The case for Big Joe

Nick Mallett has described it as the real world championship, and there is no denying that the All Blacks, after losing out at the official World Cup last year, will be hungry to make a point against the Springboks.

Mallett, who was in South Africa last week as coach of the Italy team that was beaten 26-0 at Newlands, is as convinced as I am that the senior Springbok players hold the key to any chance of Springbok success in New Zealand over the next month.

The massive role that skipper John Smit played in maintaining the Bok momentum through the coaching transition at the start of the Welsh series has been recorded by this column already. Coach Peter de Villiers seems to acknowledge this himself, for the other day I managed to find an article from the Somerset West training camp where he said the Boks were like “headless chickens” before the arrival from France of Smit.

“I think that John Smit is an incredibly important figure in this Springbok team, so much depends on him,” said Mallett after the Italy test.

“I rate Smit highly as a person and as a leader, and I think that with several experienced players to back him up, there is every reason to believe he can lead the Springboks to their first victory on New Zealand soil in 10 years.”

Indeed, if you look at the players the Boks have available to them, and the players that the All Blacks have lost, then Mallett’s words are to be taken seriously. The Boks have lost two important players in Fourie du Preez and Jaques Fourie to injury, and Os du Randt to retirement, but otherwise they have the same players available to them that won the World Cup.

Most of the veterans have had some game time in the last three matches, most of them have underlined the importance of utilising their experience. Smit, John Smit and Juan Smith were the match-winners in the first test against Wales, and experienced hands steadied the ship when it looked like capsizing in the second, when the senior players must have been overruled for there is no other way of explaining the folly of taking on the Welsh with what looked like a Barbarians approach.

However, there is one concern, and it should be a big one – while Australian coach Robbie Deans has been sticking with the same combinations in the buildup to the new season, the Boks have arguably not yet fielded their strongest team in one match.

De Villiers said at a press conference in Cape Town last week that he had the best combination in his head, but if this is so, should it not have played together before now?

The coach probably has other ideas, as he has shown by not selecting some of my first choices for the tour, but when I set about drawing up the team I would select, it became apparent that Mallett is definitely right – South Africa does have the talent to beat New Zealand.

Here is my team: Percy Montgomery, Tonderai Chavhanga, Jean de Villiers, Frans Steyn, Bryan Habana, Butch James, Ricky Januarie, Joe van Niekerk, Juan Smith, Schalk Burger, Victor Matfield, Bakkies Botha, BJ Botha, John Smit, Gurthro Steenkamp.

Okay, so it is a toss-up at fullback between Montgomery’s experience and the form of Conrad Jantjes. If De Villiers goes the other route and selects the younger player, I won’t criticise him for it. But we all know he is poised to play Adrian Jacobs at outside centre. My money says that this will be exposed as a mistake.

For the rest, we know now that Chavhanga and BJ Botha aren’t travelling. I think the latter exclusion is more of a mistake than that of Chavhanga, but the Boks will miss the pace of the Zimbabwean when it comes to the kick and chase, where Tondie achieved a lot for the Stormers with his pressurising game.

Unfortunately this was only a role we saw him filling to any extent in Bok colours in the Bloemfontein test, for in the Loftus game it appeared the coaching staff experienced a brain explosion and the strategy looked like it had been scripted in a pub. Now that Chavhanga isn’t there, I would go for JP Pietersen as my right wing, and obviously CJ van der Linde for Botha.

Hah, we nearly forgot No8. Why Joe van Niekerk? Simply because he is back to his best form, he reserves some of his finest games for the All Blacks, he has 47 test caps and – last but not least – of the available No8s, he has the best breakdown skills, which is something the Boks need right now.