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Rob Houwing
I have been both a little concerned and also unperturbed - in strange, alternating doses - by the pre-World Cup calibre of Springbok scrumhalf general Fourie du Preez’s game.
GALLERY: 30-man Springbok Rugby World Cup squad
The two Castle Tri-Nations games he’s just played, against Australia in Durban and New Zealand in Port Elizabeth, have produced mixed bags on each occasion by the widely-acknowledged, world-class star.
In short, he’s blown hot and cold, showing some of the signs of his majesty at the victorious 2007 World Cup for his country, but also wee hints that he may just have peaked then, aged 25.
You don’t take away a No 9’s uncanny game-reading ability and naturally strong, decisive pass with the passage of time, of course, but a certain tail-off in general mobility and explosiveness may just have filtered into his play as he prepares to compete as a 29-year-old in New Zealand this year.
Perhaps other critics share my minor worry over a couple of his clearance kicks being charged down against the Wallabies, and sometimes less than well-directed tactical hoofs against the All Blacks a week later.
Or is this canny customer merely holding something back for the biggest stage of all? Is it attractive, if you like, to buy “shares” in Du Preez right now, while they are not exactly at a known personal pinnacle?
Everyone who wishes South Africa good fortune at RWC 2011 will be simultaneously hoping the unassuming, soon Japan-bound Bulls favourite is right back on his A-game as the tournament begins to takes shape.
For if this relative veteran, so often the bright spark who keeps the entire Bok team mentally and positionally on the front foot, shrugs off one or two cobwebs in the next two or three weeks, then the defending champions’ cause will be so heavily aided.
I just suspect that if Du Preez, of the much-discussed class of 2007, shines again this time, many of the other perceived old-stagers will be buoyed into perky mood too for the quest to become first-time retainers of the Webb Ellis Cup.
While on that particular topic: out of curiosity this week I printed out the entire Bok squad which brought home the laurels four years ago, to contemplate it at some length against the 2011 brand.
Certain parallels are very quickly obvious, of course, given that SARU themselves were quick to confidently trumpet, upon announcement of the 30-strong squad for New Zealand, the fact that there are as many as 18 survivors from 2007.
And it is difficult to emphatically state which group deserves to be held in higher collective esteem on paper, leading into the respective tournaments.
Jake White’s 2007 crew, after all, was also not shy of profoundly senior statesmen: Os du Randt proved at the ripe old age of 35 that you can even successfully muster the enthusiasm for a second World Cup winner’s medal 12 years after your first.
And Percy Montgomery, roughly as dependable a points-machine off the tee in 2007 as Morne Steyn probably will be at RWC 2011, became a 33-year-old world champion then.
Another small point of statistical interest - and call it a good omen, why don’t you? - is that each of the 2007 and 2011 Bok squads feature one 20-year-old (Frans Steyn then, Pat Lambie now) at the outset of the jamboree.
The current squad almost certainly contains more players who could be considered on likelier downward slopes in their first-class careers at this particular point, but 2007 wasn’t exactly short of them, either: names like Du Randt, Montgomery, Albert van den Berg, Bob Skinstad, Wayne Julies, Andre Pretorius and (albeit primarily for injury reasons) Ashwin Willemse come fairly obviously to mind.
But as I said, if one Petrus Fourie du Preez is able to near-emulate his dizzy standards of four years ago, it may go a long way to all of us more conclusively deciding, some time in October, which of the two Bok RWC squads may actually be branded the “stronger” in retrospect.
Yes, the 2007 crowd were winners, which ... well, helps, doesn’t it?
But just imagine the “wow factor” involved if the 2011 party defy current odds and bring home the proverbial bacon once more from the most daunting rugby terrain of all ...
I have been both a little concerned and also unperturbed - in strange, alternating doses - by the pre-World Cup calibre of Springbok scrumhalf general Fourie du Preez’s game.
GALLERY: 30-man Springbok Rugby World Cup squad
The two Castle Tri-Nations games he’s just played, against Australia in Durban and New Zealand in Port Elizabeth, have produced mixed bags on each occasion by the widely-acknowledged, world-class star.
In short, he’s blown hot and cold, showing some of the signs of his majesty at the victorious 2007 World Cup for his country, but also wee hints that he may just have peaked then, aged 25.
You don’t take away a No 9’s uncanny game-reading ability and naturally strong, decisive pass with the passage of time, of course, but a certain tail-off in general mobility and explosiveness may just have filtered into his play as he prepares to compete as a 29-year-old in New Zealand this year.
Perhaps other critics share my minor worry over a couple of his clearance kicks being charged down against the Wallabies, and sometimes less than well-directed tactical hoofs against the All Blacks a week later.
Or is this canny customer merely holding something back for the biggest stage of all? Is it attractive, if you like, to buy “shares” in Du Preez right now, while they are not exactly at a known personal pinnacle?
Everyone who wishes South Africa good fortune at RWC 2011 will be simultaneously hoping the unassuming, soon Japan-bound Bulls favourite is right back on his A-game as the tournament begins to takes shape.
For if this relative veteran, so often the bright spark who keeps the entire Bok team mentally and positionally on the front foot, shrugs off one or two cobwebs in the next two or three weeks, then the defending champions’ cause will be so heavily aided.
I just suspect that if Du Preez, of the much-discussed class of 2007, shines again this time, many of the other perceived old-stagers will be buoyed into perky mood too for the quest to become first-time retainers of the Webb Ellis Cup.
While on that particular topic: out of curiosity this week I printed out the entire Bok squad which brought home the laurels four years ago, to contemplate it at some length against the 2011 brand.
Certain parallels are very quickly obvious, of course, given that SARU themselves were quick to confidently trumpet, upon announcement of the 30-strong squad for New Zealand, the fact that there are as many as 18 survivors from 2007.
And it is difficult to emphatically state which group deserves to be held in higher collective esteem on paper, leading into the respective tournaments.
Jake White’s 2007 crew, after all, was also not shy of profoundly senior statesmen: Os du Randt proved at the ripe old age of 35 that you can even successfully muster the enthusiasm for a second World Cup winner’s medal 12 years after your first.
And Percy Montgomery, roughly as dependable a points-machine off the tee in 2007 as Morne Steyn probably will be at RWC 2011, became a 33-year-old world champion then.
Another small point of statistical interest - and call it a good omen, why don’t you? - is that each of the 2007 and 2011 Bok squads feature one 20-year-old (Frans Steyn then, Pat Lambie now) at the outset of the jamboree.
The current squad almost certainly contains more players who could be considered on likelier downward slopes in their first-class careers at this particular point, but 2007 wasn’t exactly short of them, either: names like Du Randt, Montgomery, Albert van den Berg, Bob Skinstad, Wayne Julies, Andre Pretorius and (albeit primarily for injury reasons) Ashwin Willemse come fairly obviously to mind.
But as I said, if one Petrus Fourie du Preez is able to near-emulate his dizzy standards of four years ago, it may go a long way to all of us more conclusively deciding, some time in October, which of the two Bok RWC squads may actually be branded the “stronger” in retrospect.
Yes, the 2007 crowd were winners, which ... well, helps, doesn’t it?
But just imagine the “wow factor” involved if the 2011 party defy current odds and bring home the proverbial bacon once more from the most daunting rugby terrain of all ...
