Anticipating an explosion

Administrative bungling made it appear highly unlikely just a short while ago, but South African rugby could be on the threshold of a dramatic step forward over the next two months.

The looming Springbok Tri-Nations campaign is only part of it. There should be no need really to stress how important it is for the young Bok team under new coach Jake White to be competitive, and maybe even win, the annual southern hemisphere competition.

The series win over Ireland has breathed new life into the game in this country, it has created a new sense of optimism.

The larger than expected crowds at some Currie Cup games last weekend was an illustration of the renewed confidence flowing through the veins of Mr and Mrs Joe Public.

But the previous SA Rugby administration, because it was ultimately what cost them their position, will be able to tell you that everything really hinges on the public perception of the Boks.

We saw it in 2002. Rudolf Straeuli, with Tim Lane as his assistant, presided in the earlier part of the year over a Bok team which showed much promise.

Although there was only the solitary win over Australia in the Tri-Nations to boast about, the South Africans played an exciting brand of rugby that netted them more tries in the competition than any of the other teams.

The attacking style of play won the Boks many friends, not just from within the confines of the borders of this country, but also overseas.

Remember how the Aussies got all excited about our Pygmies, a reference to the power and pace packed into the diminutive bodies of Brent Russell and Andre Pretorius?

So the mood was definitely on the upswing at the end of August 2002. It continued as such through to November of that year, when it swung quite dramatically the other way.

A big defeat to France in Marseilles was all it needed to turn the public, who had turned up in their droves to support domestic rugby after the progress shown in the Tri-Nations, right off the game again.

Then came the loss to Scotland at Murrayfield and the 53-3 reverse at Twickenham and suddenly rugby, perceived as so healthy just a month before, was back in the mire.

White and the senior members of his team know how easy it is for this scenario to be repeated, which is why they will be treating this Tri-Nations as a very serious business.

For make no mistake, if the Boks do do well in the Tri-Nations, and wouldn’t it be great if they could maybe win just one game overseas, it would underline and confirm the turn-around which everyone was talking about after the Irish series but which people are still finding hard to believe in.

The Boks certainly have the pack to do the job, and if Jean de Villiers and Joe van Niekerk, two players perhaps rushed into international action a little precipitously after their injury, do bring the extra dimension White is looking for, they could just turn in their best Tri-Nations since 1998.

If that is the case, watch the crowds at Currie Cup games swell and grow, watch the rugby fever take hold among the long-suffering and success starved South African rugby public.

But the threatened explosion for South African rugby is not just about doing well in the Tri-Nations. Something else is happening at the moment that has gone largely unnoticed but which may just help accelerate rugby’s rise in popularity.

I am talking here about the way the understrength start to the new Currie Cup season has forced some of the established bigger unions into effecting a changing of the guard. It is most noticeable in Western Province, which is where I live.

As the top South African Super 12 region, the Stormers (all but WP in name) have provided the most players to the current Springbok squad, and a look at the Bok three-quarter line at the moment reads like a whose who of WP rugby.

This has created problems for coach Carel du Plessis, and WP managing director Rob Wagner voiced his dissatisfaction last week in the way the strength versus strength competition has been diluted by the understrength first half.

But Wagner is an intelligent man, so when he looks at his team as it lines up on paper for the Ellis Park clash with the Lions at the weekend, he may just see the positive aspect of being forced to dig into his reserve strength at this early stage.

The first salvoes in the drive to establish a new era were fired last week in the match against the Pumas.

Most people in the press box had seen the name, but very few of us knew much more about Tertius Carse other than that he played the odd Vodacom Cup game last year.

Well, blow us all down with a feather if Carse did not have everyone sitting up and taking notice with a five star display that demanded attention.

One try and several telling breaks later, Carse was telling me that he had modelled his game on Joost. Hardly news, for apart from resembling the great former Springbok in physical appearance, Carse appears to possess other Joost attributes as well, and he can pass.

Of course, we have heard of the New Joost before (what happened to that Dolly the Sheep guy I wrote about a few years back?), and we have to temper all praise with the knowledge that the Pumas are not exactly world class opposition.

But every young player has to start somewhere, as the Incredible Schalk did in this very competition around this time last year.

Now for this coming weekend there are even more young players champing at the bit to get noticed.

Earl Rose has done plenty at age-group level, now we get a chance to see if Rudy Joubert was right when he said he was too small. Rose has come in as a late replacement at fullback for the WP match against the Lions.

Also in that WP side is former SA under-19 captain Paul Delport, his ability advertised by the fact he is replacing Carse for this game.

And then we have young David Edgar, a centre who was described by Robbie Fleck before his departure as a real great player in the making.

Time will tell whether Fleck had a point, Joubert had a point, or whether all the excitement about South Africa’s young talent is justified.

But in the space of the next two months, the face of rugby in this country could just be transformed into something magnificent.

Ah, at least let’s allow a man to dream…