Will Boks have the capacity?
ONE of the things Stormers coach Allister Coetzee loved to talk about at his press conferences in 2015 was “building capacity”. In other words, getting replacement players on par with the starters so that there isn’t a crisis when injuries do occur.
For most part the Stormers got it right, until they were exposed when they lost captain Duane Vermeulen and Schalk Burger ahead of the match against the Brumbies.
Glancing at the Springboks, you have to ask yourself if coach Heyneke Meyer has built enough “capacity” in key positions over the last four years to sustain the national team at the World Cup.
Will the Boks be able to cope in a World Cup semi-final against the All Blacks should they lose a Victor Matfield, Jaque Fourie or Fourie du Preez on the eve of such an important match?
South Africa have always been blessed with outstanding loose forwards, but for some reason we seem to be a bit light in the second row stocks these days. The scrumhalf position is also a bit of a concern, especially because Du Preez injured his knee last week.
The severity of the injury will be revealed today, but if the veteran doesn’t make it, will a Faf de Klerk or Rudy Paige be able back-up to Ruan Pienaar on the biggest stage of them all?
The same goes for Matfield, who at 38 years old is running on his last few litres of diesel. What makes Matfield’s situation even worse is that the two replacement No 5 locks in the squad, Pieter-Steph du Toit, who is still recovering from knee injury, and rookie Franco Mostert have two international caps between them.
Meyer is a coach who leaves nothing to chance, but it seems that he has taken a bit of a gamble on Matfield. And why not, he is one of the best lineout forwards to ever grace the game, and a player who always plays his best rugby on the biggest stage.
But will be able to handle give or take 12 more Test matches?
Then there is the outside centre position, where three inside centres, Jean de Villiers, Jan Serfontein and Damian de Allende, have done duty over the last few years.
Juan de Jongh has again been overlooked, as Meyer has opted for the impressive Lions man Lionel Mapoe. But De Jongh has a lot more international experience, and he if was given a shot over the last four years, he could have arguably been a better international player, who knows the ins and outs of the No 13 jersey. July 11: v World XV (Newlands, 5pm) July 18: v Australia (Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, 12.05pm) July 25: v New Zealand (Ellis Park, 5pm) August 8: v Argentina (Kings Park, 5pm) August 15: v Argentina (Estadio Malvinas Argentinas, Buenos Aires, 00.40am)
JP Pietersen is best suited on the right wing because he is a player who thrives in space. He also missed an awful lot of tackles at outside centre for the Sharks this year.
Things would obviously have been better if Andries Bekker was available for the World Cup as cover for Matfield, or if Du Toit had spent more time on the field over the last three years than on the physio’s bed.
Meyer also didn’t know that Francois Hougaard’s play at No 9 would have dropped so alarmingly over the last few years, as he seems to be a better wing than a scrumhalf at the moment.
Players moving to Europe and Japan have also not helped the situation.
But the coach has only himself to blame for not throwing the net wider when he took over in 2012. And hopefully it doesn’t come back to haunt him when the Boks start their World Cup campaign against Japan on September 19.
He has five matches left until the global showpiece and it’s going to be interesting to see how he juggles this squad in terms of gametime.
While he said he isn’t too worried about the most of his stalwarts’ Super Rugby form, he may now have to settle on a team and play his stars in most of the remaining matches, starting with the match against the World XV next weekend at Newlands to get some rhythm going.
But Meyer may also want to expose some of his rookies to the rigours of Test match rugby against the likes of Australia and New Zealand.
But hopefully for Meyer the likes of Matfield, Du Preez and Fourie make it through to the World Cup unscathed. They have all the “capacity” in the world.