Straeuli is a man with a plan

Many might have felt that Springbok coach Rudolf Straeuli had taken leave of his senses when he disclosed a nucleus of 10 or 11 players who could consider themselves virtual certainties for the World Cup.

After all, isn't the Super 12 supposed to be the testing ground for the players who want to make it to Australia at the end of the year? And there is still over a month of the southern hemisphere regional competition to go. Players will surely make or break their reputations a couple of times before then.

But that is exactly why Straeuli's forthrightness at a media information session in Cape Town should be welcomed. Apart from being more candid than any of his predecessors in letting the media, and hence the public, into his thought processes, South African rugby's Mr Honesty has also let it be known that he will definitely not be repeating the mistakes of one of his more famous predecessors.

By naming his Springbok captain for the World Cup at the end of May, rather than sticking to the game-by-game selection which was the policy in 1999, Straeuli has let us know that he will definitely not be doing a Nick Mallett by changing captains just two months before the World Cup.

Unless there is an injury, which is beyond his own control, Straeuli will commit himself to a leader almost a full five months before the Boks leave for Australia. And even if there is an injury, the appointment of a vice-captain will leave no-one in any doubt about who the replacement would be. The Boks will have the benefit of an abbreviated type of succession planning.

This means that in the buildup to the World Cup, the Boks will be spared the uncertainty of not knowing who their captain will be. They will also be spared the disruptive media speculation which often accompanies this uncertainty and the potential division that it could cause and may well have contributed to failure back in 1999.

But it was not just his announcement that a captain would be appointed now rather than later that was the most positive feature to come out of the session with the Bok coach. If there was one Mallett mistake that was even bigger than his blunder with the premature axing of Gary Teichmann, it was his unfathomable choice of 1999 as his year of experimentation.

Players came and went from the Springbok team like sailors from a port brothel in the early stages of the last World Cup year and on at least one infamous occasion Mallett was guilty of making a selection on emotion. This was the decision to rush the Cats halfback pair of Gaffie du Toit and Dave von Hoesslin, neither of whom had figured among the contenders earlier in the Super 12, into his Springbok squad on the basis of one match-winning performance in the final league game against the Stormers.

It was a move which was to backfire spectacularly, with neither player ever really recovering from their premature elevation into a Tri-Nations tournament that they had no right to be part of.

This column argued some weeks ago that consistency should be the key-word used by the selectors when looking at criterion for selection. My argument at the time was that Enrico Januarie, the Cats scrumhalf, should not be written off on the basis of one match just as it was wrong to write him in as a Springbok on the basis of one good one.

Too often Springbok coaches have been guilty of blooding players too soon and then throwing them away too quickly. Straeuli used the example of the Crusaders as a side that saw a pay-off for their decision to stick with players who were less than successful initially.

In 1996 the Crusaders lost by almost 50 points to a poor Western Province side and came last in the Super 12. They improved with the same players the following year and then in 1998 they won it. With the Brumbies it was a similar story - 10th in 1998, fifth in 1999 and first in 2000.

There is a lot to be said for giving players and combinations a chance to settle and this is something our Bok coaches, perhaps pushed into panic by the at times ridiculous demands of a win-at-all-costs and win-here-and-now rugby public, have consistently failed to do.

Straeuli even had the figures to illustrate his point with an excellent example: Between 1999 and now, the three Springbok coaches who have been at the helm have chosen no less than 23 midfield combinations. If you consider that the flyhalves and even scrumhalves have also rotated at an alarming rate, this might explain why the Boks have battled post-1999.

Straeuli has committed himself to more consistent selection and while players will not be allowed to drift into a comfort zone in this World Cup year, they will at least be given the assurance that they will have time to settle and will have to play themselves out of the side.

This is why Straeuli took the unusual step at the workshop of virtually naming his Springbok flyhalf. Andre Pretorius was his first choice for most of the tests last year and he did enough to convince Straeuli and assistant Tim Lane that with a little work he can grow into an Andrew Mehrtens, who made a relatively slow start at international level.

Moreover, Straeuli is as convinced that if for some reason Pretorius is not the best bet at pivot, such as if a more physical flyhalf is required for a particular game, then his preferred fullback, Werner Greeff, is the man for the job. Pretorius will then as easily slip into the No15 jersey.

It was for this reason that Greeff, as fine a utility backline player as there is anywhere on this planet, was also one of those named in the list of players who can virtually start packing their bag for Perth. That is provided of course that they maintain a reasonable level of form between now and then (no, Straeuli has not lost his senses).

Incumbent Bok skipper Corne Krige found himself on the South African rugby public's yo-yo of emotions earlier this year. After presiding over the team that lost 53-3 at Twickenham, it appeared Krige would never be forgiven. But his courageous and inspirational captaincy of the Stormers changed a lot of minds and now he is the leadership choice of most critics.

Why was he written off in the first place? He had done the business at all levels so many times over a period of eight years and yet one game, or one short tour, seemed enough to undo all that in so many eyes. Krige, as a proven performer, should be allowed to bomb every now and then. There are often reasons for it, as Straeuli and his helpers are discovering with the far more scientific and sophisticated testing systems that are now in place and which were explained to us in detail at the workshop.

That is why Krige was rested by the Stormers last week (the Springbok coach and the Super 12 coaches are working together extremely closely for the good of South African rugby) and why others, such as Gcobani Bobo, are being rested now.

Everything in 2003 is geared towards getting the Springbok players to peak in a specific time period - that being October and November in Australia. Straeuli knows the talents and the capabilities of his players and will not skew the buildup by using the 11th hour to experiment and thus mess with the continuity.

To some extent this process started last year, and would explain why Victor Matfield, who was much needed against England and France, missed out on the November tour when at a push he would have been fit to travel.

Straeuli knows full well how important it is to work a tight five together as much as possible so that it can develop into a cohesive unit. He intends identifying the men who will be part of this at his earliest opportunity.

Robbie Kempson will be part of the mix somewhere, which is why he has been lured back from overseas, and Lawrence Sephaka was mentioned as one of the players who has to play really badly between now and the end of the year in order to miss the World Cup boat.

The South African results in this year's Super 12 might not be much to write home about, but improvements are being made across the board which will bear fruit in the future. More importantly, the national brains-trust do have a plan, and they are busy working on it as I write. And we can all heave a sigh of relief at the knowledge that, all things being equal, that plan will not be chopped and changed more than is absolutely necessary between now and October.