More confident Bok team to face France
● The Springboks clash next weekend against France will present a glimpse into the future as much as it is an opportunity for their brand to address one of its darkest chapters.
Next Saturday’s clash will be SA’s third at Stade Velodrome in Marseille and only their second there against France. They last played in France’s oldest city in 2007 when late tries from Juan Smith and Butch James got the eventual champions out of a sticky situation against Fiji in the Rugby World Cup (RWC).
If that was awkward, it doesn’t nearly compare to their match against France in 2002.
Almost 20 years ago to the day they suffered a record 30-10 defeat at the hands of the Tricolores who were rampant against a nervous and tentative Springbok team under Rudolf Straeuli.
The coach was preparing his team for the 2003 RWC in Australia and had embarked on an enthusiastic picking spree.
Captain Corne Krige labelled his team inexperienced and unsettled but what made things worse was a debilitating injury list. Perhaps as portents for their careers Jean de Villiers tore knee ligaments inside the first seven minutes, while fellow debutant Bakkies Botha was yellow-carded.
They were to have long and distinguished careers but, for 35-year-old Willie Meyer, the match in Marseille was an unplanned swansong. He intended to hang up his boots after the RWC, but suffered a career-ending neck injury as the Bok scrum buckled under the force of France hardman Jean-Jacques Crenca.
De Villiers and Meyer, who shattered a disc between his fifth and sixth vertebrae, weren’t the only members of the Bok infirmary. Lawrence Sephaka (ankle), Jannes Labuschagne (hand), Werner Greeff (neck) and Robbie Fleck (hamstring) counted among the walking wounded.
“There were the injuries and the other thing was, we played at 10 o’clock at night. I don’t know why,” recalled Krige.
On field he presided over a team that slipped to crushing defeats in Edinburgh and London. “It was the start of a very bad tour in 2002, that’s for sure. That whole tour counted against us. We were an inexperienced and unsettled side,” he admits.
It was the injuries suffered in Marseille at the start of the tour, however, that helped expose the soft underbelly of the squad. Apart from De Villiers and Botha, Straeuli handed new caps to the now late Pedrie Wannenburg, Marco Wentzel and Wessel Roux.
Only two players in the starting team had more than 30 caps. Twenty years on, however, the Springbok team that will fly into Provence today is far more developed in its life cycle.
Only five Springboks who were selected in the starting team against Ireland yesterday had not reached the 30-cap mark.
This is a far more confident and accomplished Springbok team. While Straeuli all those years ago was still trying to build and find a Springbok team, coach Jacques Nienaber is in effect applying finishing touches to his RWC planning.
The Springboks will make their preparations for the Test in the naval city of Toulon, where they will be based for much of next year’s RWC.
They are doing reconnaissance this week for what they are likely to face next year. Everything from the weather to hotel menus, time to travel to training facilities and indeed match day will be part of their fact-finding mission.
In fact, their hosts in the region have indicated they can shorten their travel time to Felix Mayol Stadium for training by using a boat. Straeuli’s team met its Waterloo on the Cote d’Azur — but it is from there that the Boks next week can fire a broadside at next year’s World Cup hosts.