All the world loves a winner

Many of the players interviewed in pre-Super 12 television programmes alluded to the fact that 2003 being a World Cup year added an extra dimension to the tournament.

It would be well that certain of them remind themselves of this significant additional facet as the Super 12 races on.

Player such as Bob Skinstad, Joe van Niekerk and André Pretorius for instance. Springboks all, they could find themselves eclipsed if their team, the Cats, continues to perform poorly.

The same criterion exists for individuals in the other three teams for it is an unalterable fact of sport – all the world loves a winner.

This thought struck me while we were picking our “Super XV” team after the second round of matches.

It a complete inversion of the past few seasons we were suddenly talking about Bulls and putting them in the team. Why? Because the Bulls were winning and logic dictates that winning teams contain excellent individuals.

Obviously players can stand out in losing teams but the stigma of defeat clings and is hard to ignore.

So we ended up rewarding individuals from the Bulls in the Super XV and included no Cats, no Stormers and no Sharks – the consensus being that the Sharks, rather than playing outstandingly, had profited from the worst performance by the Brumbies any of us could remember.

Now if that is happening to us you can bet a similar phenomenon will course through the panel when Rudolf Straeuli, Francois Davids, Wynand Claassen and the four Super 12 coaches sit down to set out a Springbok team for the mid-year tests against the Scots and Argentina and then on into the Tri-Nations before the World Cup in October and November.

Thus some very big names could find themselves on the cutting room floor because they have been caught in an under-performing team.

This applies to the players in all the franchises (other than Robbie Kempson who appears to have been given a sort of free pass while others have to hack it through the world’s toughest rugby competition) so it is in their interests to inspire and motivate those around them to start performing – no, make that winning.

Players also need to bear in mind that being in the loop by June is going to be all-important as the coach will be unlikely to want to change his mind once he has settled on his initial squad.

Not only are coaches loath to admit mistakes by going back on original selections but players from the big provinces must take heed that with a Currie Cup knock-out competition in place to decide two teams to go into the first flight of the competition there are going to be few opportunities to impress once the Super 12 has run its course.

It may be a long way out but already a pattern is discernible. Players such as Skinstad, Van Niekerk, Pretorius, James Dalton, Werner Greeff, Corné Krige, Selborne Boome, Brent Russell, Stefan Terblanche, Butch James, AJ Venter and Ollie le Roux are not as secure as they once were while the like of Joost van der Westhuizen, Louis Koen, Geo Cronje, Wessel Roux, Pedrie Wannenburg, Wikus van Heerden, Victor Matfield, Danie Coetzee, Jaco van der Westhuyzen, Dries Scholtz (even though latter pair have been injured), Craig Davidson, Robbie Fleck and Breyton Paulse have made strong statements.

The message to big-name players could therefore not be more stark. Get your teams excelling or you risk going down with the ship.