From wood worm to Bok supporter

It was time to come out of the woodwork on Saturday night. After several years where any self-respecting South African rugby fan would have preferred to imitate a wood worm than stand in front of the supporters of the other countries, the time finally arrived to say "Hey, do you remember me?"

And how pleasing it was to see the Kiwis, or at least the All Black supporters of my acquaintance, fall back on that old tired excuse that we ourselves have used so often over the years.

"This was a very poor All Black team. I always suspected the Boks would win," said one New Zealand television reporter as he chatted to South Africans in the press box before sending back his tidings of woe.

"There were too many chiefs. Bring back John Mitchell," lamented an SMS from one of those South African acquaintances of mine who long ago decided that the All Blacks were the team to support.

Now this fellow is interesting. He is all over me like a rash whenever the All Blacks, or one of the Kiwi Super 12 teams, win matches against South Africa. He even phoned me while I was sitting frustrated in the traffic jam leading to Ellis Park two hours before kick-off to talk about the All Black chances.

Two years ago I had to buy a case of really vile liquid (actually, I still owe him) for that bloke after he won a friendly bet before the 2002 meeting between these two teams in Durban. He never let me forget it, and the normal sequence of events during a game between Boks and All Blacks is that my phone's SMS system lights up like a Christmas tree throughout the game as he reminds me of how the Boks are getting done by his team.

But Saturday? Where was he? At halftime my cell-phone was deathly silent, and his number never showed up on my system until Sunday morning, after he had received a midnight SMS which read: "Mate, you are very silent. Everything okay?"

Hah, we should resist the temptation to rub it in. Us South Africans know how to lose, so hopefully now that the national rugby team is winning again (weird how they rise as the cricket team suddenly goes into free-fall) we will do so magnanimously.

And hopefully now that the Boks have won this important game, and I really do believe it will prove a watershed and alert the players to the reality that they DO have the ability to beat all comers, we will all be able to start caring whether they win or lose again.

For a while that had changed. With all that Staaldraad and alleged race nonsense surrounding last year's World Cup, I must admit I could understand the reasoning of those who really felt it didn't matter. Indeed, knowing that it would bring about a change in Bok management, it was almost tempting to celebrate the All Black win in the World Cup quarterfinal.

But that has changed because the Boks have, from the outset of the new season, played with a fire and a commitment which can only bring the pride back to the Bok jersey. It has also changed because Jake White has proved from the outset to be not just an organised and meticulous coach, but also a great ambassador.

There are some who feel White talks too much. For instance, he was not shy last week to say that the All Blacks had made a mistake by recalling Andrew Mehrtens. He said it was a backward step. He also said the Ellis Park test would be the Tri-Nations final as he felt the Boks would go on to beat Australia.

A word of warning here - this is precisely what Nick Mallett's management felt before they beat England in the 1999 World Cup quarterfinal, yet they found themselves come a cropper in the semis against those wily Wallabies.

But White's bold statements should be lauded for you do get the impression his attitude oozes into the blood of his players. For years I have suspected that, apart from a shortage of skills, one of the biggest stumbling blocks to Bok success has been self-belief. To some extent they could talk the talk, but their body language always suggested they would battle to walk the walk.

And this is where we must address those Kiwi supporters who reckon their team is losing because of poor coaching, selection and preparation. Those things have been suffered to a far greater extent by the Springboks down the years, and it has been the key to the All Black success over the Boks during that period.

It is no coincidence that South Africa's best runs of success during the post-isolation era have come at times when the coaches have been organised and there has been continuity in selection. The 1995 team under Kitch Christie hardly changed from first game to last, and it was the same in the 1998 season when Gary Teichmann's team won the Tri-Nations under the coaching of Nick Mallett.

Three try hero Marius Joubert summed it up after the Ellis Park triumph when he lauded the coach for "showing confidence in me during the six games where I was not happy with my performance".

Continuity is important, and the Boks owe much of their current success to the established combinations in key areas such as the midfield.

Most importantly of all, however, White tells it like it is, and you get the impression he is an open book. The players understand him, the sponsors understand him, and if there are media people who don't understand him, then either they don't talk to him or they just choose to differ.

As White says, work still has to be done. The result of the Durban test against Australia will be all or nothing, as a defeat will still leave the Boks last on the Tri-Nations log. Yet somehow you suspect that even if the Boks do lose, it will probably go down to Australian excellence rather than South Africa's ineptitude.

On a few occasions in the past few weeks there have been moments when South Africa showed its old tendency to shoot itself in the foot. Under White, however, they are becoming few and far between, and the performance of Joe van Niekerk served as a reminder that the guy seems to have a golden touch when it comes to knowing when a player is ready or not to fulfill his job description.

The new coach was pilloried when he made his first selections of the season, but who would criticise him now? White would be perfectly entitled to send his critics the same message that those New Zealanders who laughed at the Boks last year should be receiving now: Ha, ha, ha, ha...