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Comment: Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
Cape Town - We are about to find out just how shipshape a large group of senior Springboks can be for a Test match against Australia after up to eight weeks of complete first-class inactivity.
The price South Africa may pay in the Castle Tri-Nations match in Durban on Saturday for their complete cocooning of so many superstars in “phase one” of the competition is that those in question may well have swung from overcooked in the Super Rugby season to underdone for this challenge, considering the duration of time off.
As much as medical gurus, after all, constantly caution of the hazards of too much rugby, many would also not be shy to point out that there is no stamina like match-honed stamina, however much conditioning work may be done during periods out of actual combat.
Think about it: the team the Springboks seem likely to announce for Saturday’s challenge at Mr Price Kings Park is likely to contain a nucleus of Bulls players, and that once-mighty franchise have been dormant in Super Rugby terms since June 18, when they were eliminated by the Sharks at Loftus 26-23 in an effective playoff for a berth in the finals series.
The Sharks will show the next-healthiest crop of individuals for the Bok line-up on Saturday, and they didn’t last a whole lot longer, being blitzed out of the competition just a week later by the Crusaders in New Zealand.
At least the Stormers stayed “alive” until the semi-final against the Cantabrians at Newlands on July 2, but their contingent to meet the Wallabies will be smaller anyway.
And Frans Steyn, expected to be posted at fullback in Durban, has been idle from serious match play since the end of the last European season with Racing Metro - some critics fear that French club rugby is a poor substitute for the pace and dynamism of, for instance, Super Rugby anyway.
Bok coach Peter de Villiers has not been slow to seek further patience from Bok supporters, who are already nose-out-of-joint because of the respective “B team” drubbings on the away leg of the Tri-Nations which quickly ruled South Africa out of contention for the title.
“I predict the team might struggle against the Wallabies, as it will be their first match in a long while,” he told Rapport in a weekend interview.
You have to admire De Villiers for honesty, and a strong sense of reality, even if there may also have been some element of red herring to sell to the Wallabies, as he tries to get them to believe they’ll face a team decidedly low on sharpness and precision.
He has also seldom wavered from his blunt, general template: that everything comes down to World Cup preparedness and be damned with whatever lies ahead of it.
But just how tolerant will South African supporters be, if the Boks are indeed caught cold again on Saturday, to digest concession of the “double” to Australia in the Tri-Nations and a nought from three record in Tests for 2011?
If the Boks do get knocked over again, that leaves only the game against near-untouchable New Zealand in Port Elizabeth a week later to try to break the duck ahead of the start of the World Cup.
Consider also that South Africa open their RWC account against a Welsh team who had passages of great promise as they outscored England by three tries to two at Twickenham on Saturday, despite eventually losing the warm-up encounter 23-19.
Quite a few Springbok enthusiasts have made the point that in present terms there will be no such thing as an under-strength All Blacks team, so expect a royal scrap in the Friendly City, even as Graham Henry “rotates” several of his players.
So if the Boks were to head for the Eastern Cape still winless, they would be looking at a meeting with the oldest enemy of all in which to stave off the embarrassment of a clean sheet of Tri-Nations defeats and thus worst showing ever in the competition.
Even in some of their worst, woodens-spoon years, the Boks have always managed previously to pull out a consolation victory from somewhere.
When are the 2011 Boks actually going to hit their straps?
Sooner rather than later, I’m sure, would not be an unreasonable wish ...
Cape Town - We are about to find out just how shipshape a large group of senior Springboks can be for a Test match against Australia after up to eight weeks of complete first-class inactivity.
The price South Africa may pay in the Castle Tri-Nations match in Durban on Saturday for their complete cocooning of so many superstars in “phase one” of the competition is that those in question may well have swung from overcooked in the Super Rugby season to underdone for this challenge, considering the duration of time off.
As much as medical gurus, after all, constantly caution of the hazards of too much rugby, many would also not be shy to point out that there is no stamina like match-honed stamina, however much conditioning work may be done during periods out of actual combat.
Think about it: the team the Springboks seem likely to announce for Saturday’s challenge at Mr Price Kings Park is likely to contain a nucleus of Bulls players, and that once-mighty franchise have been dormant in Super Rugby terms since June 18, when they were eliminated by the Sharks at Loftus 26-23 in an effective playoff for a berth in the finals series.
The Sharks will show the next-healthiest crop of individuals for the Bok line-up on Saturday, and they didn’t last a whole lot longer, being blitzed out of the competition just a week later by the Crusaders in New Zealand.
At least the Stormers stayed “alive” until the semi-final against the Cantabrians at Newlands on July 2, but their contingent to meet the Wallabies will be smaller anyway.
And Frans Steyn, expected to be posted at fullback in Durban, has been idle from serious match play since the end of the last European season with Racing Metro - some critics fear that French club rugby is a poor substitute for the pace and dynamism of, for instance, Super Rugby anyway.
Bok coach Peter de Villiers has not been slow to seek further patience from Bok supporters, who are already nose-out-of-joint because of the respective “B team” drubbings on the away leg of the Tri-Nations which quickly ruled South Africa out of contention for the title.
“I predict the team might struggle against the Wallabies, as it will be their first match in a long while,” he told Rapport in a weekend interview.
You have to admire De Villiers for honesty, and a strong sense of reality, even if there may also have been some element of red herring to sell to the Wallabies, as he tries to get them to believe they’ll face a team decidedly low on sharpness and precision.
He has also seldom wavered from his blunt, general template: that everything comes down to World Cup preparedness and be damned with whatever lies ahead of it.
But just how tolerant will South African supporters be, if the Boks are indeed caught cold again on Saturday, to digest concession of the “double” to Australia in the Tri-Nations and a nought from three record in Tests for 2011?
If the Boks do get knocked over again, that leaves only the game against near-untouchable New Zealand in Port Elizabeth a week later to try to break the duck ahead of the start of the World Cup.
Consider also that South Africa open their RWC account against a Welsh team who had passages of great promise as they outscored England by three tries to two at Twickenham on Saturday, despite eventually losing the warm-up encounter 23-19.
Quite a few Springbok enthusiasts have made the point that in present terms there will be no such thing as an under-strength All Blacks team, so expect a royal scrap in the Friendly City, even as Graham Henry “rotates” several of his players.
So if the Boks were to head for the Eastern Cape still winless, they would be looking at a meeting with the oldest enemy of all in which to stave off the embarrassment of a clean sheet of Tri-Nations defeats and thus worst showing ever in the competition.
Even in some of their worst, woodens-spoon years, the Boks have always managed previously to pull out a consolation victory from somewhere.
When are the 2011 Boks actually going to hit their straps?
Sooner rather than later, I’m sure, would not be an unreasonable wish ...
