Initial chance missed

Schalk Burger snr once quipped that the monogram, SWP, on his tailored shirts made in Hong Kong stood for “Springbok, Westelike Provinsie.”

I had enquired what the initials stood for and “Groot” Schalk, who never holds back when there’s a leg to be pulled, replied that his Dad had wanted him to excel at rugby and therefore ensured that he had the right initials!

And clearly Mr Burger snr got it right for “Groot” Schalk obtained the rugby achievements that made the letters germane and he passed them on to his son, Schalk jnr, so he is also SWP Burger.

It stands for Schalk Willem Petrus and I was reminded of the story after being e-mailed a column by Springbok assistant coach Gary Gold that touched on a subject – South Africa’s scrummaging – that I had been thinking about writing about.

Writing on a website called “RugbyIQ,” the name probably chosen to suggest a greater level of rugby intelligence than exists elsewhere in the media, Gold, while refreshingly candid, adopts a somewhat bleating tone in discussing the “experiment” of playing John Smit at tighthead prop.

Gold, who is in charge of the Bok forwards, had this to say: “I guess, once again, the big talking point will be over the selection of John Smit; although this time at hooker.

“I find it absolutely astounding how much criticism John has to deal with. Here we have a guy who has won 92 Test caps in the front row - at hooker and at prop - yet people seem to fail to notice just what an achievement that is (to play both positions, at that level and for so long) in itself.

“John has not been moved back to hooker because he failed at tighthead prop - far from it, in fact. We have moved him back to hooker because we feel we need BJ Botha’s size (? my query) at tighthead prop and we can then also make use of Bismarck’s unique abilities from the bench - whenever we feel the need to call on him. It’s a horses-for-courses selection.

“(Next week I will be working through all the scrum statistics that I have as I believe all the criticism being levelled at John is very far from the truth). “It would be very naive of me to think that our scrum cannot improve. There have been a few issues at the set-piece this season, one or two in particular when we have been caught at scrum time, but people tend to forget those instances when strong right-shoulder scrums led to tries for us - like against the Lions and in the Tri-Nations.

“Ask yourself this; how could we - with a potential scrum weakness - have beaten the Lions and won the Tri-Nations with John at tighthead prop?!

“Look, also, at the Ireland-Australia game of two weeks ago. The Aussies smashed the Irish in the scrums - as they supposedly did to us - yet, Ireland came back and drew the match.

“I don’t want to get into it all right now, but as I mentioned above, I will release some scrum stats next week - in particular how people play off their own scrum ball - and it will help you make up your own minds!”

Gold is understandably defensive and supportive of his skipper but it does not alter the fact that in the matches the Boks have struggled or been beaten – 3rd Lions Test at Ellis Park, Wallabies in Brisbane, France in Toulouse and even Italy in Udine - the scrum has provided their opposition with vital front foot momentum.

It is also not true that Smit has come in for undue criticism. From where I sit the captain’s contribution has often been praised and I, for one, wrote a column (which is still floating about in the labyrinth that is the world wide web) questioning whether the coaches had been fair to a captain of Smit’s stature to ask him to accommodate the ambition of Bismarck du Plessis rather than giving him first call on his number of choice.

That there have been selection errors made on this tour was clearly shown by the embarrassingly ham-handed performances against Leicester and Saracens and none more so than the failure to originally select the Free State Cheetahs’ frontrow and particular their young tighthead WP Nel.

The Cheetahs, Nel, Wian du Preez , Adriaan and Richardt Strauss and the other highly promising youngster Coenie Oosthuizen, had come out on top in every frontrow battle on the way to and into the Currie Cup Final, including taking an all-Springbok trio apart in the semi-final in Durban but yet were ignored by Messrs De Villiers, Gold and Muir.

To me it was a strange oversight because South Africa has been searching for a dominant and dependable tighthead for years now – you have to go back to Hempies du Toit to find the last monster mauler! – and to me WP Nel was the find of the season. Did they not think of giving Os du Randt a call?

The former Boland boy (born in Loeriesfontein, hailing from Drostdy Technical High Worcester) and who was also inexplicably not retained by Western Province for whom he made four appearances, is only 23 but the matches against Leicester and Sarries would have been ideal to introduce him to the Springbok culture.

In a classic oxymoron the Springboks have, in fact, been strengthened by injuries but still no WP Nel – an omission that has been amplified by Nel’s inclusion in the Barbarians squad (alongside Bismarck du Plessis and Tendai Mtawarira) to play the All Blacks at Twickenham on December 5.

I’ll be keen to see Gary Gold’s promised analysis of the scrums in this big year but statistics can’t mar poor selecting. WP, incidentally, also stands for Willem Petrus but it’s a chance missed that the S for Springbok was not added.