Some good omens for Springbok rugby in 2002

One positive thing that can be said about South Africa at the start of a new rugby year is that the stocks at Springbok level cannot get much lower than they already are.

After ending the 2001 season ranked lower than France and in the same bracket in many books as Argentina and Ireland, the Boks certainly face a challenge over the next 12 months.

Objective No1 must be for the national team to re-establish their self-respect. While it might be ambitious right now to hope that they will once again rule the rugby world come the end of this year, they must at least look to reclaim their place in the top three.

Considering where they are now, that will represent significant progress down the road to the next World Cup, which is now less than 18 months away.

It also goes without saying, of course, that before they end the 2002 campaign with yet another November test against England at Twickenham, the Springboks need to start showing some signs that they have absorbed whatever is intended when coach Harry Viljoen talks of a new game.

That Viljoen will still be there in 12 months is less debatable than it was amidst the gloom of the British and French winter back in November, when the South African rugby hierachy appeared to be making what can best be described as contradictory comments.

What I gather from both Springbok management sources and from conversation with the man himself is that SA Rugby director Rian Oberholzer did mean what he said when he endorsed Viljoen's continued tenure.

Apparently Oberholzer had all the chief members of the Bok leadership in front of him in the last week before rugby business signed off for 2001.

According to my sources he made no attempt to launch any witch hunts. While he made it clear the Springbok performances had been unacceptable, Oberholzer still buys into Viljoen's vision for the future and has no intention of dumping the coach.

If Viljoen does not see the job through to June 2003 it will more likely mean that he opted to go on his own accord than he was pushed by his bosses.

Such a prospect remains a possibility, particularly if the Boks show no signs of improvement in next years Tri-Nations and the clamour from the media and the public for him to change or be removed becomes too much for Viljoen, who although a lot better than he was a year ago still remains deeply sensitive to criticism.

One positive for Viljoen arrived before Christmas with the announcement of the initial fixture list for the 2002 season.

I refer to it as an initial list as a number of changes are still in the offing - negotiations are still underway for a date and venue for a Mandela Cup game against Australia, while the match against Samoa, which will in fact be a South Sea Islands team, may take place in South Africa and not Auckland.

But the important thing for Viljoen is that the Springboks are presented with by far their most reasonable buildup to the Tri-Nations since Nick Mallett's team warmed up for the 1998 Tri-Nations with fixtures against Ireland and weakened Wales and England combinations.

The two most recent seasons have seen the Springboks taking aboard a new gameplan - remember that Mallett was also talking new games at the start of the 2000 campaign - in matches against England and France.

True, Mallett's Boks did kick off the 2000 season against Canada, and his 1999 team launched their campaign with two easy romps over Italy.

But history records that the 1999 team, when they reached Cardiff for the summer test against Wales at the Millennium Stadium, were undone by a race row similar to the one now engulfing the national cricketers.

And the East London fixture against Canada a year later was followed immediately by a two test series against England.

It would have made more sense for them to kick off against Argentina.

Although the Pumas have earned themselves quite a formidable reputation on their home turf in recent times, they should not be too tough a nut to crack on South African territory and would have represented a logical warmup to the two test series against Wales.

Had they been facing the Welsh in Cardiff it might have been different, but the Boks should be expected to build up their confidence by winning both tests, while they will get more out of their clash with the Argentinians than they did out of the corresponding fixture against weak Italy in 2001.

The Pumas match is presently pencilled in for Springs but the venue may change once SA Rugby Pty Ltd get back to business later this month.

While initially set for Auckland, the final match before the Tri-Nations against the South Seas team looks likely to take place in Pretoria on July 6, just two weeks before the July 20 Tri-Nations kick-off against New Zealand in Wellington.

Again it might have been a different story had the match been played away, but the Boks, provided the selectors desist from their tendency to change the team like Argentina has changed political leaders in this past month, should have learned enough against Argentina and Wales to deal with the Samoa dominated team at Loftus.

All things being equal, which of course they very seldom are, that will mean the Boks could go overseas with four wins under the belt and in far better psychological health than they were this year.

Want to find a good omen for the Boks? Well, there are several, starting with the fact that they are playing the All Blacks in Wellington in this year's Tri-Nations.

It will be recalled that they won there in 1998, still the only victory over the Kiwis in the post-isolation era (Wynand Claassen's team also won their in 1981).

They also complete their campaign against the All Blacks in Durban and the Australians at Ellis Park - the same sequence they followed in their only Tri-Nations triumph in 1998.

That 1998 dream year also started at the same venue where the Boks kick-off 2002 - the June 8 match against Wales in Bloemfontein (in '98 the match was against Ireland).

Sound like I am clutching at straws? Perhaps I am, but after watching the cricketers on television surely South African sports lovers should grab hold of every little glimmer of hope that peeps through the darkness of a tunnel that shows no real indication at this stage of leading to any pot of gold.

SPRINGBOK FIXTURE LIST FOR 2002:

June 8: Wales (Bloemfontein).
June 15: Wales (Cape Town).
June 22: Argentina (Springs).
July 6: Pacific Islands (Pretoria).
July 20: New Zealand - Tri-Nations (Wellington).
July 27: Australia - Tri-Nations (Brisbane).
August 10: New Zealand - Tri-Nations (Durban).
August 17: Australia - Tri-Nations (Johannesburg).
November 9: France (Paris).
November 16: Scotland (Edinburgh).
November 23: England (London).
NB: Mandela Cup fixture to be added after Tri-Nations - venue and date to be confirmed.