Tripped by the first hurdle

Can we all just take a moment to breathe and inject some perspective into our thinking? Now. So Saturday did not go according to plan. Is it time for panic stations? Not on yer nelly.

It says a lot for our national mentality that when our players are entrusted with the freedom to make their own decisions, they seem so unsure of themselves and their own instincts. We are talking grown professionals here: not nine-year-olds still getting to grips with the game, but men who have played the game at their respective positions for a significant portion of their lives. Certainly you can’t blame them when the national mindset, from age-group level, is always about conformity and supposed order. Then we wonder why our players are by and large unable to be inventive when they find themselves with the ball in anything but a set move.

Surely the performance on Saturday wasn’t as discouraging as some are making it out to be. The All Blacks outmuscled us up front (with no small measure of skulduggery, in my view), they were faster and harder at the breakdown, and their backs seemed more confident and assured. And Dan Carter on the front foot is all but unstoppable. Any team would have lost to them on Saturday given those factors. But our front row are still largely a new combination and they need the coach to back them to bounce back; they certainly have the ability and willingness to do so as individuals and as a unit. Bakkies was his usual busy self in the tight-loose but his physicality seemed somehow subdued and lacked the mongrel of, say, a Brad Thorn (spear tackles aside), which also allowed the All Blacks to ride roughshod over our boys.

The loosies were expected to have the edge, and while they did not disgrace themselves individually, as a unit the All Blacks dominated them. Still kudos to Big Joe for showing he still has what it takes at international level. The Boks now have him, Spies and Kankowski vying for the number-eight position; Peter de Villiers’s brave call has just blessed him with an abundance of options at the base of the scrum. Schalk was his usual busy and rampaging self and did the Bok cause many favours. It’s Juan Smith, Butch James and Matfield who had me worried, though. It’s not that they played badly; it’s that they looked a shadow of themselves, the way you’d expect them to be if forced to play a spurious extra match against the Baa-Baas at the end of the November tours after a long season. Except this was only the fourth Test of the year. In Butch’s defence, thought, he has yet to have any semblance of a break since the World Cup so maybe it is justifiable, though it does not bode well for the rest of the Tri-Nations.

Matfield did well enough in the line-outs, as he would do in his sleep, but beyond that, nothing. Same with Juan: some good go-forward and scrapping but he seemed to be at 60% of his abilities. The coach cannot be blamed for such; if you put a fit world-class player on the pitch and in his favoured position and he doesn’t deliver, what can you do? Butch’s case is distressing given that Ricky Januarie tried endlessly to give him the space and room his forwards couldn’t afford him, yet he couldn’t deliver. Well played, Ricky; still, one wonders what could have been had he been given a decent platform.

Frans Steyn did nothing that was unexpected of him, good and bad. Jean de Villiers was a shining star and Adi Jacobs would have made all but the most one-eyed critics sit up and take note. Ndungane was his usual self, able and solid but, crucially, no more than that. De Villiers should have been bolder here and picked a more creative or explosive player. Why were Chavhanga and Nokwe left at home?

Habana played to type, the handling error aside, and Jantjies showed he is ready to assume the number-15 jersey full-time, but again, none of the backs especially looked to have enough faith in their own judgement, and by playing to type played right into the All Blacks’ hands. Let’s not forget this is a team fighting to win over a doubtful bitter public, and for them defending their home record is probably a bigger cause than actually winning the Tri-Nations at this point.

As for the coach, well, show me a Bok coach who wins in New Zealand at his first attempt and I’ll eat my words, but it’s certainly not the time to be picking apart De Villiers’s strategy. Not by a mile. There’s nought a coach can do when his team performs as the Boks did on the field. Let’s see how the boys bounce back next weekend and make a judgement from there. I do not see where he should make changes in personnel; upsetting the front row is not going to make it more settled or cohesive. Bakkies and Matfield do not cease to be the world’s premier lock combination on the back of one performance; ditto Smith, Butch and Habana. It’s just about pulling finger at this point.

Let’s give the coach and the boys time. Judge them on a decent spread of performances. This is Test rugby, not under-14 trials. Roll on round two.