So far so good for Boks

This is the stage in the season where last year I would have introduced a cautionary note to curb the enthusiasm and warn that the real test has yet to come.

It happened last year during the World Cup, ironically also after the Springboks had made relatively short work of a team from the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. Remember how the Boks steamrollered the Samoans, who had looked so impressive against England a week earlier?

Some South African rugby writers got so carried away with how good the Boks looked that day that they wrote their team up as a combination that had proven that it could win the World Cup.

I saw that as complete nonsense and reminded readers of this column that the Boks have always won relatively comfortably against South Sea island teams. There is a simple reason for this, and it is why for me a big Bok win over the official Pacific Islands team this past weekend was always on the cards.

Put simply, the South African tight forwards will always be better than Samoan, Fijian or any other pack that is produced by one of those islands, or a combination thereof. While the islanders can run, and they proved it by making a meal of the scraps they were offered late in the game, they battle against a team prepared to use their forward superiority and play it tight.

And that is exactly what the Boks did on Saturday, or at least until they lost the plot a bit and stopped following the plan mapped out for them by their coach. The big test now is for the Boks of 2004 to do what their predecessors of late 2003 were unable to do – they need to carry that forward prowess into a test against the All Blacks, who so comprehensively thumped Corne Krige’s team in last year’s World Cup quarterfinal.

But I may surprise you this time, for I don’t know if I am going to add the cautionary note. It appears this time that the media, the general public and the players will not be duped into believing that a 14 point win over the islanders is enough to install the Boks as favourites against the mighty All Blacks.

Neither should it be necessary to rehash that tired old cliché about this being the Boks’ moment of truth. Of course it is, if you didn’t know that you have been living for the past month with the cuckoos beyond the clouds.

The two wins against the Irish were good, not least because they were scored relatively comfortably against a team that had come to the country as the Triple Crown champions. The romp over the Welsh was also impressive, even if only really for the margin of victory.

Yet there is an important something that should not be forgotten – coach White never ever doubted that his men would beat those teams. He knew better than anyone that the Irish, after their long season, would be tired and jaded.

I never spoke to him in the buildup to the game against the islanders, but I would imagine he had a similar view before the Pacific match. At least he should have, for he never had any doubt last year that the Boks would win big against Samoa.

And this is the reason for my confidence that this time it might not just all fall apart when the giants from down under are engaged in battle over the next few weeks – the coach is a pragmatist who has done his homework, who makes sense with his selections and who so far has had his team follow a strategy perfectly suited to the task of beating every given opponent.

It would be idiotic to at this stage predict that the Boks will win the Tri-Nations, or even that they will beat one of New Zealand or Australia away over the next two Saturdays. But I have confidence that they will be far more competitive than they were in previous years for the simple reason that they seem far better prepared and organised.

In many ways, the last minutes of the match against the Pacific team, like the last quarter of the second test against Ireland at Newlands, may also have been good for White’s job of keeping the feet of his players firmly rooted on terra-firma. Both matches showed, for instance, just how wrong it would be for the Boks if they thought they could loosen up play and start spreading the ball willy-nilly. When you have a pack like the Boks have, turning the match into a glorified exhibition of touch rugby is not an option.

And yes, there were times in those last minutes at Gosforth this past weekend where I wondered if the signs might not be ominous. Remember how the Bok backs got eaten alive by their All Black opponents at Loftus last year. When the Islanders stretched play a few days ago, they brought back haunting memories of that afternoon, and it is clearly not completely beyond the realms of possibility that Loftus could happen again.

Yet it should also not be forgotten that Rudolf Straeuli had botched his selections horribly for the Pretoria test against the All Blacks. He was probably the only person in the country who felt that bringing back Andre Snyman for that match was a realistic option.

This time the Boks should have De Wet Barry and Marius Joubert in the midfield, and when those two have been paired up the Boks have seldom been less than competitive. The pack also has the ability to stamp some authority, although it has at the same time to be countered that the Boks are invariably expected to get the better of the forward battle against New Zealand and they very seldom do.

If the South African forwards do their job, and the presence of Schalk Burger and an inform AJ Venter should make a huge difference, the Boks have the material to squeeze the life out of the All Blacks and ensure that their backs are never a factor.

So yes, I am cautiously optimistic. White has a gargantuan pack playing for him, but most of those players can get about the field and can do the job provided play is not allowed to become too loose.

True, New Zealand and Australia are well equipped to ensure that the play does become loose, in which case I fear some of our big men might find themselves gasping for air. But I trust the coach has figured out a way of ensuring this is not so, for White inspires more confidence than any other Springbok coach since the early days of Nick Mallett. Up to now it has been a case of “so far so good” for the Boks. So there is no reason at this point to be anything but upbeat.