Inexperienced Bok squad up against the odds in Salta
IT HAS been a mere two years since the Springboks faced Argentina in Salta and yet only seven members of that team will be back on the pitch when the two sides face off at the same venue in this weekend’s Rugby Championship.
It is an indication of just what a big rebuilding phase the Springboks are in when you consider that there has been a 65% player overhaul in 24 months.
It is no wonder the Boks are battling for cohesion.
Locks Eben Etzebeth and Lood de Jager‚ flank Francois Louw‚ wing Bryan Habana and centre Damian de Allende started in 2014 and will return tomorrow.
Morne Steyn‚ Adriaan Strauss and Tendai Mtawarira were on the bench two years ago.
Strauss and Mtawarira will start this weekend with Steyn again on the bench.
The 2014 squad in Salta‚ which won 33-31‚ had a combined 886 caps.
It translated to an average of nearly 39 caps per player.
This year’s vintage has 527 caps for an average of 23 caps per man.
Taking out Habana’s 118 caps‚ the average for the remaining 22 players drops to 18.5 caps per player.
The 2014 team in Salta had 10 players who had more than 50 test caps.
This year’s Salta squad has four players with in excess of 50 test caps.
The Pumas have yet to name their team for the Salta match.
But if they are unchanged from last week’s selection in Nelspruit‚ there would be 13 survivors from the 2014 clash in the desert city.
That’s nearly double the continuity of the Boks in the same period.
The world champion All Blacks have also shown that their turnover of players is lower despite the retirements of stars such as Richie McCaw‚ Dan Carter‚ Conrad Smith and Ma’a Nonu.
The NZ squad that beat Australia 51-20 in Auckland two years ago‚ on the same weekend the Boks were in Salta‚ contained 13 players that will feature against the Wallabies in Wellington this weekend.
Australia only have nine survivors from the 2014 Auckland meeting for tomorrow’s encounter in Wellington. It could have been 11 had Matt Toomua and Rob Horne not been injured in Sydney last week.
So it is clear that the Boks are the team doing the most in terms of rebuilding of all the rivals in the Championship.
The Boks are also the only team with a new coach this year.
Allister Coetzee was appointed in April to take over from Heyneke Meyer.
Australia’s Michael Cheika is into his second season in charge, Argentina’s Daniel Hourcade is in his third year as head coach and NZ’s Steven Hansen in his fifth.
All this suggests the Boks are fighting against the odds.
They managed a 30-23 win over the Pumas‚ but from here on things will get tougher for Coetzee’s inexperienced squad.