Stacking up the numbers

When Jake White was guiding the Springboks to World Cup glory in 2007 it became an in-joke among the Press corps to predict at which juncture he would point out that his team were the most-capped in green-and-gold history.

White loved trotting out stats to emphasise a point by referring to one or another record – thank goodness he never read out all Percy Montgomery’s marks – and as the Boks ticked off one assignment after another on their triumphal march through France he would always say something like... “it gives me a feeling of comfort to know that I am sending out the most-capped Springbok ever.”

The Press guys would catch each other’s eyes and smile at their private joke - if they were last week Jake, and you’re picking the same side this week, then they still are!

However Jake was certainly onto something. Get your selection right, trust in the players you pick and as their experience grows they will become stronger mentally and better able to cope with the pressures.

The team who won South Africa’s second World Cup thus came out of the tunnel at the Stade de France boasting a record 668 caps among them and, after some initial aberrations, Peter de Villiers saw the benefit of a settled squad doing what they know best and allowed John and the boys to get on with it.

This year has certainly brought the numbers flashing up as if spewed out by the Lotto generator. The average caps mark, even without Percy Montgomery and Os du Randt is still up over the 600-mark, John Smit became the world’s most-capped captain, Schalk Burger, Bryan Habana, Jean de Villiers, Fourie du Preez and Jaque Fourie joined the 50 Club but the most remarkable piece of stacking up impressive numbers surely belongs to Morné Steyn.

The Bulls flyhalf on Saturday needs five points to score the fastest 100 points in Springbok history.

The man who won the first two of his seven caps as a substitute against the British Lions is presently on 95 points and if he keeps up his phenomenal rate while earning his 8th cap in Brisbane will get to the 100 mark a test quicker than Jannie de Beer and Louis Koen.

What makes Steyn’s achievement more remarkable is that three of his caps were earned off the bench and that he played against the British Lions, the All Blacks and the Wallabies.

Along the way he scored all the points in the Boks’ 31-19 win over the All Blacks in Durban (through a try, a conversion and eight penalties) to not only break Jannie de Beer’s record as the individual with the most points against the All Blacks but also claim the mark for the most points (by any individual) in a Tri-Nations test.

In what turned into a fairytale season for Steyn he also took the record for the most penalties in a test match (one better that the Boks’ kicking coach Percy Montgomery who twice landed seven) as well as the most points by a player who scored all the points in a test match and doubtless the statisticians will find some other marks which now also belong to him.

The Suncorp test will be John Smit’s 89th, putting him level with Joost van der Westhuizen on the caps log, while the great scrumhalf’s try-scoring record of 38 is also under threat from Bryan Habana. The two tries the speedster scored in Perth has moved his tally up to 35 in 52 tests.

However playing the numbers game also throws up some less flattering figures that blot the record of this fine generation – 49 of them!

On July 15, 2006 the Springboks, with just a year to go to the World Cup, lost 49-0 to the Wallabies in Brisbane – a result which, to my mind at least, was worse than the 53-3 drubbing they had suffered at Twickenham in 2002.

Against England they at least went down fighting (although that was hardly a recommendation!) but at the Suncorp Stadium there was something very wrong and they simply capitulated.

So all the more reason for the nine who were part of this humiliation (Bryan Habana, Jaque Fourie, Ricky Januarie, Fourie du Preez, Pierre Spies, on debut, Juan Smith, Victor Matfield, Danie Rossouw and John Smit) plus kicking coach Percy Montgomery to not only avenge themselves but inspire their teammates to an emphatic win that will also clinch the South Africa’s third Tri-Nations title.

The Boks have shown they know how to win, they have shown they know how to run the ball and now it’s time for an 80-minute performance.

By any measure Smit’s men stack up as better than the Wallabies, even a more balanced looking Wallaby outfit, so I see no impediment to the Tri-Nations being added to the amazing list of achievements this year other than the unknown factor of how New Zealand’s favourite referee, Wayne Barnes, might influence things which, when you think about it, is quite a damning comment on the state of the game but, sadly, quite true.

Still, as David Campese has said all season long, it is the Boks’ to lose.