Publications
Partners
The Baby Boks encounter arch-rivals New Zealand in the playoff game for third place in Vannes on Sunday, the first time these foes lock horns since the memorable 2012 Newlands final, and both sides ought to be up for the scrap despite the mutual disappointment of the game being a curtain-raiser to the all-northern hemisphere showpiece featuring England and Wales.
South Africa were agonisingly pipped 18-17 at the death in their semi-final against the Welsh on Tuesday after a tense, intriguing match which really could have gone either way.
Some glass-half-full characters were suggesting immediately afterwards that the outcome spared the Baby Boks “a drubbing from New Zealand in the final”.
But instead England went on to deservedly upset the Baby Blacks by 12 points in the later semi, setting up a consolation fixture between the two southern powerhouse nations.
What that result confirmed was that, whatever their shortcomings this year, Dawie Theron’s charges have been no mugs at the 2013 get-together – keep in mind that they beat the very same England outfit 31-24 in a character-filled display during pool combat on June 9.
So the young South Africans can return with heads held particularly high if they manage to see off the New Zealanders on Sunday for third place.
There is no point in whingeing, and to their credit the Baby Boks didn’t, but they might well have been contesting a second successive final instead, had the place-kicking of otherwise competent utility inside back Handre Pollard – a bit of a problem throughout the tournament – been more consistent, and also if there had been a referral “upstairs” for the controversial first Welsh try.
Still, the game did seem to bear out this writer’s suspicion, from much earlier in the 2013 version, that the SA forwards lack the set-piece power and precision of their title-winning predecessors a year earlier.
Failure to bank reliable, front-foot possession from the primary phases also meant that the Baby Boks were not able to involve their speedy, slick-stepping and always crowd-pleasing back three as often as they would have wished.
A comfort for someone like Cheslin Kolbe, probably the individual SA player at the event to most grab global admiration over the last fortnight or so, is that while he can longer have a winners’ medal placed around his neck, there is still the chance to put one over the Baby Blacks ... and then move on to his exciting participation in the Sevens World Cup in Moscow later this month (June28-30).
The Kraaifontein-born fullback, 19, shows unmistakable traces of a “Christian Cullen” in his pure dynamism and elusiveness as a counter-attacker, while in spite of his relatively lean – though fast-growing now – physique, he lacks nothing in bravery or ability to mix it physically when necessary.
There is a nice coincidence in the fact that he will grace a Sevens World Cup (this tournament comes around every four years) at roughly the same period in life when later-to-be All Black legend Cullen played a particularly iconic one in Hong Kong, aged 20, in 1997.
It was a fabulous tournament, in the year the territory was handed over from British to Chinese rule, eventually won by Fiji as they saw off South Africa 24-21 in a classic final – although Cullen’s was routinely the name on everyone’s lips as an “oohs and aahs” factor up to New Zealand’s semis elimination by the Boks.
The Fijians were led by the incomparable Waisale Serevi, and the SA team contained such names as Joost van der Westhuizen, who already boasted a full World Cup winning medal, Bob Skinstad, Breyton Paulse, Andre Venter and Pieter Rossouw.
So in many ways that tournament was a launch-pad for glittering top-flight fifteens careers of several South Africans.
It is not at all out of the question that the electric Kolbe will use the Russian jamboree as a similar platform.
Kolbe sat on the Stormers bench once, against the Sharks at Newlands earlier this season, when the franchise were bedevilled by injuries, although he did not get on the park.
Much more certain, I believe, is that he will play some maiden Currie Cup rugby this year and then feature much more prominently in Stormers 2014 plans after turning 20 in October ...
*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing
