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Why Frans is the most important Steyn against the Lions

rugby01 June 2021 05:51| © SuperSport
By:Gavin Rich
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Frans Steyn © Getty Images

Saturday’s Springbok squad announcement for the forthcoming series against the British and Irish Lions should confirm that there will be two Springbok survivors from the 2009 triumph, and they will both have the same surname.

It was Morne Steyn of course who kicked the mammoth penalty amidst an atmosphere of unbearable tension after the hooter in the second test at Loftus Versfeld to clinch the Boks their revenge for what had happened to the side captained by Gary Teichmann in 1997. Steyn is an even cooler customer now, and could even be the match or series winner for South Africa again 12 years later.

For that to happen though it would require both Handre Pollard and Elton Jantjies, the two players who assumed the flyhalf duties at the 2019 Rugby World Cup, to be injured. It would be a stop-gap, emergency measure, with Steyn - Morne that is - being selected as at best the third flyhalf in the squad of 45 that Jacques Nienaber will announce on Saturday night.


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UNDERSTATED IMPORTANCE TO 2019 SUCCESS

The other Steyn is Frans, the man who made his Bok debut as a 19-year-old against Ireland in Dublin in 2006 as a wing before moving to fullback a week later against England at Twickenham. The product of Aliwal North farming country went on to win two World Cups, but the importance of his contribution to the 2019 win has probably not been underlined enough.

While Steyn did just play off the bench in the important games in Japan, it would have not been possible for the then coach Rassie Erasmus to go with the six/two split between forwards and backs on the bench that was so influential in the World Cup win. You need a versatile back who can play almost any position in the backline to be one of the two backline players on the bench or the six/two split, which is already risky, becomes way too risky.

Steyn was that player, and as it is hard to think of any other player who has Steyn’s ability to play anywhere at the back outside of scrumhalf. Or let’s say at least experience of it because it is a while since he last played on the wing or at fullback and you certainly wouldn’t choose him as a starting wing now that he is well into his fourth decade of life. You’d imagine someone else being shifted to wing and Steyn being accommodated at centre if there was an injury at wing in the Bok six/two split.

UNIQUE PLAYER IN MODERN ERA

Still, the point is he is a unique player in South Africa in the modern era. There was a time when there were several players like Steyn with huge utility value. Old timers might remember a Western Province Springbok from the 1980s named Colin Beck. Beck was a player who excelled anywhere he played at the back. And then there was the late Gawie Visagie, who played at the same time and was even more versatile as he was mainly a scrumhalf but was equally at home at flyhalf, centre and, when asked to do the job for the SA Barbarians against Bill Beaumont’s 1980 Lions, also fullback.

Of the current goup, Damian Willemse can play fullback, flyhalf and, at a stretch, centre. Otherwise, it is hard to think of anyone else who can bring what Steyn did in 2019 and which Jacques Nienaber will probably want in this must win series against the Lions. And it is why after the Bloemfontein game between the Cheetahs and a Toyota XV the current Bok coach should have felt an important part of his jigsaw had fitted into place.

There were several reasons the Bloemfontein game was organised, but getting Steyn a game opportunity at this time when his Cheetahs team has an empty schedule would have been high on the list of priorities. He didn’t disappoint either, as while he was surprisingly on the losing side against the scratch team of franchise fringe players, he did get through the entire game and was the influential presence he has tended to be for the Cheetahs since his return from overseas.

OUTSTANDING FORM SINCE RETURNING

Steyn was in outstanding form for the Cheetahs in last year’s return to play season but even more so in the early parts of this year and in the preparation series, which was the last time the Cheetahs played before they played the Invitation team. There may have been doubt after he got to wear his second World Cup winners medal whether he’d be around for another crack at the Lions two years later, for he has done a lot of rugby mileage and surely has no more worlds to conquer.

On the evidence of his recent performances though he is hungry to play against the Lions and, should Nienaber opt to go for the six/two split, something that could also depend on the fitness of locks RG Snyman and Lood de Jager, who are both currently in rehabilitation, then he should definitely feature in the match day squad. He is an important part of the Bok plan and if he wasn’t there it would considerably lessen the option of redeploying the 2019 formula.

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