Send Spies to Sevens

It’s difficult to know what’s in Peter de Villiers’s mind at a range of 10,000 kilometers but it is safe to speculate that Pierre Spies is on a last chance in Edinburgh.

The Springbok No8 being part of an unchanged Springbok side to play Scotland on Saturday came as a big surprise.

Spies, after missing out on the 2007 Rugby World Cup because of illness, has been a fixture in the national side since De Villiers took over from Jake White but he has struggled to deliver.

White, at times, used to be informed by a player’s ability to bench press barbells and De Villiers, it seems, is impressed by physique and potential.

The Bulls No8 certainly looks to have all the necessary attributes – size, strength and speed – but he has simply not brought these to bear in the eight tests he has started in this year.

Spies’ handling often lets him down, he tends to go to ground too easily and he is seldom seen providing the link between forwards and backs in the tradition of great No8s such as Doug Hopwood, Tom Bedford, Morne du Plessis and Bob Skinstad.

In his 17 tests Spies, whose selection ahead of Ryan Kankowski for the Murrayfield test is a real surprise, has scored just four tries (2 against a weakened England and one apiece against Argentina and Wales) which is not the return one would expect from an eighthman operating with two world-class flankers and in a dominant pack.

Whether it is his Bulls background, where brute force often gives sway to subtlety, is difficult to tell but Spies needs to be more of a footballer and one way to assist him would be to send him to Paul Treu’s Sevens squad for a series of tournaments.

Spies without question would gain a great deal from Sevens.

I recall Andre Venter, a hard and direct loose forward if ever there was one, telling me how much he had learnt about space, guile and positioning from playing in Sevens, so imagine what it could do for Spies who, because of his pace was tried at wing in his schooldays, could gain from the mini game?