TIME FOR BOKS TO STEP UP
SPRINGBOK coach Allister Coetzee and his captain, Adriaan Strauss, need no reminding that their supply of “get-out-of-jailfree” cards is not inexhaustible and tomorrow, in inhospitable Salta, there will literally and figuratively be no green grass of home for the Boks to steer them home.
Salta is at altitude, nestling in the foothills of the Andes at 1 152m, although geographical elevation should not be a major issue for either side (Johannesburg is at 1 753m).
The Boks have spent the week preparing at sea level in Buenos Aires and today will fly to Salta.
The Boks almost lost in Salta in 2014, when a last-minute Morné Steyn penalty inched the Boks home 33-31. Perhaps it is no co-incidence that the veteran has been recalled to sit on the bench for this one.
The Pumas will be feeling they are closing in on a first-ever home victory over SA. They have been so close in recent years, with a 16-16 draw in Mendoza in 2012 just eclipsing that near win in Salta for nearness.
The Argentinians famously won in Durban last year and were a few minutes from winning last week in Mpumalanga, so they will fancy their chances tomorrow of another historic triumph.
And rightly so if the Springboks deliver the same quality of performance as they did last week.
While there is sympathy for coach Allister Coetzee in that he has had to try and hit the ground running this season with a new side, new management team and unwilling opponents in Ireland and now Argentina, the bottom line is that his charges must be running short on good fortune.
To be truthful about the Boks’ four Tests under Coetzee, the Boks have to be pleased with three wins from four when it could well have been zero from four had the rugby gods not smiled on them.
To give this Test match its critical significance, it must be taken into account that the Boks’ next encounter is in Brisbane against a Wallabies team that will have targeted the fixture and which could be utterly desperate after a probable six defeats in a row starting with the World Cup final against the All Blacks last year, taking in three home losses to England, last week’s defeat to New Zealand in Sydney and a likely reverse in Wellington tomorrow.
The Boks then travel from Brisbane to Christchurch to play the All Blacks.
It has been understandably difficult for the Boks to be world beaters in an instant this season given the widespread changes made in this post-World Cup year, but the reality is that they have to pull themselves together and win as a team rather than rely on the virtuosity of single players.