Everyone's a loser in Testosterone derbies

A contact close to the Springbok camp threw up a possible centre combination the other day that almost had me choking on my breakfast.

According to the source, Japie Mulder and De Wet Barry have the inside track in the race to become the new test midfield combination.

The reason for my surprise was not so much the incongruity of this pairing, although they are in many ways very similar players.

Instead, my shock was centered around the prospect of having these two players team up after the ugly onfield clash between them which grabbed headlines in late February.

The war of words traded between the pair after the match was hardly complimentary. Barry made it clear Mulder could not just say sorry and forget about it. Mulder stopped just short of calling his adversary a cry baby.

Pair these two in a test match? It seems most unlikely. But then Rassie Erasmus and Andre Vos might well be welcoming Corne Krige into their backrow partnership when the big matches against Australia and New Zealand arrive later in the year. Krige, it will be recalled, commented after the Stormers/Cats game that he could hardly look in his opponents' eyes after the game.

And before the match he caused considerable disquiet in Johannesburg by making statements in the media which appeared to disparage the leadership qualities of his Springbok captain, Vos.

Forget all that rubbish about bygones being bygones and hatchets being buried after the match. The post-match cocktail party after the Cats game was an occasion when you could cut the atmosphere with a knife.

Apparently it was a similar story after the Cats and the Sharks beat the hell out of one another in Bloemfontein a few weeks later. Trevor Halstead, another contender for the Springbok midfield and a possible pairing with Mulder, was fortunate that he did not suffer the same fate as Barry. He recovered from the clash in time to play the next game.

All of this brings me to a point which Viljoen would probably love to make himself if he could communicate with the players without it becoming a scandal story in the newspapers. Two big derby matches are going to be played on South African soil this weekend. Important though they are, let this be one occasion where the teams don't approach them with the testosterone mentality which could leave the coach having to cross injured players off the list he is to read out at 6.25am on Supersport on Saturday evening.

Apart from the injuries, the nearness of the Springbok training camp means any rancour carried over from this weekend and the probable semi-final the following week between the Sharks and Cats could leave Viljoen needing to devote precious time to bridge building and relationship mending.

That this can be problematic will not be news to those who covered the 1993 Springbok tour of Argentina, when Ian McIntosh was coach. The tour departed the day after an acrimonious Currie Cup final between Natal and Transvaal, the two provinces that provided the bulk of the players. McIntosh reportedly had quite a task trying to overcome the ugly mood which apparently prevailed among the players.

There are those who will argue that New Zealand and Australian derbies have as much needle and bad blood as the South African ones do. It is an argument that Laurie Mains, the former All Black coach now with the Cats, supported after his team's clash with the Stormers.

But since then he has made an interesting about turn. He had a chat with Australian referee Peter Marshall after one of the games in New Zealand. Marshall, who also refereed the Cats/Sharks match, told Mains that he had never known anything like the rivarly and bitterness he had seen in Bloemfontein. He said it was much worse than Aussie or New Zealand derbies.

Mains agreed with him and added that Marshall had seen nothing in comparison with what had gone on in the Stormers/Cats game. While Mains believes rivarly is good, he conceded that at times there is an overdose in South Africa which could hurt the national team.

According to Mains, when there was a big New Zealand derby pending during his reign as All Black coach he would impress upon his players that while the game was important, they must remember that they were all All Blacks together and thus part of a family. They should ensure that their competitiveness did not transgress boundaries which might impact on the national team's chances of success.

Mains should perhaps repeat those points to his Cats players before Friday evening. Alan Solomons and Rudolf Straeuli should do the same before they get to Wellington on Saturday afternoon.

Apart from anything else, the testosterone driven madness which perennially blights South African showdowns could end up delivering a fatal blow to the South African chances of Super 12 success.

For instance, Straeuli has acknowledged that his team needs five log points from the Stormers game to secure a home semi. As this means he needs four tries, the usual bruising and spoiling Sharks approach to their clash with the Cape team probably won't surfice. He is better off if the game is clean and open.

Likewise the Cats, who have everything to lose if their game against the Bulls becomes a lottery by the personal vendettas which take the focus off the ball.

If they just concentrate on rugby, the Cats should win by a country mile. It is quite obvious that yellow and red cards will hurt the Super 12 teams ahead of the semi-finals. And injuries will hurt the Springboks. In a nutshell, this is one time when an overdose of testosterone can leave everyone the losers. All the parties have worked too hard this year to allow that to happen.