Jake needs to face realities

Most of the South Africans who attended the post-match press conference at Loftus after Saturday’s Vodacom Tri-Nations clash with the All Blacks would have left the room afterwards feeling a little frustrated and also a bit disturbed.

While All Black coach Graham Henry and his captain Richie McCaw made it clear that they could get even better next week, a chilling prospect if you consider they won 45-26, the Springbok coach was again emphatic that the players who had done duty for him on the day were the best in the country.

The contention that he has his settled squad and it is the best that there is available has been a constant refrain from White for some time now, but the reality is that his loyalty to the class of 2004, in other words the team that won the Tri-Nations in his first year in charge, has contributed massively to his current predicament.

The Boks will be going to Rustenburg on Saturday trying to avoid their sixth successive defeat since the sequence started with the loss to France at Newlands in June. If they lose, they will equal the worst sequence produced by the Boks, which dates back to the mid-1960s.

It is what White will consider an unwanted record, one which he contributed to himself by failing to broaden his squad and equip the back-up players when he had the opportunity last year.

It became clear a long time ago that the top teams in world rugby have figured out how to overcome the rush defence system that had been employed so effectively in White’s first two seasons in charge.

However, White on Saturday night ascribed his team’s struggle in this department not to any failure in the system, but to the injuries which have robbed him of key players. When asked who the players were who were so important to his defence, he mentioned the names of Schalk Burger, Bakkies Botha and Juan Smith.

That Burger made a massive contribution to the defensive system is undeniable, and there is also no denying that Botha was a hugely influential member of the team in 2004 and 2005. But Smith was only missing at Loftus, he was there in the other matches this season where the Boks have struggled to defend.

Even if the absence of two players could make such a massive difference, surely this means it should have been even more imperative that White made absolutely sure that the back-up players were ready to effectively step into the breach if called into action.

As White has been fond of reminding us, Solly Tyibilika, the man who has replaced Burger at No 6, has been part of the squad now since 2004. If he had the ability to justify such faith from White, surely he should by now have been able to more effectively fill the hole vacated by Burger than he has done.

For all the effort that he puts in, and he is a player with a big heart, Tyibilika again lacked accuracy and was completely ineffective at the breakdown, where Richie McCaw was never challenged.

White defends Tyibilika’s selection ahead of Luke Watson by saying that Watson is not better than the players he has in the squad. In saying that, he is suggesting Tyibilika is a better bet at openside than Watson.

However, White has indirectly made it clear that he does not really rate Tyibilika by replacing him some time before the end in all the recent test matches that he has played. At Loftus, Tyibilika did not get beyond the 50 minute mark.

On the subject of Watson, the latest instalment in that saga is a Sunday newspaper report that states the Bok senior players don’t want him in the squad. They are allegedly fed up with the publicity Watson is getting.

My response to that is to ask whether the senior Bok players boast enough form at the moment to give them the right to now also be selectors? When they were winning every game, they were backing their coach’s loyalty and his rigid policy of continuity.

After six successive defeats they are not doing so any longer, and if he does not face realities and make the changes that have to be made, and that means at the very least that Watson should be in his extended squad, then his own time as national coach could soon be coming to an end.