Boks have the luck of Habana
HISTORY tells us the Springboks will beat Australia today and end a three-match losing streak. There can be no other outcome – not when you know that the Boks have won all previous meetings between the teams at Loftus Versfeld and that flyhalf Morne Steyn and wing Bryan Habana are still in the team to tackle the Wallabies.
The average score between the teams in Rugby Championship matches at Loftus is 36-18 in favour of the Boks. Steyn is the leading points scorer against the Aussies, with 158, and Habana is the top try scorer against them, with nine.
And let’s not forget that Steyn, a veteran of 64 Tests, is back on the ground where he kicked the Bulls to so many victories and also helped the Boks register numerous wins, including the match-winning penalty that secured the Boks the 2009 series against the British and Irish Lions.
History points to a Bok win against the Wallabies today. But history doesn’t win Test matches and there are still a number of questions that the Boks will have to answer from 5pm if they are to end a miserable month of losses.
Coach Allister Coetzee’s selection of Steyn, ahead of Elton Jantjies, smacks of desperation. But that is exactly what the coach and Boks are probably feeling right now – desperate.
Steyn has been asked to guide the Boks today, to kick them into the right areas of the field, to manage the backs and be the calming influence in a new-look back division. Although he is capable of doing all of these things, he has also played hardly any proper, pressure-filled rugby in months.
It is a big ask for the veteran No 10 and you can be sure he will be feeling the weight of expectation. Steyn has pretty much been asked to be the saviour of Springbok rugby, but he is not likely to be considered good enough in a year’s time, not when Handre Pollard is back and Pat Lambie has had a few more games, or once Jantjies has found his form in the Test arena.
Also today, scrumhalf Rudy Paige has to do what Faf de Klerk hasn’t done and that’s kick the Boks into good areas of the field. He, too, will feel the heat, this being his first Test start, but what an opportunity to make the No 9 jersey his own for the foreseeable future if he produces a performance that many have been hoping to see from him for years.
Then there’s Pat Lambie at fullback. Coetzee has stated that picking the Sharks man in the last line of defence is far from being a gamble because Lambie has played more than 50 Tests. The thing is, he will go into the game having played less than 40 minutes of rugby since June, and, although he has played at fullback before, it is not a position where he feels wholly comfortable.
The Boks today are a desperate lot, of that there is no doubt. They have lost three in a row and with the All Blacks coming up next weekend, this is their big chance to end the losing run.
If they don’t win today against a poor Wallabies team, they could easily spiral out of control, with four away Tests coming up in Europe in November.
Imagine what state Coetzee and the Boks will be in heading overseas in little over a month’s time – for Tests against the Barbarians, England, Italy and Wales – if they do so after five straight defeats.
Coetzee’s men need to get it right today. Let’s forget who is wearing the Bok jumpers. Every man must do his basics well and execute properly. If they simply do that, then there is no reason why the Boks should not win.
They may be a side that is missing several first-choice men to injury and they may be under extreme pressure, but, man for man, they are a better team than the Wallabies.
Boks, it’s time to restore some pride in the jersey.