Boks must atone for big mistake
2008-07-11 12:56
Gavin Rich
Dunedin - Perhaps the most telling comment to come out of the Springbok camp in a week where everyone seemed to do way too much talking was one that was hardly picked up on.
Fullback Percy Montgomery, now restored to the last line of defence for Saturday's second Vodacom Tri-Nations Test against New Zealand and rapidly closing in on his 100 international cap, told a website that the Boks could not expect to beat the All Blacks if they did not have any structure in their approach.
This was an admission of what most of us saw last week: A team that looked for all the world like it had been told to go out and live the moment and play the situation.
A cardinal mistake against a side like New Zealand, and coach Peter de Villiers was constantly reminded of this during the early Tests against Wales on those occasions when heads up rugby seemed to prevail.
It is a fact that the only time the Boks have impressed so far this season was in the first Test against Wales in Bloemfontein.
In that match they played a highly structure, risk free game in the first half, suffocating the Welsh, before capitalising on the constriction process in the second half.
Inexplicable reason
As was written at the time, skipper John Smit played a massive role in ensuring that there was some continuity in style between the Jake White era and the De Villiers one.
It was seen to work first time out, but for some inexplicable reason, De Villiers threw away the script in Pretoria a week later, and had the Welsh been at full-strength, they could well have scored a first ever win against the Boks on South African soil.
The wet weather Test against Italy in Cape Town was never more than adequate, and though the Boks did play the right game by keeping it close and relying on tactical kicking,
De Villiers did intimate at the press conference afterwards that he did not entirely agree with the approach of his captain for the day, Victor Matfield.
Those of us who heard him say that thought we had heard things, but it appeared to be confirmed last week, when he selected a dry weather team for a wet weather Test in Wellington.
To his credit, De Villiers has subsequently done what many Bok coaches before him failed to do by admitting that he got it wrong. Like Montgomery's, his comments were telling, for they indicated a tactical naivety that was quite alarming for someone employed to coach a team at this level.
Weather conditions
If the people who employ De Villiers were not already alarmed, they should have become alarmed after he said that.
The coach has kowtowed to some extent to the weather conditions this week by recalling Montgomery at fullback, but he is still being criticised for most critics would not have made this selection at the expense of Conrad Jantjes, who played well in Dunedin.
They would have opted instead to move Jantjes to the wing, where his kicking game would be crucial.
However, you cannot have it both ways, and there is another school of thought that the more members of the team that started the World Cup final in the team the better for this crucial game.
The selection of Montgomery and JP Pietersen means that the old back three has finally been reunited, while the number of World Cup winners has stretched from eight to nine (John Smit is of course not there now).
De Villiers is right when he says that Pietersen has a better kicking game than Odwa Ndungane, but the line on whether he is right or wrong will depend on how Pietersen plays and how the Springboks approach the game.
If they have placed a bigger emphasis on structure, which would mean giving assistant coach Gary Gold a bigger role in the preparation, then their chances of beating an All Black team that even in victory last week were not all that impressive, will improve significantly.
But given his public acknowledgement of how utterly wrong he got it in the first Test, another wishy-washy performance will introduce very serious question marks over De Villiers's suitability for this job.
Teams
New Zealand: Mils Muliaina, Sitiveni Sivivatu, Conrad Smith, Ma'a Nonu, Rudi Wulf, Dan Carter, Andy Ellis; Jerome Kaino, Rodney So'oialo (captain), Adam Thomson, Ali Williams, Anthony Boric, John Afoa, Andrew Hore, Tony Woodcock. Subs: Keven Mealamu, Neemia Tialata, Kevin O?Neill, Sione Lauaki, Jimmy Cowan, Stephen Donald, Leon MacDonald.
South Africa: Percy Montgomery, JP Pietersen, Adrian Jacobs, Jean de Villiers, Bryan Habana, Butch James, Ricky Januarie, Joe van Niekerk, Juan Smith, Schalk Burger, Victor Matfield, Bakkies Botha, CJ van der Linde, Bismarck du Plessis, Gurthro Steenkamp. Subs: Schalk Brits, Beast Mtawarira, Andries Bekker, Luke Watson, Ruan Pienaar, Francois Steyn, Conrad Jantjes.
Referee: Matt Goddard (Australia).
Kick-off: 09:35 SA time.
Prediction: All Blacks by similar score to last week.