Straeuli has reason to feel upbeat

When newspaper critics got all excited towards the end of the 1998 season with the standard of rugby being produced in the Currie Cup, the then Springbok coach, Nick Mallett, took a more realistic view.

"How can we make claims about our ability when all we are doing at the moment is playing against ourselves?" asked Mallett.

Those who remember how South Africans built up the Currie Cup to be some sort of mythical world championship during the years of isolation, and then saw that myth crumble when the Springboks came back in 1992, would have understood well what Mallett meant.

And as I do possess a memory, it is with some trepidation that I venture forth with the following observation: There is probably more talent coming through in South African rugby right now than at any other time during the post-isolation era.

There it is - it has now been said, and readers are welcome to come back and beat me with it when the Boks return from France and England at the end of November with their tails between their legs.

But my observation is not just based on the exciting, pulsating rugby laid on in the Currie Cup over the past few weeks. You don't really need a memory to recall that just three months ago, the South African under-21 team won their version of the World Cup.

Okay, the tournament was played at home, but that should not detract from the achievement of beating New Zealand and Australia in the space of four days to claim the title. And there was no denying the talent on display in that young South African team.

Players like Pedrie Wannenberg, Roland Bernard, Jean de Villiers, Enrico Januarie, Ashwin Willemse, Guthro Steenkamp and Jorrie Muller used the tournament to stamp themselves as stars of the future.

Some of them have used the Currie Cup to confirm that promise. Wannenberg has been so good for the Blue Bulls that if he is not a serious contender for a Springbok place now, he surely will be in the not too distant future.

Muller scored two fine tries for the Lions against Free State last Saturday and he was playing centre, rather than the fullback position he played for the national under-21 team, so that 19-year-old Jacque Fourie could be accomodated at fullback.

Fourie could in time become a sensational player. There is an element of Slapchips (Pieter Rossouw) about him on the attack and against the Cheetahs he showed immense maturity in carrying out his other responsibilities in the last line of defence.

Another under-21 player who stood out in an excellent match in Bloemfontein was Free State flanker Juan Smith. Although he has largely campaigned as a lock up to now, young Smith has easily slotted into his new role as a flank replacement for the injured Hendro Scholtz.

Some of these young players have been asked by Springbok coach Rudolf Straeuli to join his elite squad sessions, which began in Durban on Monday.

Straeuli and his assistant, Tim Lane, have clearly been impressed with what they have seen at under-21 level this year as a little birdie has told me that at least two of them might be surprise selections when the Springbok squad is announced after the Currie Cup final.

As it turns out, the pair in question have not played much Currie Cup rugby this season. Bernard, that outstanding young fetcher from the Lions and a superb clone for Corne Krige, has been kept out of the Lions team by Andre Vos.

De Villiers, a two try debutant for WP against Griquas six weeks ago, has not played for Province again, but that is understandable if you consider he was injured for a time and has Robbie Fleck, De Wet Barry and Marius Joubert ahead of him in the queue.

They may not be under-21, but there are other young players who have turned in impressive performances recently. One who stood out for me in the Cheetahs game against the Lions was the former under-23 captain Boela du Plooy.

Not that Du Plooy is first in the line of young locks challenging the established stars. Marco Wentzel of the Pumas was certainly good enough against WP the other night to show why he might be ahead of the other pretenders and could well be on the plane to Europe on November 1.

Brent Russell showed in the same match against his former province that he remains one of the most dangerous runners in the country; Joe van Niekerk continues to impress where-ever he is accomodated in the Lions back-row, and Derick Hougaard, Wessel Roux, Danie Coetzee and Richard Bands have all joined Wannenberg in impressing for the Bulls.

As most of those last mentioned names are front-row forwards, it brings us to the exciting young Sharks tighthead Deon Carstens. Based purely on the evidence of his excellent game against Free State and an equally assured performance against WP a week earlier, Carstens should be a shoo-in as replacement for the injured Faan Rautenbach.

Running the eye through the talent which was paraded in the penultimate round of the Top Eight has also prompted me to revisit last week's column on WP's spectacular fall from grace.

While I remain convinced that the problems in the front-row have contributed to most of WP's slide, one that was not mentioned was the improvement in some of the other teams. For once, it is not only the Cape that appears to be producing talented young players.

Free State, as always, have managed to unearth a new generation of players in the likes of Smith, Hendro Scholtz, JP Du Plooy, Friedrich Lombaard and CJ van der Linde, while they have an opportunity for the recruited duo of Jaco van Schalkwyk and Hanyani Shimange to express themselves at the highest level.

The Lions have a seemingly endless stream of talented players coming through. Fourie, Muller and Bernard have already been mentioned, but let's not forget that Andre Pretorius is new to Currie Cup rugby too, while Van Niekerk played his first season as recently as last year.

The Bulls are too one-dimensional for many people's liking but there is also no denying how effective they have been. Under-21 hooker Gary Botha and his lock namesake, Bakkies, are players that have not already been mentioned.

They may have to raid the Cape further for backline reinforcements if they are ever to extricate themselves from the bottom of the Super 12 table, but the Bulls do have a lot of talent in other positions.

And their neighbours and regional partners probably do have enough talented backs to provide Rudy Joubert with some hope when he takes over the Northern Bulls franchise next year.

Until injury started taking its toll, the WP team seemed closed off to younger players. In recent times, however, under-21 stars Pat Barnard, De Villiers and the excellent hooker, Schalk Brits, have edged nearer to the main frame.

In time Schalk Burger, the 19-year-old son of the former Springbok lock of the same name (who by the way has just taken his 125kg bulk up Kilimanjaro), will come through too.

All of this at a time when old hands like Mark Andrews, Rassie Erasmus, Andre Venter and the resurgent Andre Snyman are suddenly reasserting themselves. When Straeuli has completed his stock-take on what he has available, he will have good reason to feel upbeat about the future.