Foreigners cannot be blamed if they are sometimes astounded at the South African habit of helping out struggling opponents in team sports with questionable selections and odd decisions.
Two weeks ago Kiwis and other sections of the world’s rugby media were boggled by the decision made by Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber to switch his man of the match from the good win in Nelspruit, Malcolm Marx, to the bench for the return clash with the All Blacks.
And on Thursday you could sense the glee on the face of England cricket captain Ben Stokes when he lost the toss and his Proteas opponent Dean Elgar elected to bat first on an overcast morning likely to help the bowlers. Which it did. that helped the bowlers. Stokes should also have been perplexed at the decision to leave out the tall left armer Marco Jansen, who’d have been a handful on the Old Trafford wicket and who can bat well enough to shorten the SA tail.
Naturally, as rugby is my focus in my work I am a lot closer to the Boks than to the Proteas, so I do know the inside story to Marx’s move to the bench. It has to remain private, but believe me, it does make perfect sense. And it has nothing to do with the transformation issue some seem to assume it does.
But still, even disregarding the Marx issue, the Boks did make it easier for their beleaguered All Black opponents in Johannesburg and played into their hands in more than one way. While the New Zealanders did raise their game and deserved the win at a venue that suits them more than many think it does, the Boks also conspired against themselves.
They’ve done that a lot in their recent history, and also their not so recent history in the post-isolation era. Carel du Plessis was a great player and could have been a great coach but was pushed too early into the role and that was the reason the Boks lost the 1997 series against the British and Irish Lions. There are several other obvious examples, but one that is particularly relevant to Saturday’s Castle Lager Rugby Championship clash with the Wallabies at the Adelaide Oval is the narrow defeat suffered by the Boks the first time they visited Australia in the Rassie Erasmus era in 2018.
The Wallabies were at a particularly low ebb at the time, but Erasmus chose to mix up his selections with an eye on the following week’s game against New Zealand in Wellington. It worked out for the Boks as they won against the All Blacks, but they also surrendered a defeat to the Aussies that they shouldn’t have.
HISTORY CAN PROVIDE DIRECTION
With the meetings with the All Blacks now behind them, the one big thing in the Bok favour this week is that there is no deflection of focus. This game is not the build-up to something else, it is the primary focus. And there has been enough talk about their poor record in Australia to suggest this time they are going to go in with what Stormers coach John Dobson might describe as The Full Metal Jacket.
But while there is much truth in that old saying that the only thing man really appears to learn from history is that man doesn’t learn from history, this is a time when history does need to be observed for direction on what not to do.
Given that the Marx situation would be explainable if Nienaber was able to do that publicly, and that Duane Vermeulen is now two further weeks into his comeback from injury, we can assume the top team has been selected this time. There will be massive pressure on Joseph Dweba early on, particularly when he throws into the lineouts, but he is an excellent player and should be able to handle it.
What the Boks can’t do is be charitable to their opponents, who are under pressure with a coach in Dave Rennie who boasts just a 40 per cent win record, by repeating their old habit against the Wallabies of giving away points to indiscipline, being inaccurate in execution and thus not making the most of their scoring chances. They also mustn’t, like they did in one of the games against the Wallabies last year, make a deviation to their playing template.
DELIVER THE COUP DE GRACE
Above all, if you look back at a recurring trait from games the Boks have played in Australia in the last 10 years, if they get into a situation where they have their collective feet on the Wallaby jugular, they must press down and finish them off in the ruthless fashion that Gerrie Coetzee dispatched Leon Spinks in a world title eliminator in Monte Carlo in 1979.
The old boxing writers used to over-use the expression coup de grace. But it has been inability to to deliver the coup de grace, meaning the final shot to kill a wounded person or animal, that has so often contributed to South Africa’s poor post isolation rugby record in Australia.
Make no mistake, the Wallabies are much stronger after making six changes than when they got hammered by Argentina last time out. They have height returning to the back in the form of Reece Hodge, which should mean a dramatic improvement to their handling of the opposition aerial attack. They have experience returning in other areas.
But the Boks on paper look superior to their opponents in just about every facet, and it is hard not to disagree with World Cup winning flyhalf Joel Stransky, who said on FirstXV on Thursday night that he can’t see how the Boks can lose. He reminded us he also said that though before the Johannesburg All Black game.
What Stransky might have been forgetting before the Johannesburg game is that the Boks like helping out charity cases. They have a long history of it, particularly in Australia. They know they must stop it, there’s a lot of pressure for them to get it right. Which is why we should back Saturday to be the day the charity stops.
TEAMS:
Australia: Reece Hodge; Tom Wright, Len Ikitau, Hunter Paisami, Marika Koroibete; Noah Lolesio, Nic White; Rob Valetini, Fraser McReight; Jed Holloway, Matt Philip, Rory Arnold; Allan Alaalatoa, Folau Fainga’a, James Slipper (captain). Replacements: David Porecki, Scott Sio, Taniela Tupou, Darcy Swain, Rob Leota, Pete Samu, Tate McDermott, Andrew Kellaway
South Africa: Damian Willemse, Warrick Gelant, Lukhanyo Am, Damian de Allende, Makazole Mapimpi, Handre Pollard, Faf de Klerk, Duane Vermeulen, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Siya Kolisi (captain), Lood de Jager, Eben Etzebeth, Frans Malherbe, Joseph Dweba, Ox Nche. Replacements: Malcolm Marx, Steven Kitshoff, Vincent Koch, Franco Mostert, Kwagga Smith, Jaden Hendrikse, Elton Jantjies, Frans Steyn.
Referee: Paul Williams (New Zealand)
Kick-off: 07.30
Prediction: Springboks to win by 10