Negative consequences of too much rest

There were several messages to come out of the latest round of Currie Cup action. One of them was that having more than 10 Springboks in the squad does not necessarily mean you can expect to automatically just pitch up and win, and another was that referees, and player indiscretions, can have an inordinate say in who wins and who loses.

There was much to be positive about: The form of Andre Pretorius at flyhalf for the Lions was a reminder to Springbok coach Jake White that there is some depth in the position.

On his day, Pretorius can be a wizard. As for Bryan Habana, anyone want to raise their eyebrows now about his inclusion in the Springbok squad during the home leg of the Tri-Nations. He certainly looks the genuine article.

And while the several Boks in the WP side did not play particularly well, perhaps we can ascribe all that to just a bad day at the office.

Most of the players who were outplayed at Newlands – Joe van Niekerk, De Wet Barry etc – have had enough good days lately for it to be just written off as an aberration.

But there was one thing to come out of the weekend games, particularly the one at Newlands, that should perhaps be treated with some urgency by the national coach. It is the question of resting Springbok players, and the effect this could have on their form.

This column has often enough in the past dealt with the issue of player burn-out. It is a problem, and Sarfu Brian van Rooyen and the IRB are right to be looking it as a matter which needs to be addressed.

But fixing this problem might not be as simple as just withdrawing all the Springboks from the Currie Cup, which is the suggestion doing the rounds at the moment.

The reason I say this is because it might have been his lay-off that prevented Schalk Burger being his usual effective and sharp self in the match against the Lions.

Okay, there was another reason he looked rusty. WP played their flank combination as a left-right pairing, which meant that Burger, unlike when he was playing for the Boks, was frequently in the blindside flank position which meant that he was just too far away to have an effect on the breakdown.

But there was also no denying that he was not his usual self, and this might have had something to do with the fact that while most of the other players have been playing the last few weeks, he has been away from the playing field.

Which begs the question: If the Boks do not play in future Currie Cup tournaments, how does the Bok coach expect them to be sharp for the first match of an overseas tour three months after the end of the Tri-Nations.

This year’s end of year tour is a special one. It has been turned into a Grand Slam attempt by the addition of the game against Wales, and with Argentina thrown on at the end, it is now a five test expedition.

Yet in some other years there will only be two test matches included in the end of year tour. If a player has been resting and not been playing serious rugby since the Tri-Nations, it is reasonable to assume that he may be less than sharp for the first game on the road. After that he has only one other game to play.

Assuming he takes the 80 minutes of the first match to get rid of ring rustiness, which should also compromise the Bok chances of winning that game, you have to ask whether a total rest for the players is not perhaps counter-productive to the goals of the coach.

This is not to suggest that the players should not rest, for they certainly should. It is just that the officials must find some other way of achieving it other than bringing in a blanket ban on Bok squad members playing in the Currie Cup.

Resting key Boks from August 21, which is when the South Africans ended the Tri-Nations by beating Australia, would not be an ideal way to prepare them for their next match, which is against Wales in Cardiff on November 6.

My guess is that a lack of match practice for a time period like that would leave them vulnerable and would probably mean the Grand Slam dream crumbling at the first hurdle.

There are other reasons the Boks should not be completely excluded from the Currie Cup. For instance, Brent Russell proved at the weekend that he does have something going for him as a flyhalf. In the weeks to come the competition might also present White with a chance to see whether Jean de Villiers is still in the frame as an outside centre, while the presence of the Boks makes the competition a better testing ground for the young players coming through.

White knows this, and it was good to hear Van Rooyen saying that a blanket ban on Boks playing in the Currie Cup is not being considered. I hope he is right. In the end it should all just come down to proper management of the resources to ensure that the players do not play more than a specific number of games in every season.

Fortunately the IRB seem to be moving in that direction, and if they also take seriously what is currently only a whisper about the introduction of a global season, maybe we will get to a situation in a couple of years where everybody wins.