Still, only the Boks can beat All Blacks

A Springbok team depleted by injuries lost to a star-studded Barbarians side on Saturday, but demoralised South Africans fan must have taken heart from the remarks made by Nick Mallett after the game.

The verdict by Mallett, coach of the Barbarians and the former Springbok mentor, was that the three Southern Hemisphere teams, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, will be semi-finalists in the Rugby World Cup in 2011.

“The Springboks are the only team capable of beating the All Blacks at the 2011 Rugby World Cup when their first-choice and full-strength team is available,” Mallett said. The Boks have the self-belief to inflict defeat on the All Blacks, he added.

South Africa’s lack of experience was evident on Saturday, not only because many first-choice players were injured or not available because of other Northern Hemisphere club commitments, but also because of the way the South African team failed to jealously guard own possession.

From the resulting turn-overs, the Barbarians caused havoc and scored three tries within the first 25 minutes.

In his progress report and review after the loss against the Barbarians De Villiers called the tour a qualified success.

"Losing to Scotland remains very disappointing, but it shouldn't totally overshadow the progress we have made," the Bok coach said.

"We left a large number of senior players at home and many commentators didn't give us much chance,” he told SuperSport.

"But we showed in our wins against Ireland, Wales and England that when we properly execute our game plan we make it very hard for the opposition.

"We dominated England and Ireland – for the first 60 minutes – and turned around our game against Wales with some great play in the second half.

"Those were hard games in sometimes difficult conditions against fresh and motivated teams."

Some valuable outcomes

De Villiers said that there were other valuable outcomes of the tour.

"We have been able to blood some new players in Test match rugby as well as give some young players an exposure to the Springbok environment that'll stand our rugby in good stead in 2011 and beyond," he said.

"The pool of capped Springboks in serious contention for selection next year has been widened by this tour, while the hidden benefit is that we have more than a dozen senior players who weren't on tour and who have had the advantage of an extended rest period.

"I think the senior players on this tour – such as Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha – also ended the debate about whether it's time to retire the over-30s, as some people wanted to: they led and performed in great style.

"Our scrum has continued to improve on this tour and we held our own and had periods of dominance in a region where they take scrumming very seriously. Overall I think our first phases were very good.

"We were also able to work on the way we want to play and we're very clear on that within the group. We have South African strengths and we will play to them and when we keep hold of the ball as we plan and execute our plans with accuracy a Springbok team is very hard to beat,” he told SuperSport.

The problem with the remarks by De Villiers is that if you do not adapt to the modern game, you might die a premature death at the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

The ability to breach the defensive line from first-phase attacks has become a hallmark of the New Zealand and Australian game and that is why the Boks conceded 22 tries in six Tri-Nations games in 2011.

Part of the reason for this alarming trend is that the Springboks happily presented the All Blacks and the Wallabies with the possession through inaccurate kicking or an unwillingness to recycle the ball through several phases when in promising field positions.

The Springbok game plan is not necessarily a South African trademark or blueprint on how to play the oval-ball game. If you study Currie Cup rugby and the Super14 matches, virtually all the SA teams showed a willingness to recycle possession and attack from deep.

It was also an extremely successful campaign and the Bulls’ trophies (three of them in the past four years as Vodacom Super 14 champion) are  testimony to this style of play.

Sell-by dates?

South Africa will have to revisit the game plan and De Villiers’s mantra: “Why should we run around them if we can run through them.”

Another question that the Boks should answer is when do very senior Springboks reach their sell-by date.

The mere fact that somebody is 30-something does not make him a war veteran who qualifies for early retirement pension.

Simon Shaw of England and Os du Randt of South Africa as well as Percy Montgomery and Henri Honiball represented their countries at the Rugby World Cup and played pivotal roles in victories on the world stage when they were close to 35  or older.

But the modern game asks questions of the durability of many players because of the brutality of the breakdowns and the intensity of the game. The Bok management will have to ask whether John Smit, Jean de Villiers and CJ van der Linde have reached the end of the line.

Even Bakkies Botha’s game will be scrutinised, as Flippie van der Merwe, Danie Rossouw and Andries Bekker will all present cases as first-choice partners for Victor Matfield.

Wise player-management

But before silly decisions  are made to discard these superb players who are in their twilight-years their individual recuperation and wise management of their playing time will have to be fine-tuned.

If they are not carefully managed they might be passengers or in the Red Cross tent for injured war-heroes months before the Rugby World Cup starts.

The current  tour, though, has given South Africa hope that we do possess talent in several key positions to scare the All Blacks and the Wallabies in July and August during the Vodacom Tri-Nations campaign.

Willem Alberts, Bismarck du Plessis, Jannie du Plessis, Patrick Lambie, Lwazi Mvovo, Tendai The Beast Mtwarira, Francois Hougaard and Ruan Pienaar have all thrown their hats in the Rugby World Cup ring.

South Africa will be able to select a Rugby World Cup team capable of beating Ireland in the quarter-finals and upsetting the mighty All Blacks in the semi-final.

Hopefully the Boks are prepared to adapt and to evolve, instead of embracing the prehistoric game-plan of the Rugby World Cup of 2007. Hopefully South Africa won’t fall into the trap of expecting victory because they boast more experience and test caps than any opposing team during the World Cup.

The Springboks are next in action in a Tri-Nations match against Australia in Sydney on July 23 next year.