Rob Houwing

There is, I feel, a strong case for saying that the Springboks’ Test against France at Newlands on June 12 is as crucial as any they will play in 2010.

Yes, there is the customary Vodacom Tri-Nations (oops, did I hear someone suppress a yawn?) not to mention a Grand Slam crack at year’s end if the Boks can summon the gas for it by then, but there are several reasons why the visit of the Tricolors will command deep gravitas and spice.

For one thing, I’d be very surprised if they don’t arrive as Six Nations champions, considering that they are unbeaten after three rounds with just Italy and England to play – and both in Paris.

They have already shown their renewed mettle by thrashing last season’s champions, the Grand Slam-securing Ireland, 33-10.

So although the French will probably always contain an enigmatic tendency, they do appear to be a team dangerously back on the “up” with a World Cup not too far on the horizon.

And they have been a notably hoodoo outfit to John Smit and company, boasting victories from all of the last three meetings between them: that includes two end-of-year occasions (26-20 in Paris in 2005 and 20-13 in Toulouse a few months ago) but also the last match-up on South African soil.

Similarly played in Cape Town, in June 2006, the French humbled the Boks 36-26 and by four tries to one, after overturning a 23-11 deficit at one stage.

It was the 2009 Toulouse reverse that saw South Africa knocked off their position at the top of the IRB rankings, with the All Blacks returning to No 1 and still being stationed there for the moment.

Of course the Boks will be as keen as ever to retain supremacy over their great southern hemisphere rivals in the Tri-Nations, but many would consider it slightly more welcome, I suspect, if they finally put the French in their place – that would be a first-time presence on the CV of quite a few South African players, after all.

Yet the lead-up environment to the attractive date at Newlands (a day after the soccer World Cup starts) looks far from ideal, to my mind.

SA Rugby has controversially agreed to an “extra” Test against Wales at the Millennium Stadium the previous Saturday – one that has been castigated on many fronts for the additional workload it gives the already over-burdened Boks this year.

Now in certain respects that Wales clash might be viewed as a blessing of sorts, given that – with due respect to the Welsh, for whom an upset victory is hardly out of the question – it could serve as a Bok cobwebs-remover before France come to our neck of the woods.

Except that national coach Peter de Villiers has already served notice that several overseas-based Boks will run out in Cardiff, with a view (and no quibbling on that front) to “broadening the selection base” for the 2011 World Cup.

What it may well mean, then, is that the more genuinely “first-choice” Bok side will play as a unit for the first time in 2010 a week later … against a bristling French side.

It is not ideal, especially when you consider those recent French successes against the Springboks and the spirited wish to lay the bogey to rest.

And what if a Bok XV laden with overseas players handsomely sees off Wales? It could leave De Villiers and company in a bit of a selection quandary for the Newlands outing just a few days on.

Another unfortunate thing is that the Boks play two further home Tests against ho-hum Italy after they’ve tackled France – the other way around might have been considerably more helpful to the cause.

Still, the Boks did hit their straps pretty well in their first Test match of the last calendar year – the first Test against the British and Irish Lions in Durban, when they triumphed 26-21 although they went notably “to sleep” for much of the second half and so nearly blew it.

I reckon they will need to hit the ground running all over again for the French task.

Under the tutelage of Marc Lievremont, France are taking shape nicely with a maiden assault on the Webb Ellis Cup hungrily in their sights.

They have an earthy, no-nonsense pack with a strong scrummaging ethic, and one of the most dynamic young halfback pairings on the planet in 21-year-old scrumhalf Morgan Parra (though he seems a little too much like a law unto himself and combustible entity at times!) and the multi-skilled Francois Trinh-Duc, 23, at No 10.

I can hardly wait for June 12, and I do hope the Boks will be suitably primed …

Rob is Sport24's chief writer

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