Environment might be right for Elton to excel at Loftus

Elton Jantjies had made his Springbok debut by when Dan Biggar tried an unsuccessful winning drop-goal the last time Wales played a test match in South Africa back in 2014, but he was on the outside looking in with just two caps to his credit, both earned in 2012.

It wasn’t a secret that the Bok coach of that period, Heyneke Meyer, did not back him. So it also came as no surprise that Jantjies was not among the three flyhalves included in the extended squad for the the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

At that World Cup Biggar, his opposite number in Saturday’s opening test of this three test series, was one of the stars of a Wales team that managed to get out of a “Pool of Death” that also featured England and Australia.

We point this out because it is all relevant to one of the biggest worries that must be keeping national director of rugby Rassie Erasmus and Bok coach Jacques Nienaber awake at night: It takes time for a flyhalf to become a match-winner at international level and someone like Biggar, who also captains Wales at Loftus, has become who he is after being backed over an extended period of time.

It is open to speculation over what might have become of Jantjies’s career had he got more game time during the four years Meyer was in charge.

Those were his development years, and more exposure to international rugby as a squad member, like Biggar had when he wasn’t necessarily the Welsh first choice and then had the confidence to play on the biggest stage when there were injuries to those ahead of him.

ONLY A BRIEF PERIOD AS FIRST CHOICE

Apart from a brief period where Handre Pollard was injured and after Pat Lambie had suffered his unfortunate concussion against Ireland in Cape Town in 2016, Jantjies never has had an extended run at No 10.

And even though last year he effectively won the final Rugby Championship test against the All Blacks with his cool and collected display under pressure when coming off the bench in the latter stages, he still has his detractors.

He must feel like it is Groundhog Day for him every time he pulls on the Bok No 10. The same questions persist, and although he is now beyond 30 years of age, his first-class playing career extends to nearly 12 seasons and his Bok test selection 10 year anniversary is just a month or two away, each time he starts at flyhalf he has to prove himself as if he is a first arrival on the scene.

To be fair to coaches who may not have backed him like perhaps they should have, he hasn’t always helped himself.

Such as when he missed some crucial kicks and made some poor decisions when the Boks lost the dead rubber test of Erasmus’s first series in charge against England back in 2018. That was his chance to make a statement and he failed to take it.

The point though is that here we are at the start of the last but one international season before the next World Cup and, as luck would have it, it is starting with a reminder that one fruit available to the Bok brains trust that is not as numerous as grapes on a Cape wine farm just before harvest is flyhalf.

SO IF NOT HIM, WHO ELSE?

When it comes to looseforward, front row, second row and even to some extent centre and wing, even fullback, there’s almost an embarrassment of riches and, as exemplified by the Evan Roos situation, the news is dominated not by who is picked but who is left out.

At flyhalf it is different and with Pollard not considered for this game due to his minimal exposure to the Bok training camp that built up to Saturday’s match, I would like to ask Jantjies’s detractors: If not him, who else?

Yes, there is Johan Goosen, but he hasn’t played since last year and is only due to return to the playing field in September. When he’s back, and if he regains his form, he is sure to challenge Jantjies for the right to be considered the back-up to Pollard.

Goosen is being managed carefully, with poor management possibly being what has let South African rugby down when it comes to young flyhalf resources.

There are plenty of kids who are written up as the next Naas Botha, Henry Honiball or Joel Stransky when they are still at school or have just left it. Goosen was one of those, and so was Curwin Bosch.

Coming to think of it, so was Damian Willemse, and in the latter two instances, the SA Schools pivots of 2015 and 2016 respectively are an interesting case in point when it comes to failure of youngsters to push through in that position.

Are they pushed too quickly? Maybe they are, for a lot of them suffer serious injuries early on, like Kade Wolhuter and Jordan Hendrikse did last year.

Others don’t make it in that position just because it implies too much responsibility too soon. That perhaps applies to Willemse, who was physical enough at a young age and served an apprenticeship in other positions before being tried at senior level at 10.

