTED BY BEENO)
Several players – particularly some staple forwards -- from the Durban-based outfit have been victims of absurd over-use in the first half of the year, so players like Bismarck and Jannie du Plessis and Willem Alberts getting three rare off weeks on the trot is manna from heaven in national terms.
Given the under-performance of domestic Super Rugby teams like the Stormers (DUE ONLY TO ABYSMAL INJURIES), Bulls (DUE ONLY TO TWO YEARS OF UNPRECEDENTED DEAPARTURES) and Cheetahs this season, Test players from those sides have had an even longer hiatus from the weekly grind: by the time the Championship opener comes around against Argentina at Loftus on August 16 they will have had five weeks of refreshment, considering the trio’s complete absence from the finals series phase.
Again, this has brought unintended blessings -- generally speaking, the Bok cause is more hampered than that of either Australasian superpower by this stage of the rugby year on the southern side of the Equator.
Although this is self-orchestrated, the peculiarly bone-jarring nature of SA derbies in Super Rugby does more harm than good to Springbok squad health, the travel factor is always more detrimental and fatiguing to SA sides, and the lack of meaningful, central contracting of blue-chip Boks means that things like rejuvenating sabbaticals – a feature of the New Zealand landscape – simply don’t exist. (PLEASE NOTE OAKS TRY AND GET A GRASP OF THE SITUATION)
Further helping Bok players to gradually overcome both mental and physical tiredness is the fact that traditionally the Rugby Championship is rather more humanely structured than the ill-branded June “Test window” which is simply sandwiched crudely between Super Rugby rounds without so much as a week’s breathing space at either end.
The Championship most often starts a fortnight, by contrast, after the Super Rugby final – from which plenty of international stars will obviously be absentees anyway – and then includes the relative luxury of two bye weekends for all four contestants in mid-tournament.
This year’s itinerary also works quite favourably from a Bok point of view, because likely weakest link Argentina at home is an occasion where the Boks should be able to recapture their rhythm gradually even if it is slightly ropey at the outset.(GOOD NEWS FOR US)
Bear in mind that in 2013, South Africa slaughtered the Pumas 73-13 in Johannesburg, and there are no special reasons to assume the Argentineans will be markedly stronger this year (they should be no pushovers, as usual, in their own habitat a week later).
Just 20 early minutes of poor fluidity or a catalogue of errors could be fatal against say, the defending champions from New Zealand if they were first up for the Boks, but against these opponents the risk is probably less acute.
Still, Meyer faces a strange balancing act, because as much as the key priority will undoubtedly be ensuring that his frontline players who have had too much game-time in recent months are suitably reinvigorated, he will be mindful of the possibility of some actually having gathered some rust through inactivity.
The coach also faces a dilemma over how to manage the handful of players at his disposal who will definitely be shy of game-time at the outset of the Championship, after long-term or reasonably long-term injury.(AS NOTED BY BEENO)
In that category will be such personalities as his first-choice captain Jean de Villiers, Eben Etzebeth(no rugby at all thus far in 2014) and young back-up tighthead prop Frans Malherbe who has at last reportedly overcome a concussion.
Naturally, Western Province head coach Allister Coetzee has eagerly suggested some of these players earn a bit of comeback time in his Currie Cup ranks before being filtered back into the hurly-burly of the Championship.(WISE MOVE BUT WOULD PREFER A CLUB GAME FIRST)
Whether that comes to fruition remains to be seen, but whatever happens, the likes of De Villiers and Etzebeth, among Meyer’s most trusted personnel since his installation to the Bok role, could well be named in his extended squad on Saturday (around 14:00) anyway ..
NICE ONCE MORE TO SEE A GUY WITH SOME INSIGHT INTO MATTERS. IT GETS TIRESOME HEARING OAKS GO ON ABOUT THE POOR SHARKS PERFORMANCE AND THEN GET THEIR ANALYSIS AS TO WHY THIS HAPPENED HOPELESSLY WRONG.
POOR LAMBIE HAS BEEN LAMPOONED WHEN HE HAS BEEN OUT FOR SO LONG AND HAD BARELY 20 MINUTES GAME TIE COMING INOT THE FINALS. HE ACTUALLY DIDNT PLAY TOO BADLY IN ANY EVENT. a VERY FLAT SHARKS FORWARD PACK OPENED THE DOORS FOR THE CRUSTIES WHO O THE PREVIOUS GME COULD NOT GET THE BETTER OF THE 7 MAN SHARKS PACK OVER A PERIOD OF CLOSE TO 80 MINUTES. HAHAHAHAHA HAHA
