Hard core

Who would be a Springbok coach? Thanks heavens I’m not, I thought, as one of my young companions expelled a breath of air and exclaimed: 'Jeez, that’s hard core!'

Youngsters these days have a way of describing something that is either very tough are extremely difficult to do as “hard core,” and what we were talking about certainly fitted the bill.

It was early on Saturday afternoon at the SuperSport Show and I was waiting at the Tukkies High Performance Centre to do an interview with Rudolf Straeuli.

Three of us were talking about the naming of the impending World Cup team when the coach called to say that he simply could not make it. By way of explanation Straeuli said he needed to talk personally to the players who would NOT be in the squad before the side was revealed later in the evening.

Can you imagine that? It is hard enough to pick a World Cup team but imagine having to tell some hopeful young man, who had been part of the team, part of the training group, that he would not be going to Australia?

With the naming of the Springbok team for the 2003 World Cup overshadowed by SA Rugby’s embarrassing “Geogate” affair, Straeuli had the task of having to face the like of Jaco van der Westhuyzen, Pedrie Wannenburg and CJ van der Linde to tell them they had not made it while he probably also made calls to André Pretorius, Brent Russell, Lucas van Biljon and some others to impart the bad tidings.

In particular, my heart bled for Jaco van der Westhuyzen. After an excellent Super 12 the Blue Bulls fullback was not picked for the first test of the year – the nod going to Ricardo Loubscher - but then came in for the internationals against Scotland (second test), Argentina and Australia. In the latter game he was injured within the first two minutes and Brent Russell came on to do a star turn.

After that, against New Zealand, Australia and the All Blacks again, the No15 jersey went to Russell, Pretorius and Thinus Delport while Van der Westhuyzen regained his fitness. He returned to the squad to be part of the last week of training but with Straeuli deciding to bring back Werner Greeff and pick Delport and Loubscher it was Van der Westhuyzen who suffered the unkindest cut of all.

It must be a most difficult thing to do. World Cups come around only every four years and those who miss out have to deal with feelings of rejection, betrayal, helplessness and, one would imagine, anger.

Geo Cronje and Quinton Davids, the two protagonists in a sordid affair which reflected badly on almost all the role players, probably knew their chances had been blown but all things considered, from a purely playing perspective, the naming of South Africa’s third Rugby World Cup squad was probably less controversial than what transpired in 1995 and 1999.

For the 1995 tournament – the first in which South Africa participated – then coach Kitch Christie made the shock decision to leave out Western Province idol Tiaan Strauss – he later explained he feared the rivalry between two such strong leaders as Strauss and Francois Pienaar would divide the team – while in 1999 Nick Mallett made the flawed decision to axe Gary Teichmann and include Bob Skinstad.

As Straeuli repeated time and again, “there’s always someone who’s going to be unlucky and unhappy.”

With Joost van der Westhuizen thus being awarded the distinction of being part of all three of South Africa’s World Cup teams I thought it might be interesting, by way of comparison, to list the previous two.

1995 Mark Andrews, Robby Brink, James Dalton, Pieter “Os” du Randt, Marius Hurter, Ruben Kruger, Krynauw Otto, Garry Pagel, Francois Pienaar, Adriaan Richter, Chris Rossouw, Rudolf Straeuli, Hannes Strydom, Balie Swart, Kobus Wiese, Gavin Johnson, Andre Joubert, Hennie le Roux, Japie Mulder, Johan Roux, Christiaan Scholtz, James Small, Joel Stransky, Joost van der Westhuizen, Brendan Venter, Chester Williams. * When Williams was injured Pieter Hendriks was added, only for Williams to return when Hendriks was suspended for his role in the incidents that soured the Canada game. Naka Drotske came in for Dalton for the same reason.

1999 Percy Montgomery, Breyton Paulse, Pieter Rossouw, Stefan Terblanche, Wayne Julies, Kaya Molotana, Robbie Fleck, Deon Kayser, Pieter Muller, Brendan Venter, Henry Honiball, Jannie de Beer, Werner Swanepoel, Joost van der Westhuizen, Anton Leonard, Andre Vos, Rassie Erasmus, Ruben Kruger, Bob Skinstad, Andre Venter, Mark Andrews, Fritz van Heerden, Krynauw Otto, Albert van den Berg, Os du Randt, Adrian Garvey, Ollie le Roux, Cobus Visagie, Naka Drotske, Chris Rossouw.