A timely warning

The Cheetahs’ surprise victory over Western Province at a rainy Newlands is a timely warning of just how tough a challenge the Springboks will face on their forthcoming Grand Slam tour.

That a Springbok-laden Province side struggled so to come to terms with conditions dictated by the weather was a worrying augury for what lies ahead in Wales, Ireland, England and Scotland and, we tend to forget, on the way home in Argentina.

It’s all very well to talk of the roof over the Millennium Stadium – and if I were the Welsh I’d open it! – but sticky underfoot conditions and cold will still play a role.

Lansdowne Road in Dublin, which is exposed to the elements, will be an extremely hard hurdle to overcome; Twickenham perhaps a little easier in terms of an excellent pitch but still exposed to wind and rain and Murrayfield an entirely different proposition to what Scotland’s lowly position on the totem pole might suggest.

What the game at Newlands showed is just how big an adaptation it is for South African players when the weather turns foul and how maladroit they are when it comes to playing the type of rugby required.

The basic requirement is that everything has to be tighter – shorter passes, cradled ball, tighter formations, pin-point kicking, accuracy ahead of expansiveness.

It sounds simple enough but as Province, containing so many of Jake White’s king-pins, bumbled their way to defeat against a Free State side playing the more canny rugby I could feel, to coin a phrase, my qualm quotientgrowing for what they might encounter in the cold northern climes.

This trepidation was not helped by the commentators at the World Match Play golf at Wentworth making numerous references to bad weather on the way for the rainy isles and a lumbering performance by the Blue Bulls against the Lions, especially when it came to controlling the ball through multiple phases, at kick-offs and making kicks that put pressure on the opposition rather than turn over possession.

Control of the ball is going to be crucial if the Boks are to be successful and there is no doubt that acclimatizing to a cold and wet environment is far harder than it is for sides from the north coming to our, mostly, perfect conditions.

In fact, the cold is as big a bogey as wet weather as frozen fingers and a hard, less pliant ball, can wreak havoc with the competence of normally skilful players.

There is no doubt that the type of game played in he north is intrinsically different to that which our players are accustomed to and that it’s going to requite a massive adaptation – especially as many in the squad will be on their first tour of Britain and Ireland.

Then, when it is all done, the boys will head for Buenos Aires to start all over again –this time having to cope with hot, muggy conditions, a significant time change and a Puma side desperate to prove that they deserve better recognition from other major rugby-playing nations.

And all this will happen on five successive Saturdays. As my old Air Force drill instructor used to say: “Manne ons gaan !x*”