Now there’s no debate about who plays 10 for Boks

The one thing the controversy that has seen Elton Jantjies fly home from the Springbok training camp in Buenos Aires has done is remove any doubt about who will play flyhalf for the two crucial games that will decide the Castle Lager Rugby Championship.

Jantjies and team dietitian Zeenat Simjee are returning to South Africa after reports in a Sunday newspaper alleged an extra-marital affair between the pair and complaints from a guest house in Sabie in Mpumalanga of noise disturbance and bills not being paid.

In a statement issued by SA Rugby on Sunday, it was stressed that no team protocols were broken - Jantjies was not in the match day squad for the Mbombela test against the All Blacks - but that Jantjies and Simjee were returning home so the issue would not distract the team’s preparations for Saturday’s crucial make or break game against Argentina.

The Boks are currently one log point behind Championship leaders New Zealand, with the Kings Park clash with the Pumas to come after that to conclude their campaign. Not only is a win imperative, but if the All Blacks pick up full points against Australia when the first Bledisloe Cup game is played in Melbourne on Thursday, a bonus point might be required too.

POSITIVE PRESSURE

It is the kind of pressure situation that national director of rugby Rassie Erasmus and Bok coach Jacques Nienaber enjoy as it assimilates what they will face when they go into the high-pressure cauldron of the Rugby World Cup in France next year. And they might not be too upset that Damian Willemse is now more in at the deep end as the starting No 10 than he was when he played there against the Wallabies last time out.

Willemse made some mistakes but won the man of the match award for a solid performance in his first full game at international level in the position where he played his schoolboy and most of his age-group rugby.

He was playing though because of injuries to Handre Pollard and Jantjies, who have been the two go-too players when it comes to the pivot position since the start of the Erasmus and Nienaber era in 2018. Pollard had already been ruled out of the Championship, but Jantjies’ injury was less serious and he stayed on with the squad on tour and was in line for a possible recall in the Buenos Aires test.

That option is no longer there, so Willemse will continue and both he and the Boks as a whole should benefit from him getting two more opportunities to be the man who calls the shots and directs play from the key decision-making position.

The one thing that did leave a big question mark after the Bok win over the Wallabies in Sydney was his goalkicking. Willemse struggled when he was the frontline kicker from the tee last time he was entrusted with that role by the Stormers and Western Province and there was a theory that it impacted on his general play.

That might have been why earlier in his career, Willemse played his best rugby when someone like SK Marais, who played fullback and wing for the Stormers and WP in those years, was kicking goals like a well-tuned metronome. Ideally this would be a time when the Boks should have someone in another position who can assume the responsibility, like fullback Percy Montgomery did for many years.

You certainly don’t have to be a flyhalf to be the team’s goalkicker, just ask former Wallaby World Cup winning lock and captain John Eales. However, there is no player in the current first choice team other than Willemse who can assume the duties. Cheslin Kolbe has been a first-choice place-kicker for a time with his French club but he is currently out injured.

The pressure is certainly on Willemse to perform, as it would be if circumstance forced him to play flyhalf at next year’s World Cup, as the Boks are going all out to win the Championship. That has been telegraphed by their decision to release some players who were going to be played against Argentina in Durban back to their franchises. Lock Marvin Orie for instance played a preparation game ahead of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship restart for the Stormers in Gqebeha this past weekend.

NOT SO SIMPLE

Beating Argentina back-to-back, which is the minimum requirement, is not the simple task it might have been previously. The last time the Los Pumas played at home they thumped Australia and no-one in the Bok camp will be unaware that while the Argentinians did lose by 50 points to New Zealand last time out, they did beat the All Blacks in Christchurch the week before that.

The Bok team for the first Pumas clash will be named on Tuesday and there are some positions that might be up for debate, but flyhalf is not one of them. Willemse has to play.

THIS WEEK’S RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP FIXTURES (both live on SuperSport)

Australia v New Zealand (Melbourne, Thursday 11.45)

Argentina v South Africa (Buenos Aires, Saturday 21.10)