Bok front row: No messing about
2008-06-12 16:13
Rob Houwing
Cape Town - All change, please! The Springbok coaching staff have wasted no time at all in dealing wi`th the only significant Achilles Heel - at scrum-time - in the first Test, for the second encounter with Wales at Loftus on Saturday.
Not only are the two starting props from last week, Gurthro Steenkamp and Brian Mujati, unceremoniously dumped from the starting XV, but CJ van der Linde, who came off the bench in Bloemfontein, doesn't crack the match 22 either - denying him the opportunity for his 50th cap.
It is, of course, true that both Van der Linde and Mujati have been carrying niggles in the build-up to Loftus and this may well have influenced selection.
Still, the Pretoria crunch will reveal whether such radical remedial steps in the boiler room were warranted: it is difficult not to feel some sympathy for the Test rookie Mujati, who would probably have been a slightly less naïve foe for crusty Gethin Jenkins this time.
Similarly, barrel-like Bulls prop Steenkamp was pretty active in driving play in the first Test, even if you will find many a scrummaging guru less than wholly ecstatic about his consistency in the core area.
Stronger options?
That said, Peter de Villiers and his fellow brains-trust have clearly decided that the trio of early-winter "incoming" European Tests can justifiably be used for experimentation ahead of the stiffer Tri-Nations task - and they want to see whether stronger options exist in the front three after the hiccups in Bloemfontein.
Thus Sharks crowd favourite Beast Mtawarira earns an unexpected fast-tracking to starting loosehead, despite a school of thought that he is tailor-made for an Ollie le Roux-type of impact role for the last 20 or 30 minutes.
Not everyone will be convinced that another "technical" scrummager, the older hand BJ Botha, holds all the long-term answers at No 3, but he deserved another opportunity after a spirited Super 14 "comeback" from his slightly waning Bok fortunes last year.
He also tends to scrum well alongside John Smit. Durban enthusiasts, in fact, will relish the effectively all-Sharks front trio for Loftus - no harm in combinations.
The other two changes to the XV are wholly justified, with Victor Matfield almost inevitably reacquainting himself with Bakkies Botha at lock for the Test at their favourite stamping ground.
Stormers beanstalk Andries Bekker was better than "par" in his maiden Test in Bloemfontein, and will possibly see some second-half action anyway - this hardly amounts to a demotion for the talented prospect.
Bolla Conradie was in a Bekker-like position: extremely tidy in the first Test, but Plan A was always going to come back into play once Ricky Januarie managed to avoid being "rowdy" this week.
The competitive Januarie may plague the Welsh even more than Conradie did, what with his fearless, in-your-face sniping as a virtual extra loose forward at times.
All in all, there is a case for arguing that this is a stronger starting Bok combo than last time. It could just add up to particularly bad news for Wales!