Give Krige a break

June 16 2001 will not be forgotten in a hurry. The Springboks played the French in Johannesburg that day and I was a broken man when I watched the game on a television in Durban.

Earlier I had run three-quarters of the Comrades Marathon. After running solidly to Botha's Hill, the downhill took my legs away from me and turned me into a limping wreck. The arrival of the dreaded bale bus at the bottom of Cowies Hill (70 kms into the race) brought a merciful end to the ordeal but it did not erase the discomfort.

Understandably, considering the circumstances, the rugby match was a bit of a blur. Apart from Harry Viljoen's attempt to turn crash-ball specialist and gainline basher Japie Mulder into a link-man, the most memorable feature was the apparent absence from the fray of Corne Krige.

When I did catch a glimpse of the Stormers captain, I remember thinking that he looked like I felt - tired, jaded, in need of an early bed.

That we did not see the Krige that had played so well during the Super 12 was probably due to two things. Firstly, Viljoen, like he did with Mulder, had him playing a game that was removed from his strengths.

Secondly, he had just completed his own Comrades Marathon in the form of the Super 12 and it was physically impossible for Krige to be sharp for the test matches.

Of course, he was not alone. The Sharks players who had just come back from their Super 12 final clash with the Brumbies were even more tired and jaded.

But at least they had had a Super 12 coach in Rudolf Straeuli who understood the benefits of utilising a squad system in the competition and who appreciated the need to rest players at strategical moments.

Krige, partly because he is so valuable to the Stormers and partly because he has a work ethic second to none, went through the entire 2001 Super 12 without a single break. In every game he threw life and limb on the line, as he always does, and he completed the tournament as possibly the most consistent Springbok.

This year he has been even more consistent. It is not only Capetonians who see him as a shoo-in for the Springbok captaincy. Once again he has led from the front. He has been even more prominent as a player than he normally is.

Problem is though that the warning lights have started flashing these last few weeks. Apart from the 72 minutes of the Crusaders game that he missed after being knocked into orbit by Leon MacDonald and the 20 minutes he sat out against the Cats last week, Captain Courageous has been on the field for the entire season.

And as that season has progressed, so the stoppages to attend to various niggling injuries on Krige's battered and bruised body have become more frequent.

Sadly, there are no guaranteed prizes in an international sense for those who manage to get through an entire Super 12 season unscathed and playing their guts out.

I haven't done so, but I guess if you asked Prof Tim Noakes at the Sports Science Institute if there was any similarity between the likes of Krige and those runners who go too hard to Drummond (halfway point in the Comrades), he would say yes.

As I learned last year, feeling good at Drummond means nothing when you still have 45 kms and several hours of tortuous running ahead of you. Krige has retained his form to the end of the Super 12, but will his body allow him to carry it on.

It is easy to feel sympathy for Stormers coach Gert Smal and his decision to play Krige in every game. We saw in those moments when he was not on the field just how inferior his team is when their captain is not there.

But this week's match against the Bulls in Cape Town is not exactly for the Super 12 title and Bob Skinstad is back in the game. He is not a player who lacks for leadership experience at the top level.

And if Skinstad is not quite ready for a full game, why not give Pieter Rossouw a chance to captain the side in his last appearance at Newlands and have Krige on the bench ready to come on later in the game if it is absolutely necessary.

But it looks like Krige will play at least the first half at Newlands, so it has been left to Straeuli to make the decision. If he sees Krige to be as valuable as everyone else does, maybe the flanker should make only a limited and token appearance at the trials scheduled for next week.

There are not many players who would complain about fairness if Krige got special treatment this time. They would have to have been blind to miss his value during the Super 12 season. When many of them were forced into rest through injury, Krige was going at it hammer and tongs.

Maybe it is time for Krige to take his well-deserved rest and recharge his batteries for when the real battles begin on June 8.