Jake White’s refusal to test his best away from home is as good as hoisting the World Cup white flag, writes Keo in his Independent Newspapers weekly column.
Minutes after All Blacks captain Richie McCaw on Saturday night told the Springboks the current generation of All Black finally had an appreciation of the Springboks and All Blacks rivalry, it was confirmed a second-string Bok squad would play the All Blacks in New Zealand.
The biggest All Black compliment of the last decade was returned with an even bigger South African insult.
Just when the respect is back for the contest, the national selectors pick a team with disregard for the traditions of the rivalry. New Zealand versus South Africa is supposed to be best plays best.
Springbok coach Jake White was adamant the mass pull-out was logical and necessary if the Boks were to win the World Cup. White said it was ludicrous to risk his first choice players in New Zealand. Why?
What was the risk? Is he talking the psychological blow of further defeat or is he masking behind potential injury risk?
If his available best can’t win in Durban, has he privately conceded they have no price in Christchurch? White needs the players and the public to believe a World Cup win against the All Blacks is possible. And he now has the escape of saying who knows how the first-choice team would have gone in New Zealand.
Where defeat in Christchurch would crush the Boks’ spirits, the coach will argue his second-string option is an all-win situation. Any decent performance will be a moral victory. Some would say there is brilliance in the thinking.
It is one way of looking at it; the other is White is simply delaying the inevitable by not fronting the All Blacks in New Zealand with his best.
That game would have given him the most honest assessment of their ability to beat the All Blacks on neutral ground.
White, in refusing to back his best to win in New Zealand in three weeks’ time, will have his conviction questioned. Does he really believe this team can do it in Paris? Or does he hope they can?
We won’t know the answer until the World Cup is over. But if fatigue is the currency for escaping selection accountability then why did exhausted Bulls and Sharks players get selected to play a third-choice England seven days after a titanic Super 14 final? Why did these same players again play England a week later?
The rest White now promotes should have come during the first three home Tests against meaningless opposition. The World Cup dress rehearsal should have been this Tri-Nations. White, playing his best against New Zealand and Australia’s best, would have known the World Cup state of play.
Saru has used science to defend the mass withdrawal. Where is the science in resting the likes of Ashwin Willemse, Os du Randt and CJ van der Linde, who hardly played in the Super 14? Jaque Fourie missed a month of rugby and only started as recently as the Wallabies Test. Fourie du Preez has not played for six weeks.
There was sound basis for tinkering with the squad for the demands of overseas travel. The All Blacks will see the mass withdrawal as a Bok white flag and confirmation of how much damage they did to the Boks’ World Cup psyche by winning in Durban.
Mark Keohane - keo.co.za
*Disclaimer - Views expressed within this story are not necessarily the views of this Blog
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