Vos becomes latest fall guy

Francois Pienaar, Gary Teichmann and now Andre Vos. Once again South African rugby gets to bid a premature farewell to a captain while the man the public would really like to see the back of is the confused and panic stricken coach.

Given the unceremonious way which our national captains get dumped, you have to wonder whether Bob Skinstad is wise to take on the job. Or is he the only one dumb enough to take on the poisoned chalice? Judging from a conversation I had earlier this year with a top Springbok who should have been a candidate, the high attrition rate of Springbok leaders is certainly starting to scare away potential captains.

As when Nick Mallett did a similar thing to Teichmann two years ago, the press conferences to be held on the subject over the next week are sure to provide several excuses and reasons as to why Vos has to suffer the indignity of being the fall-guy for the poor start to the 2001 season.

But honesty being as rare in South African rugby as it is in the Billy Joel song of that name, we will probably have to make up our own minds as to the real reasons why he is no longer captain.

That there was to be some spin put on the event became clear on Monday night when coach Harry Viljoen's adviser Mark Keohane started phoning select journalists to "leak" the story. I was not one of the chosen ones, but from what I understand, his reasoning was that Viljoen wanted to get the news out before senior players "such as Rassie Erasmus" started leaking it themselves.

Presumably the fear here was that these players may then have put their own spin on it, maybe an even more truthful one.

We cannot claim to be surprised by Vos' sudden demise. Indeed, those of us who have been around for a long time and have become astute at reading between the lines of the utterances of Springbok coaches would have started to smell a rat during the recent Super 12, when Viljoen took every available opportunity to laud the performances of his captain. Somehow there was always a sense of unreality about his words and it did leave me wondering why he was doing it.

It has been almost impossible to get any sense out of Viljoen recently, but at the time of his first squad selection back in May he was still relatively lucid. So when I asked at a press conference about the appointment of a captain and he replied that "Vossie will be in charge for the first three tests" those were words which could easily have been interpreted as meaning "I have not made up my mind about my captain".

As with Mallett and Teichmann, it had been no secret that Viljoen was not exactly sold on his leader. In fact, I was reliably informed last October that Mark Andrews had been earmarked to be Viljoen's first captain but he had been talked out of the decision by his fellow selectors, who feared a similar public reaction to the one surrounding the axing of Teichmann.

It is a pity they did not make the decision then. With a change of coach at the end of an unsuccessful Tri-Nations campaign, it would have made sense at the time. For once the timing, something that South African rugby is not good at, would have been right.

But the timing of the latest change of captain is nothing short of bizarre. Vos, if my memory serves me correctly, was named man of the match for his efforts in the Durban test against France, where frequently he was the only loose-forward who appeared to be playing at all.

The previous week he had been poor and he hardly looked the part of a classical No8. But at ABSA Stadium he looked the part of the traditional No8 and it seemed he was worth his place for at least the forseeable future. Now we hear he has been told that he must compete with Corne Krige for the openside flanker's role. Whew!

The message there is that Vos is not a certain selection. Suddenly Skinstad, a man who has battled to return to his previous best after coming back from injury, is assured of his place.

Just what Skinstad did in his second half appearances over the past two Saturdays to justify such confidence is difficult to ascertain. Vos was the form South African No8 in the Super 12. Skinstad will return to his former brilliance sooner rather than later, but he is not there at the moment and was far from impressive in the Super 12.

There again, when has Viljoen ever used Super 12 form as a yardstick? He has a player on the bench who never played a full Super 12 game and he selected a player into his initial squad who did not even merit consideration at the time for the South African under-21 team.

It seems the best way for players to attract Viljoen's attention is to hide away rather than play Super 12. I have a list of players that Viljoen was less than impressed by in the Super 12 - it includes Johan Ackermann, Trevor Halstead, Deon Kayser and Craig Davidson. Those four just happened to be recognised by many critics as the form South African players in their positions during the tournament.

In many ways it is the selection of Skinstad to lead the team, rather than the demotion of Vos, that makes this decision such an odd one. Apart from the fact that it is debatable that he merits a test place right now, Skinstad is hardly the most popular South African player outside of Cape Town.

Outside of Percy Montgomery, I cannot think of a more disliked figure in Durban, where I have spent much of the past fortnight fraternising in rugby circles.

Granted, much of the anti Skinstad venom is misguided and over the top. But for heaven's sake, at a time when he is under so much pressure and his team is battling for support from a wider public sick to death of new beginnings and long-term plans that fail to take into account that upwards of 30 tests will be played before the 2003 World Cup, Skinstad is the last person who should have been given the job.

During my after hours investigations in Plett, several players told me that Vos was their ideal choice of captain as he was the one candidate who everyone liked. According to them, players like Erasmus and Skinstad were guys that you either loved or you hated.

Skinstad has in the past been a dynamic player and a dynamic captain. He may well go on to lead South Africa out of the quagmire of mediocrity in which South African rugby presently finds itself. And he does have a big advantage over his coach in that he has a proven ability to operate under pressure. He also tends to finish his sentences at press conferences and in that sense could make an interesting contrast to his nervy, fidgety coach.

But should he be taking over at this stage of his comeback from an 18 month break from the game? Does he have the support of his fellow players? Do they have confidence in him? As none of those questions can be answered with any certainty, we have to regard Skinstad's elevation to the captaincy as an odd call.

There again, there have been many of those just lately...