You pay your money, and …

Ian McIntosh, when he was coach of the Springboks, had a testy relationship with us media types and enjoyed snarling: “The trouble with you buggers is that the teams you pick never have to play.”

He had a point of course. Rugby writers and indeed every fan who ever thought they could do a better job than the selectors – and they all do! – could pontificate at will about what side they would have on the field without ever having their theories tested.

This came to mind following the choices and decisions made by the national coaches (the plural is deliberate because I would find it staggering if Peter de Villiers were making all the calls all by himself without any input from the others) before, during and after the first test against the Lions.

Judging from reports from my colleagues on tour, De Villiers has yet again chosen to put a racial slant on criticism of his original test team selection and of the hair-brained way the substitutes were sent on in Durban.

De Villiers is his own worst enemy. A colleague Gavin Rich has pointed out censure of Ricky Januarie had nothing to do with the colour of his skin but everything to do with the quality of his rugby.

The chunky scrumhalf, who appears to have gone up a weight division or two, is right off form and with players of the quality of Jano Vermaak, Rory Kockott, Heini Adams and Francois Hougaard in the wings (well at scrumhalf actually!), questioning Januarie’s continued favoured status is not only justifiable but the duty of any rugby writer worth his, or her, salt.

This column is intended to rebuff the national coach’s stance because, to use another barb often levelled at us writers, I don’t know what games the selectors and team coaches have been watching.

This is not being wise after the fact. On the Friday night before the Durban test I had the good fortune to give a talk at the magnificent Hartford House in the Natal Midlands and have my notes to staff what I said in response to the obvious question: What team would you have picked?

My answer, which included my surprise that Ian McGeechan had not selected Andrew Sheridan to test John Smit, was that my team would have included Morné Steyn at flyhalf, Wynand Olivier at inside centre and Jaque Fourie at outside centre plus an in-form, specialist fullback in Zane Kirchner or Stefan Terblanche.

I felt it was too much of a risk to play Ruan Pienaar after such a long lay-off; expressing concern about what a poor game might do to his confidence. My thoughts about Francois Steyn were along similar lines.

In the event the pair of Sharks youngsters acquitted themselves well but my logic about the centres proved to be spot on.

In the build-up to the tests the outstanding Lions players had been Brian O’Driscoll and Jamie Roberts, with Mike Phillips not far behind.

So, I said, I would confront the Lions’ strength in the centre with two strong and fit tacklers in Olivier and Fourie rather than a pair of which one member was returning after a long-term injury and the other is a streaky defender carrying a shoulder injury (which, apparently, needs surgery).

Jean de Villiers’s defence has often been shown to be suspect while it has been a career-long criticism of Adi Jacobs, in spite of his hard work to rid himself of a reputation for slipping tackles. However, the other concern was that Jacobs’s shoulder problems were clearly evident in the Sharks’ last few Super 14 matches.

As it turned out O’Driscoll, with his control of pace, constant variations and clever lines, and Roberts, with his hard, direct running, proved a handful for the Boks that might have resulted in a loss but for a spate of refereeing decisions going with the home side.

The other position in which the actions of the team’s selectors puzzled me surrounded fetcher flank. In Heinrich Brüssow we have a player with unique qualities that might make him as influential to the outcome of the series as Rob Louw was in 1980.

I was amazed that the Bok brains trust (now there’s an oxymoron!) chose to back him up with a completely different type of player in Danie Rossouw and astounded when they made the switch in the 51st minute – just four minutes after the Brüssow had scored a try that emphasised his value.

There were some other oddities – none more so than the moment and situation chosen to send Morné Steyn on to make his debut – and I was again shocked when the team for the second test was announced.

I can understand the need to return the talismanic Schalk Burger to the squad but why not on the bench to allow Brüssow to again wreak his special brand of havoc? The Lions simply do not have a player to match the stocky Free Stater and he could be a match-winner, paving the way for a return by Burger to again find his feet in the event of the result already have been secured.

And why again settle for two locks on the bench in Danie Rossouw and Andries Bekker? Size is not what frightens these Lions, speed is, and to my mind the selectors should have moved to include a specialist tighthead in Jannie du Plessis and perhaps a more versatile forward than Bekker if they wanted a 5-2 split on the bench.

But far and away the biggest surprise is the retention of De Villiers and Jacobs. De Villiers is a key man and a member of the old boys club and should improve after having game time in the first test but Jacobs was palpably not up to it. By picking him the selectors have given the Lions a loose thread to pick at and Roberts, in particular, will relish the prospect of running at that injured shoulder.

I also have to question the wisdom of not having a specialist scrumhalf to understudy Fourie du Preez. Ruan Pienaar has been anointed as South Africa’s flyhalf until the next World Cup and it is simply unfair, and a little dim, to expect to him to also keep his hand in at scrumhalf.

So there it is. The team picked is not the one I would have but it is still a formidable combination that man for man is better than the Lions and which I fully expect to clinch the series – provided there are no more brainstorms in the dugout!

In fact, the muddled thinking at work in the Springbok camp was, ironically, emphasised by a press release from SA Rugby on Tuesday informing us that De Villiers, in his latest online column on www.sarugby.co.za , thanked soccer fans for their response when the Boks attended the Confederations Cup match between Brazil at Loftus Versfeld on Sunday.

Nice fuzzy stuff, but has De Villiers ever thought of thanking South Africa’s rugby fans for the support, at astronomical prices, they give the Springboks? Instead, he seems bent on antagonising the most loyal fans you will find anywhere.