You can bet your house on the All Blacks clinching the Castle Lager Rugby Championship by beating Argentina in Le Plata in the early hours of Sunday morning South African time (Lets hope the Argies whip the abs real good), but that shouldn’t detract from the importance and relevance of the two matches the Springboks still have to play in this year’s competition.
As Bok coach Heyneke Meyer said during the build-up week to Saturday’s clash with Australia at Newlands, it is small things that can make a difference between a great year and an average one. With just a bit of luck (AND NO BENT REF), his team could have returned from Australasia with three wins on the road, which would translate to the best ever Bok performance away from home in the history of Sanzar competitions.
But a miss is as good as a mile, and instead of coming back with a clean slate, the Boks have two defeats to reflect on – which is one more than they had to worry about this time last year. Where Meyer has it right though is that winning the remaining six games scheduled for 2014 – the two Championship clashes and then four on the November tour – will turn it into a great year for the Boks.
It will also of course enable his men to build up impressive momentum ahead of next year’s World Cup, which will be underway this time 12 months from now and which is becoming an increasing focus for the international teams around the globe.
Most teams have had injury problems recently, but the Boks and Wallabies have been particularly hard hit – something which may prove to have a silver lining if it unearths depth, and with it the comfort that will come with the coach knowing that he has players to fall back on if the stars are injured.
In South Africa’s case, the areas that have been most hit, and which will come into most focus on Saturday, are scrumhalf and loose-forward, with both having an impact on how they may intend to approach the Wallaby game – as well as the Bok chances doing the imperative, which is to get back on the winner’s podium.The loss of Fourie du Preez and Ruan Pienaa r, the two top halfbacks, is huge from a Bok viewpoint as the two players who replace them in the starting team and on the bench respectively, Francois Hougaard and Cobus Reinach, are nowhere near being in the same class as tactical kickers. In fact, although both have been working on that aspect of their game, they are so poor when it comes to putting boot to ball that you imagine Meyer may have instructed them not to. (HOUGAARD WAS KICKING OUR BALL AWAY WITH GAY ABANDON AND TOTALLY INEFFECTIVELY AGAINST THE ABS - LOOKED LIKE HE WAS PLAYING UNDER INSTRUCTION?)
So perhaps the talk of the Boks embracing a more ball in hand approach against the Wallabies is not just Meyer wanting to please an audience that has brought into the “running game” – whatever that may mean – but an acknowledgement that without Du Preez and Pienaar, the South Africans may have to cut their suit differently.
Without a kicking scrumhalf, and noting that fullback Willie le Roux is really still a work in progress as a tactical kicker, the Boks are only left with Handre Pollard as a notable field kicker.
The bottom line is that Hougaard in particular is under pressure, for even if he is not going to be employed to kick that much, he needs to show in his first start since 2012 that he can bring the snappiness and speed of service that is required if the Boks are to play the Wallabies at their game. (LAST CHANCE SALOON FOR THE TALENTED BUT POORLY PERFORMING HOUGAARD - PLEASE NOTE SNAPSTER - BEENO AS USUAL ON THE RIGHT TRACK)
When Du Preez left the field injured during the last test of the June window against Scotland, there was a notable loss in the Bok momentum after Hougaard first came on. Hougaard cannot afford a repeat of that, and neither can the Boks, for the Wallabies are in a different league to Scotland and are in fact a much more dangerous side than many South Africans give them credit for being.
The other big focus from a Bok viewpoint will obviously be the back row, where the South Africans have reverted to the mix that Meyer preferred before Willem Alberts was injured – namely a fetching openside flank, a ball carrying blindside and a No 8 who can do everything, include play to the ball.
He acknowledges though that it is a move away from what worked in the games in Australasia, where by employing two players with strong breakdown skills on the flanks, the Boks did succeed in slowing down opposition ball, and managed an impressive nine breakdown steals against New Zealand.(LOUW NEVER GOT THE CREDIT HE DESERVED BY THE UNOBSERVANT - LIKE SNAPSTER !!! HE WANTS WEE KOLISI IN THE FRAME - BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA)
More than that, if you look at the physical stats, the perception that Oupa Mohoje, the newcomer to the starting team, is a big ball carrying flanker may be wide of the mark. When he was interviewed by the media the other day we were presented with a man who was more lithe athlete than imposing hulk in the Alberts mould, and when the two players stand on the scales, it moves that perception away from the realm of subjectivity and into the realm of fact – Mohoje weighs just 107 kilograms to Alberts’ 118.(NO WORRY ABOUT THAT IF WE HAD TWO LOCKS PLAYING BUT BECAUSE MEYER IS BLUNDERING BY PLAYING WEE MATFILED 106 KG IT MAY BECOME PROBLEMATIC. YOU CAN'T PLAY A TIGHT 4 AT THE BEST OF TIMES. WE HAVE HAD TO BULK UP OUR LOOSE TRIO TO COMPENSATE FOR THE DISASTER THAT IS WEE VICTOR)
That is a massive difference, and may also prove a massive difference to the way the Boks can play. Mohoje’s biggest attribute may be the pace that enables him to show up in the wide channels, which makes him very different to Alberts.(WE NEED THAT PACE BUT WE ALSO NEED A TIGHT 5 NOT A TIGHT 4. MATFILED HAS MESSED UP THE BOKS FOR A DECADE -WHEN WILL IT END!!!)
So there should be more interest than there usually is in what type of game the Boks might employ against the Wallabies, and that could also just make the result a trifle less predictable than it usually is when these teams clash on South African soil. My money says there won’t be much in it and that the Bok chances will hinge on the performance of the starting scrumhalf.
HOUGIE TAKE SIR BEENO ADVICE. PLAY YOUR NATURAL GAME AND FORGET MEYER'S PLAN TO MAKE YOU INTO A FOURIE DU PREEZ.
SOME NICE MOBILTY IN THIS SIDE AND HOPEFULLY ENOUGH GRUNT. LETS GIVE THESE WOBBLY DENIALISTS A GOOD HIDING!!
