The year-end tour monster

Now that the Springboks can do absolutely nothing to stop the All Blacks from winning back the Tri-Nations title, it is time rather to turn our attentions to restoring pride in the national jersey and creating some momentum ahead of next year’s World Cup.

The next three home Tri-Nations games will be crucial for the Springboks, not only because they are on home soil, but because it will test the reaction of a management team currently under pressure to come up with a counter to not only the All Black supremacy, but their own playing woes on the field.

You don’t have to be an expert to expect the Boks to do well in these three test matches. They are, by far, a different animal at home, and all three tests are at altitude, with the Wallabies having a very poor record, having not won at altitude since 1992.

If the Boks can pull off the historic Soccer City test, they will have done more for their own self-belief and that of a nation than they could hope for. Saying that, pressure is an ugly thing and it will be all on the world champions in that clash.

However, the real challenge for the Bok management will come at the end of the year, where a suicidal four-game Grand Slam main course, and a Barbarians game for dessert have been lined-up against the good advice of every top conditioning expert in the country.

It is obvious that these games bring in much-needed revenue for Saru, but for the Bok management team, the signs of a team arriving at the World Cup a game too far must be a very concerning one indeed.

While I’m not subscribing to the fatigue theory, it will be paramount to our success to find a way of resting players properly between now and then.

That means that players such as John Smit and Victor Matfield, Danie Rossouw, Jaque Fourie, Schalk Burger and Morne Steyn all need to take a breather. To have them play five nonsensical games at the end of a long season makes little sense.

The challenge for the Bok coaching staff will be to find a blend of youth and experience that still upholds the Bok values, but allows the breathing space for the senior players that they can be well conditioned, rested and ready for 2011.

By contrast, the returning Boks – the likes of Juan Smith, JP Pietersen, Bakkies Botha (if he is forgiven), Heinrich Brussow and Bismarck du Plessis could provide a solid base for the team in the tour.

But here the challenges will already have been taken on by the management. Coach Peter de Villiers has already mentioned more than once grooming younger players for big time action.

In some cases though their calculations have been mistimed, perhaps by their own belief in players who simply haven’t delivered what they were intended to.

Ricky Januarie is one of these cases, and with Fourie du Preez out until the end of the year, the Boks will now need to search for a proper back-up system for the world’s best halfback.

Januarie has not delivered the goods and while the Bok coach tends to believe in him as a game-breaker, even he cannot deny that his form has done a downward dive of late.

Ruan Pienaar’s move to Ulster means he is unlikely to feature in any Springbok group post this Tri-Nations and thus both flyhalf and scrumhalf back-up will need to be found.

The positive showing in his return to the position by Francois Hougaard this past weekend marks his name as the likely successor to Januarie behind Du Preez, but flyhalf is another concern.

The tour should, for all intent and purposes, be used to ensure that while the top contracted Boks are hopefully resting, that fringe players such as Dewald Potgieter, Francois Louw, Flip van der Merwe, Chiliboy Ralepelle, Juan de Jongh and Gio Aplon are given a longer run to establish themselves.

It will also be the ideal opportunity for De Villiers to finally decide if Butch James is the back-up for Steyn, or whether an alternative can do the job?

Another interesting problem that De Villiers will have to overcome is the normal public sentiment over Currie Cup form. Last year the Bok coach burnt his fingers badly in selecting Currie Cup stars for midweek games and if modern rugby has taught us one thing, it is that Super 14 form is the benchmark for international rugby.

A young talent like Patrick Lambie showed in the Super 14 that he is ready for international level, but another like Elton Jantjies perhaps needs a Super rugby season to blood him more at that level.

Leaving senior players at home will be a sensible thing to do, but there may be no option as the contracts may state that the best team will need to tour.

Either way that challenge, which could determine more than just a Grand Slam, could well be the biggest one facing this management team ahead of the World Cup. Who would want to be in their seats right now?