At least I am not panicking

We keep getting reminded that this is not a time to panic, and those who are critical get attacked by amnesiacs who have forgotten last year’s World Cup and who subscribe to the view that the Springboks just can’t win in New Zealand. So let’s try and regard this column as an uncritical look back at the week that was.

Taken from Saturday to Saturday, the following things happened in rugby: Heyneke Meyer’s appointment as coach of the Leicester Tigers in England was confirmed; Gert Smal left Cape Town to take up position as forwards coach of Ireland; Allister Coetzee, Jake White’s preference as Springbok coach had anyone bothered to ask him, won two important games with a Western Province team missing the bulk of its players to international duty.

Elsewhere on the planet, former Springbok coach Nick Mallett guided weakened Italy to a notable away win over Argentina. Australia’s new coach Robbie Deans, chosen for the job because he had won umpteen Super 14 titles, scored two very impressive wins with the Wallabies.

What also happened in the time period under review was a Springbok team was selected to play a wet weather test match against the All Blacks. Many critics wrote, when the team was selected, that the obvious wet weather options, such as Percy Montgomery at fullback, Conrad Jantjes on the wing, Frans Steyn at inside centre, had been ignored. Ruan Pienaar wasn’t on the bench.

Oh yes, this scatter-gun look back at the week that was would not be complete without some reference to what was happening in the New Zealand camp. They were without regular captain, Richie McCaw. Rodney Soi’ialo, normally a No 8, played openside flank. The other part of the established All Black back-row, Jerry Collins, has retired, so someone called Adam played at No 6.

At scrumhalf they had at best an average player in the form of Andy Ellis replacing the now northern hemisphere based Byron Kelleher, and there were concerns in New Zealand during the build-up week that Jimmy Cowans, the reserve scrumhalf, might have to be called in from the pub rather than the bench. The other big Kiwi drinking controversy concerned No 8, Jerome Kaino.

Hey, anyone out there agree that none of these names really inspire the awe of previous All Black teams? Dan Carter was there, and he is enormously influential, but for the rest, it was the All Blacks who should have been the team rebuilding.

As world champions – they are that, even if you wouldn’t think so the way some appear to think it’s okay to lose to a mediocre New Zealand team by 11 points – the Springboks should have been the team starting as favourites. That was why I installed them as such, perhaps against my better judgment. For while the Springboks had 12 members of the team that played the World Cup final still available, only eight of those players started – making it half of the World Cup-winning team.

At least though there were eight players who had been at the World Cup. When it came to the number of Springbok management members who had been part of last year’s World Cup triumph...well, let’s just say that I have counted over and over, and I struggle to find any meaningful continuity anywhere.

Faced with this problem, John Smit, the captain, was always going to be hugely influential, the glue to hold the team together. But Smit left the field injured immediately after the Boks scored their only try. After that the Boks never featured. Was this mere coincidence? That’s not an opinion, just a question.

There is plenty of continuity in the All Black management – and they lost the World Cup. Australia do not have continuity, but they have Deans, and they got blown away from the World Cup in the quarters. Again, this is not an opinion, just a question – could there be something in the view that if you don’t have continuity, you opt for proven excellence?

Which takes me back to the weird thoughts that were going through my head at the start of this column – Heyneke Meyer is heading overseas, Gert Smal is heading overseas, the other Springbok assistant from last year is coaching Western Province, Nick Mallett is in Italy, Australia are looking good under the impressive Deans. Oh, and while it might not be related to anything, I hear Jake White is on holiday in Mauritius.

I wanted to end there, but there are other weird thoughts going through the mind, such as the possible impact of having three different combinations in the three warm-up tests, three distinctly different strategies in those three tests, and the possible impact of having BJ Botha playing at Loftus last Saturday rather than in Wellington.

But that would be negative, and I promised not to be. I was told the other day by someone in a position of relative authority that Peter de Villiers is a nice guy and that he will learn. I keep hearing people, often quite respected commentators, saying that maybe he will learn, and they hope so.

So maybe Wellington was just a dress-rehearsal for something else. And what better place is there to learn than at the coal-face of international rugby. Sunny-side up everyone, at least I am not panicking...