In search of the complete team

A disconsolate Rob Linde gave a sharp response when a would-be consoler reminded him on Saturday night that the sun would rise the next morning. "Mate," he said, "I just wish right now that it had risen today."

The Western Province lock was expressing his disappointment at the weather conditions which, just 10 minutes before kick-off to the most important game of the season, had suddenly made it impossible for WP to play to their strengths.

It had been overcast all day and Linde was right in suggesting that there really had been no sun on this particular Saturday. At least there wasn't one in the red ball shining from the horizon into Muizenberg at 6am in the morning sense.

But until 4.50pm on Saturday afternoon, it hadn't rained, and rain did not seem imminent. So when suddenly it came in, grew steadily, and then introduced a horrible swirl to make conditions even more treacherous, it was hard not to feel that the gods had turned against WP. This was certainly the feeling in the press box. Those of us who have covered Province rugby for a long time know one thing for certain: WP hardly ever perform well in a big game in wet conditions.

That might seem odd if you consider that this is the team that trains and lives in what during the rugby season is the wettest part of the country. It is indeed odd, and is partially the point of this article.

But the WP disquiet when wet weather arrives does make sense if you consider the type of rugby the team plays and where their strength lies. WP's challenge to the Blue Bulls dominance of Currie Cup rugby was always going to revolve around the ability of their quicker, more skilful backs to make maximum use of scraps of possession.

In dry weather that is possible, but in wet weather you have to adjust tactics and play a completely different game, one that WP have never been good at playing.

But those who are thinking that this is a column seeking an excuse for WP's Currie Cup demise can think again. WP have no excuse, and what this column is really about is the need for a team with championship pretensions to have their strength spread enough through the combination for it to be possible to switch to a Plan B when the need arises.

WP don't have a Plan B for a wet weather game for the simple reason that they do not have a pack equipped to do the things that are necessary when the weather turns foul. They don't have forwards who can drive effectively off the lineouts, they don't have the pack that can assure front-foot ball for a flyhalf to produce the tactical game necessary for the conditions.

It was me who jokingly suggested to a WP official recently that Newlands is perfectly suited to the addition of a roof (the roofs of all four stands are roughly the same height) and that it should be necessary considering the vagaries of the Cape winter and the effect it has on some WP games.

But I also totally take the point of the rugby writer alongside me in the press box on Saturday who responded to my suggestion by stating that it would be far cheaper for WP to just invest in, and develop, a tight five.

At the moment it is best to describe WP's position by using a cricketing analogy. They are like a team packed with fast bowlers best suited for a fast pitch like Perth. But they have no spinners, and are based in a place which on many occasions is more like Sri Lanka or India than Perth.

If that was the case, you would have to say they were not ideal candidates for any cricket championship. As the Australians keep reminding us and have done to some extent over the past two weeks in India, the real champion is one that has enough allround depth to be able to adapt to any conditions.

The Aussies have the quicks to excel when they do get to quicker wickets, but they also have a champion spinner who is more than capable of doing it for them in different conditions.

The Cheetahs game was not the first time the WP forwards have been exposed and the first time they have lost a big game because of their Achilles heel. And while it is true that the Stormers forwards somehow always look more organised and drilled, it would be also unfair to suggest that it is only when they pull on the blue and white hoops that the Cape big men look vulnerable.

Earlier this year, when the Stormers lost to the Hurricanes in a home match in the Super 12, it was because the visitors surprised them with a forward based, direct approach. I wrote at the time that this had happened some years ago in an important match against the Auckland Blues, who completely negated the Stormers strengths by simply dominating them at source.

Memories are surely not that short that it has been forgotten that the big lament in the Cape back in February/March/April was the team's inability to keep pressure on at critical moments by holding onto its own lineout ball.

And it is also not a coincidence that the year when the Stormers had their best Super 12, and finished in the top two on the log, was 1999, when Heyneke Meyer coached what developed into an outstanding pack. It was this solid foundation which enabled Bob Skinstad to enjoy what was, until his untimely injury, a sublime season at No8.

The Lions employed a game-plan geared towards shutting out WP at forward at Newlands in the Currie Cup this season, and so did Free State in the league match. Indeed, the Cheetahs also managed it last year, when the match ended in a draw, which means that the Cheetahs have been unbeaten in their last three visits to Cape Town.

If you look at the great Currie Cup winning teams from down the years, it is noticeable that the names of the forwards are always readily recalled. The great WP side that won five years in a row from 1982 to 1986 for instance had Shaun Povey, Hempies du Toit, Hennie Bekker etc, and the Bulls side of the late 1980s had the late Jan Lock, Heinrich Rodgers, Uli Schmidt and Adri Geldenhuys. The Natal victory of 1990 was anchored around the scrumming of Guy Kebble, Tom Lawton and Gerhard Harding/Lood Muller.

WP don't have a pack that comes close to living with those units, and it is one of the reasons why, although they have half the Springbok starting team playing for them, they are always going to battle to attain the consistency of the Bulls.

As has been written often enough that with the talent they have, and the game-breakers at their disposal, WP would always have had a chance of winning the Currie Cup. A final at Loftus on a dry day might well have been a cracker, with WP having a realistic chance of winning it.

But to be absolutely sure of getting there WP needed to be assured of perfect conditions. Without a top class tight five that can comfortably hold its own in the primary phases, there is always a reasonable chance that Province will be ambushed by their inability to counter all conditions by implementing a Plan B.

Coming to think of it, this might well prove in time to be the undoing of the Bulls too. The Bulls, irresistible force that they are at the moment, also have an imbalance to their team, one which could yet be exposed on a day when they come up against a team that manages something resembling forward parity.

In the semifinal the Lions again showed the Bulls up for their weakness at the back, and while they get away with it in the Currie Cup, I still have this nagging feeling that the Bulls will have to take a lot more than a forward based effort to a Super 12 game in a place like Canberra if they ever really want to challenge seriously in that competition.

The Super 12, as we have seen over and over again, is won by teams that have depth in all areas and it demands that you have a complete team. There isn't one in South Africa at the moment.