If Coetzee is planning for 2019, why has he pulled out the old Steyn safety net?

IT hasn’t taken Allister Coetzee long to grab hold of the safety net that we all criticised his predecessor, Heyneke Meyer, for not being able to do without.

If you want to give that safety net a name, call it Morne Steyn. His selection makes no sense if you consider that he is heading for his mid-30s and would in rugby terms be a geriatric by the time the next World Cup comes around in 2019.

That is what Coetzee is supposed to be building towards and directing all his energies towards at present, isn’t it? Well, it is and it isn’t. Coetzee is like every other Bok coach before him. In order for him to realise any dream that he may harbour for 2019, he needs to survive in the here and now. And that requires him to coach a team who win Test matches.

Coetzee obviously reasons that if Steyn’s experience might be more bankable should the pressure be on in Salta tonight and a kick required to win the game, then so be it. The history books will just reflect a “W” next to that game, rather than an “L”, and that will be what is important.

That he showed archaic thinking in making his selection for the game will be forgotten when his employers assess whether he met his targets or not.

And archaic it is – if indeed Coetzee really buys into the drive to grow the Bok game into something more all-embracing than the conservative one-off runner strategy employed by Meyer at the last World Cup. If you want to play running rugby, you don’t choose Steyn to be your flyhalf. He’s never been one to attack the gainline with any relish and his defence is questionable.

The Steyn successes have usually come in Bok teams who have won through the old strangulation tactic. If you want to know what I mean by that, think back to 2009. The Boks won three Tests to zip against the All Blacks and won the Tri-Nations with ease. It was successful rugby but only because you could get away with percentage rugby in those days.

Steyn was the right fit at that time, but he can’t possibly be seen as the right fit now. Is Coetzee to blame for this? Partially yes, because he does have other options. In fact, he has a good one in his starting team tonight. Johan Goosen can kick a ball and until Dan Carter popped up at the same French club that he plays for, he was seen almost exclusively as a flyhalf. A good one too.

But there is also some irony in the fact that Coetzee has turned so quickly to the Steyn safety net, and the Bryan Habana one for that matter, and it reflects that he may not be entirely to blame.

Steyn would not be needed now had the previous Bok coach not used the same safety net, and had he shown enough faith in Elton Jantjies to allow him to grow some international experience.

That Coetzee is concerned about Jantjies is obvious. I’ve written before that part of it might be down to him playing poorly when he was coached by Coetzee at the Stormers but experience, or lack thereof, is also surely a massive factor.

Meyer is a decent man and he only ever did what he felt was right for the Boks, but his blind eye to the abilities of some of the Lions players – Jantjies being one – has come back to bite his successor. Jantjies was more erratic at Super Rugby level than he is now, and yet seemed to conquer the challenge. He is a better player now than he was. Maybe he will grow at international level, too, if given the chance.

The Boks so far, though, have already used up a good number of get-out-of-jail cards in their four matches under Coetzee, so it would be understandable if the head coach, the man who thrives or falls on Bok results, is getting a bit impatient.

Another Curate’s egg of a performance from Jantjies today will surely see him displaced as the first-choice wearer of the No 10. If it is Goosen who replaces him, then there shouldn’t be too many complaints. If it is Steyn, then the Boks are just marking time and Coetzee’s resource base for the 2019 World Cup is just marking time, and so by implication is the game plan (the one that has been spoken about but not seen, except when the Boks are chasing the game).

It is easy to feel sorry for Coetzee on the basis that his best flyhalves, Handre Pollard and Pat Lambie, are sidelined. But they might be injured in 2019 too, in which case Jantjies might be required, and Steyn should be retired. Being prepared to suffer the Jantjies growing pains now may safeguard against pain later.