Not starting young bucks a risk for the Boks?

THE oldest cliché in the rugby book is that the game starts up front, but this could be where the Springboks lose tomorrow’s Test match against Ireland after coach Allister Coetzee yesterday made two crucial selections in the front row.

He has recalled Tendai Mtawarira, pictured, and Coenie Oosthuizen at loosehead and tighthead respectively, instead of making brave calls and picking in-form young bucks in Steven Kitshoff and Wilco Louw.

Coetzee has argued that the latter players will give him a power-backed bench. It will, but what if the game is lost by the time they come on?

Ireland have an exceptional front row that is spearheaded by British and Irish Lions stars Tadhg Furlong and Rory Best and veteran Cian Healy, who is no slouch himself, and they will look to attack the Boks up front and gain the ascendancy.

We saw in the recent Currie Cup final what can happen when a front row gets well on top, as the Western Province combination did, forcing the Sharks to play on the back foot. In the second half of that match, the Sharks had little possession and were systematically destroyed. The destroyer-in-chief was Louw, who proved equally good at international level when he played off the bench at Newlands against the All Blacks. When he came on for struggling Ruan Dreyer, there was a noticeable lift in the Boks’ forward game.

Oosthuizen has played no rugby since an unfortunate injury in early September, while Louw remains on the bench.

Oosthuizen had a very good Super Rugby campaign for the Sharks and played well against France and Argentina. But he has had no contact for nearly two months. It is a big ask to throw him in against Ireland, especially against such a strong Irish front row.

Can Oosthuizen be expected to hit the ground running after a long break? Tighthead is a position where the only way you can grapple yourself into form is by live scrumming, in other words, by playing. Scrumming against a machine is not the same thing, as scrum coach Matthew Proudfoot said on Tuesday ...

“With scrumming, you’ve got to be at the coal face where you experience challenges every week and your innate personality solves problems,” Proudfoot said. “You can’t solve it on a machine. You can’t do that. A machine is about timing and synergy. It’s not like cricket. You’ve got to be in the middle to get better. When it’s out there and it’s man-on-man, that’s when you get to see how good a player is. That’s where Tadhg Furlong has really impressed me.”

Mtawarira has all the experience in the world but he has not played since September 30.

Kitshoff was sensational against the All Blacks and while Mtawarira has practically owned the No 1 jersey since 2008, Kitshoff is in fact the incumbent and took his chance wonderfully at Newlands.

The third change to the starting line-up is at inside centre where Damian de Allende comes in for Jan Serfontein. It is a pity that the in-form Serfontein asked to be excused from this match but the opportunity is there for De Allende to recapture the form that made him a No 1 choice Bok in 2015 and most of 2016.

Coetzee has made the conservative call in going for Elton Jantjies at No 10, but it is probably the correct one.