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Australian domestic competition showed SA rugby an alternative
South African rugby returns this weekend with a Super Saturday double-header at Loftus and when it does there will be just six weeks to the scheduled start of the Rugby Championship in Australia.
The Springbok participation in the event is still in the balance. The readiness of the players for international rugby after the long lockdown is the understandable key concern, and in that regard this weekend provided further evidence that there is an alternative that could have a positive long-term pay-off for South African rugby.
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The fact that it was played at full strength for the duration also enabled the AU to produce a new raft of stars for new Wallaby coach Dave Rennie to choose from, not the least of them being 20-year-old Noah Lolesio, whose game management and temperament was hugely influential in the 28-23 Brumbies win at the Gio Stadium.
Lolesio is far from alone, however, and if you think of flyhalves it is hard to ignore the progress made by Waratahs pivot Will Harrison, who was himself a recent Wallaby age-group star. Then there is Jordan Petaia, the Reds outside back who has been capped by the Wallabies but grew immeasurably during the course of the AU season.
That growth would not have happened had the AU been played under-strength, and one of the messages drummed out by the Aussie competition took the form of a reminder that young developing players need to be tested by the established stars for their emergence to be authentic. It is part of rugby’s, or indeed any sport’s, rite of passage.
FULL STRENGTH DOMESTIC COMPETITION COULD BENEFIT SA
Given the huge depth of emerging talent coming through in South Africa, we could see an even bigger advance made here. However, the Super Rugby and Currie Cup competitions that will be played one after each other from October to January need to be at full strength if there is to be maximum benefit.
That won’t happen if the Boks go to Australia for the Championship and, given the likelihood that an extended squad would be needed, the local competitions could end up being significantly watered down.
The success of the AU, and of the Aotearoa that preceded it and also produced a number of new star players, does provide South African rugby with proof that there could be positives to be derived from not going to Australia.
Anyone who doubts that the South African concerns about readiness for international rugby seven weeks from now are valid ones should have been at Newlands at the start of this past rugby weekend for a Stormers internal practice match.
Played between a team called the Devils Peak Dassies and one parading as Boulders Beach Penguins, it was keenly competitive and there was no lack of physicality. Stormers coach John Dobson would have been pleased with the excellent defensive effort of both sides in what was effectively a 60-minute match played over three 20-minute chukkas.
NEWLANDS EXERCISE SHOWED HOW FAR BOKS ARE FROM BEING READY
Dobson was honest enough to admit afterwards though that with the exception of Steven Kitshoff, who is a ready advert for anyone who wants to argue in favour of the physical benefits of doing home DIY (that’s what the prop did during lockdown), his Springboks are way short of where they would need to be.
And that is an understatement. It is not a criticism, because the lockdown was a unique situation, and there were some players who went into the hiatus injured. For them, the priority right now should surely just be to ease themselves back onto the playing field without getting injured. There is a high risk of that happening given that they haven’t played for six months.
Fortunately, all the players at Newlands got through the return to contact exercise with their health intact and will feel better about playing an intense franchise game against the Lions on Saturday than they might otherwise have been. But let’s not mince words, some of the key Stormers players looked distinctly puffed and didn’t last long before having to be replaced.
DIFFERENT WORLD EXACTLY ONE YEAR ON FROM 2019 OPENER
Ironically, it was on this very day last year that the Springboks opened their 2019 Rugby World Cup campaign with a defeat to the All Blacks in Yokohama. Apply the same time gaps between big fixtures of last year with those that apply this year and seven weeks before that Yokohama game the Boks were playing international rugby. In fact, it was seven weeks between the Bok draw with New Zealand in Wellington and the Yokohama game.
The All Black players have been playing since June, and for much of their return to play, they had the added motivation of being able to play in front of big crowds as the coronavirus pandemic abated its onslaught on New Zealand. So, for them, there’s not a huge difference now to where they were this time last year -- they are sharp and ready to play international rugby.
With the South Africans, that is not the case and neither does six weeks equate to six matches for them to get conditioned for international rugby.
Saturday’s double-header featuring the four South African Super Rugby franchises will be followed by what is effectively a Springbok trial the following week, but the Stormers, who have the most Boks on their book, have a bye in the first week of what will now be a single round Super Rugby competition contested by seven franchises/provinces.
The need to quarantine on arrival in Australia will mean they have to leave pretty close to the middle of October, which means many of the players will have only two games behind them. That’s not anywhere close to the minimum of six games that Bok coach Jacques Nienaber spoke about as the bare minimum requirement.
INTERESTING ALTERNATIVE
There is an interesting alternative available to national director of rugby Rassie Erasmus and Bok coach Jacques Nienaber in that many of the World Cup-winning Boks are based overseas. Vincent Koch was in excellent form for instance in Saracens’ stirring win over Leinster in the European Rugby Champions Cup quarterfinal in Dublin.
Given that no Bok test matches this year will mean the team could find itself going into the scheduled iconic British and Irish Lions series next year without having played much, if at all, since the 2019 World Cup final, there is a potential upside in sending a squad to the Championship that is focused on testing depth and offering fringe players international opportunities. Erasmus did that at the start of his tenure when the Boks went to Washington for an exhibition game against Wales.
But it is understood the English and French clubs are reluctant to extend the international window to accommodate a need to quarantine. And while going to a Rugby Championship understrength is not unheard of, as the Boks did it when the competition was the Tri-Nations in two World Cup years, 2007 and 2011, there should be understandable reluctance to undermine the gains made to the Bok brand by winning the World Cup by now fielding experimental teams.
Of course, there is an economic imperative that has to be kept in mind. Dobson put it perfectly last week when he said there were strong arguments from both sides. The Boks playing will help soften some of the devastating blow delivered by the coronavirus to the sport in this country. But where would it leave the Boks if they ended up reliving the 57-0 nightmare of 2017?
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