You could definitely take aim at the speed with which Bosch was pushed through. He was considered a star because of his other attributes and ended up playing senior rugby before he’d learned to tackle.

The upshot of all of this is that Bosch is a long way from the Bok selection call we would have imagined was inevitable when we watched him at the 2015 Craven Week at Paul Roos Gymnasium.

And Willemse, after never quite settling at flyhalf when thrust into that role at Western Province and the Stormers, is starting at Loftus at fullback and could just as easily be doing so at inside centre.

ONLY ONE ANSWER TO THE BIG QUESTION

What happens when Pollard is injured can for now only be answered with the one name that was also really the only other realistic option in Japan in 2019: Elton Jantjies.

Memories of his most recent games in the green and gold should inspire confidence. At last we are seeing him transfer the form he showed for a long time with the Emirates Lions to international level.

It would help him further though if the Bok coach has noted the attacking flair displayed by the local teams in the recent United Rugby Championship and given Jantjies licence to play his own game.

For a long time his more inventive playing style made it appear that any Bok coach prepared to back his instinctive game would be guilty of trying to fit a round peg into a square hole.

Hopefully that isn’t the case now for it is no longer an excuse to say Bok players can’t be expected to play a more attacking game because they are not asked to do so at the levels lower down.

No-one would suggest the South African game should eschew its essential strength, and we all know what that is, but an extra angle could be added now that takes them to another level.

And Jantjies could just find himself excelling if an environment is created for him like the one John Dobson created for Manie Libbok at the Stormers.

BIG SHOT OF CONFIDENCE IF HE COMES OFF

Make no mistake, if Jantjies hits the right notes at Loftus, and it does help that he has Willemse given licence to slot in at first receiver too, that won’t mean a potential flyhalf crisis has been avoided.

For until Goosen returns there are only two. But it would be a shot of confidence for the Boks at the start of a long international season.

The Welsh could test them more than many anticipate. Let’s not forget that the team from the Principality won the Six Nations in 2021, and let’s note too that the visiting team that takes the field at Loftus won’t be the same one that lost to Italy the last time we saw a Wales jersey on the playing field.

Eight changes have been made by coach Wayne Pivac to that team and most of them improve Wales, such as the return of the formidable George North as well as Dan Lydiate, while although he hasn’t been in his finest form recently, the fact Alun Wyn Jones is playing off the bench says something too.

But the Boks should prevail if they hit the ground running and the way the sport has been growing locally in recent times, South Africans also have a right to expect victory.

In this series it won’t just be the W that matters, but the way that win is achieved. And having full stadiums back should spur them on.

TEAMS

SOUTH AFRICA: Damian Willemse; Cheslin Kolbe, Lukhanyo Am, Damian de Allende, Makazole Mapimpi; Elton Jantjies, Faf de Klerk; Jasper Wiese, Franco Mostert, Siya Kolisi (captain), Lood de Jager, Eben Etzebeth, Frans Malherbe, Bongi Mbonambi, Ox Nché.

Replacements: Malcolm Marx, Steven Kitshoff, Vincent Koch, Salmaan Moerat, Elrigh Louw, Kwagga Smith, Herschel Jantjies Willie le Roux.

WALES: Liam Williams; Louis Rees-Zammit, George North, Nick Tompkins, Josh Adams, Dan Biggar (captain), Kieran Hardy; Taulupe Faletau, Tommy Reffell, Dan Lydiate, Adam Beard, Will Rowlands, Dillon Lewis, Ryan Elias, Gareth Thomas.

Replacements: Dewi Lake, Rhys Carre, Tomas Francis, Alun Wyn Jones, Josh Navidi, Tomos Williams, Gareth Anscombe, Owen Watkin.

Referee: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia).

Kick-off: 5:05pm CAT (SA, GMT+2), live on SuperSport

Prediction: Boks by more than 12