Wrong messages are being sent out

Springbok coach Jake White has become almost as predictable with his justification of his selections as he has with his penchant for producing left field choices and ignoring form players.

In the press box at Newlands on Saturday, as the Bulls were hammering the Stormers, some of us were speculating on what White might say afterwards. It was agreed that he would eagerly seize on the Bulls victory as a reason to justify the omission from his 45-man Springbok squad the inform Stormers players Luke Watson and Schalk Brits.

Neither of those players were as much of a factor in the match as they had been in previous games, with the Bulls appearing to target Watson as the man to stop if they were going to win the game. This showed their respect for his ability to give the Stormers forwards some momentum if allowed any leeway.

I wasn’t at White’s hastily arranged post-match press conference as it was too hastily arranged and announced for me to make the trek across to the Newlands boardroom at a time when I was busy writing a match report. I had to rely on a fellow journalist for the quotes.

Had I been there, however, I would love to have asked White how, if he was using one match as a justification for non-selection of those two players, he could possibly justify the inclusion in his Springbok squad of Marius Joubert, De Wet Barry, Joe van Niekerk, Eddie Andrews or Andries Bekker.

Brits was part of a beaten pack, but the Stormers were still not out-scrummed and they did okay in the lineouts before Bakkies Botha was introduced late in the first half. He was the one Stormers tight forward who still had a bit of go-forward courtesy of his ability to break tackles, which he still managed to do.

The point is that you don’t select a Springbok team on the basis of one game, and if you did, then Schalk Burger and Jean de Villiers should be the only Stormers players going to the national training camp in Bloemfontein this week. More pointedly, if you watch the match video, you will see that there were three Stormers players who made the three mistakes that led to the Stormers being behind 26-3 at half-time, and they were all selected Springboks.

While Watson and Brits may have misfired in one match, this was by no means the first time we had seen the Stormers Bok midfield pairing of De Wet Barry and Marius Joubert thoroughly outplayed by their opposite numbers.

The Sharks duo of Andries Strauss and Bradley Barritt were also much better than them in Durban the previous week. Joubert was so poor that when he was replaced before the break, the crowd cheered his departure. Barry’s selection to the Boks, when it was announced afterwards, was booed.

Barry was good against the Crusaders two weeks ago and there were some who felt he lifted the Stormers against the Reds in Brisbane a week before that. Otherwise he has been one of the big problems in the Stormers backline this season and was battling to retain his place in the team a couple of weeks ago.

If you were looking for consistency through the season neither Barry nor Joubert should have been anywhere near the Bok squad, while you would say the opposite for Brits and Watson.

And this is the big problem many have with White’s selection policies. While consistency in selection should be lauded, performance must also be rewarded, even if only to spur the other players in the country.

By choosing Andre Snyman and Danie Coetzee direct from overseas leagues, he is sending a clear message to players inside the country that maybe they are better off campaigning in the northern hemisphere.

For instance, he says that Coetzee has played well for London Irish, but I hear that the former Blue Bull was used sparingly at that club in the Premiership this year. That he gets a chance ahead of a player like Brits, who has been so special in the Super 14, is questionable.

I hear White’s view that Brits may lack the bulk needed for test rugby. But he has never been tried at that level, so is thus in a different boat to Phil Greening, who was used by White as an example of a Brits type of player who was discarded by England. And this was a squad not of 22, but of 45. This meant it should have been an opportunity for White to take a closer look at players who might offer a different dynamic.

White uses the fact that Coetzee has been part of his squad before as justification for his selection. Maybe it should be the other way around – unless he is intending to use Coetzee in the tests, surely this means he has seen him before and then should take a closer look at someone he hasn’t?

Snyman must have made a massive improvement since 2003 if he justifies selection into the squad ahead of the Ndungane twins, Akona and Odwa, two players who have been in consistent form for their teams in the Super 14.

White appears to base his selections in many instances on form shown in 2004. As he has called up an extended squad, I don’t necessarily blame him for that, as he has the space, and that also makes it acceptable for him to try someone like Butch James, who has hardly played any Super 14 rugby this season.

What is of concern though is the message that gets sent out when he overlooks obvious form in the local competitions. When you are selecting as many as 45 players, there has to be space for those players to be rewarded, and for the right message to be sent out.