Will a ‘young gun’ lead the Boks?
COULD THE Springboks have a “young gun” captain like Bulls flyhalf Handre Pollard for the Test series against England next month?
When South African Director of Rugby and Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus arrived at Cape Town International Airport yesterday, he explained that they “can’t just sit and hope that the senior guys are ready” when he has to make a call on who will captain the Boks for their first challenge of the 2018 season. The Boks will travel to Washington DC to face Wales on 2 June, before they host Eddie Jones’ England on 9, 16 and 23 June.
The Bok coach mentioned Warren Whiteley, Eben Etzebeth, Siya Kolisi, Francois Louw, Duane Vermeulen and Adriaan Strauss as candidates for the leadership role.
But with Whiteley and Etzebeth injured and in doubt, Erasmus said that they might widen the net and look at suitable “22 or 23-year-olds” to wear the captaincy armband.
That “young gun” could very well be Bulls pivot Pollard – who has captained the Bulls and the Junior Boks – but who has also played very little Test rugby in the last two years.
“With Warren out and Eben not playing and even guys that were previously in leadership positions like Francois Louw, Duane Vermeulen, Adriaan Strauss, if he comes back into the mix, and Siya Kolisi, we have options. I think Siya is finding his feet now, I thought last week especially at the attacking breakdown he had a really awesome game,” Erasmus said.
“So we’re weighing up a few options, luckily there’s four or five options we can look at. Even if none of those guys are ready we might go with a young gun and a guy who’s fit and has played all the games and someone who’s mature enough to handle it. We might go for a 22 or 23-year old who’s played regularly and is fit and available. We can’t just sit and wait and hope that the senior guys are ready.
“We might have to make a bold call there if everybody isn’t firing and match fit.”
After three “alignment” camps with the franchise teams, the former Munster coach explained that he won’t pick a weaker team for their game against Wales and a full-strength one against England, although the Test against Wales will serve as preparation for Jones’ visit.
“We can experiment a bit against Wales, but we definitely won’t pick an A side and a B side. It will be equally strong sides,” he said.
“I’m excited about Aphiwe (Dyantyi) and I’m excited about Madosh (Tambwe) – I’m excited to see if he goes to New Zealand to see how he’ll handle that. Damian Willemse has been excellent, but somewhere he has to go through that pressure phase – that’s going to happen somewhere. You know how form goes, he struggled a bit two weeks ago.
“Adriaan Strauss is also playing well currently, and so is Trevor (Nyakane).
“I’m excited about the overall talent we have. You don’t always have to win your Super Rugby games to spot a talent.”
One area that Erasmus certainly has to prioritise is transformation. It is an area that hasn’t received enough attention.
Erasmus has a target of 45 percent black player representation over the season.
“Our targets are 45 percent this year. If we don’t reach it at the end of the season then I didn’t pass one of my KPIs. So it’s as easy as that,” Erasmus said. “I know you can have five injuries and then you’re going to have to make a plan. Unfortunately, or fortunately, we know now that we have to make a plan. If I don’t make it I’ll be in trouble. It is what it is, we must work around it.
“At the end of the day there’s 28 guys who are performing well and there’s only place for 23. So yes, it would be great if they have better representation in their (franchise) teams, but I also understand that sometimes they are also in trouble with injuries or players who lack form or players who are coming back.”