The star of 2015 Craven Week comes of age

Curwin Bosch’s composed performance in a high pressure game against the Crusaders in Christchurch answered any lingering questions about his temperament and surely confirmed that he has the most vital ingredient needed by a top level flyhalf.

A former Springbok assistant coach once attracted some media ridicule when he said that the only thing that was standing in the way of Gaffie du Toit, a prodigious local talent from the late 1990s and into the following decade, becoming a world class flyhalf was his inability to handle pressure. Handling pressure, it was argued in response, was the key to flyhalf play.

Bosch has been under pressure on several fronts recently, and would not have been oblivious to the growing clamour in Durban for the Sharks coach to move him to pivot in place of that coach’s son. Given that he had not once been given an opportunity to play his preferred position at Super Rugby level since Robert du Preez junior moved back home from Cape Town at the end of 2017, the pressure on the 22-year-old product of Grey High School in Port Elizabeth to make a proper fist of it when he did get an opportunity would have been immense.

There were some cynics who wondered if he was being set up to fail when it became apparent that his first start in the No 10 jersey in Super Rugby would be on the overseas tour. Considering he hadn’t played flyhalf for some time, a home game against say the Reds a week earlier might have made more sense.

But Bosch didn’t let his supporters down and his game management was a key ingredient in the Sharks’ win. Then came the clash with the champion Crusaders, and what many felt would be the acid test as it is against the best teams, particularly on their home grounds, that reputations are either made or buried.

Bosch was more than up for the challenge, and it wasn’t just his seven successful penalty kicks that stood out. On a day when the Crusaders were without first choice flyhalf Richie Mo’unga, it was Bosch who made the right decisions and managed the game as a pivot should, ensuring that most of it was played in Crusaders territory.

It’s not often a coach gets a media bullet when he has just drawn away to Crusaders, but there was one in the Durban newspapers this past weekend. Robert du Preez’s decision to replace Bosch with Robert junior in the 56th minute was severely criticised.

And given the way that Bosch was controlling the game up to then, it wasn’t a change that made much sense. It was perhaps driven by the perception that Bosch, who still has question marks over his defending, was culpable in letting the Crusaders in for their second try. He was foxed by a dummy run from Crusaders No 8 Kieran Read, who he focused on, and centre Jack Goodhue ended up scoring the try in the channel outside him. Bosch was moved shortly after that.

Robert senior is in a difficult position as the situation is adding fuel to the old saying in rugby that you can be a coach or you can be a father, but you can’t be both at the same time. For Robert junior, who looks overplayed and has been part of every Sharks match day squad since the start of last season, made many mistakes earlier in the year that did not see him get yanked from the field.

This is just mentioned to emphasise the extra pressure that Bosch may be dealing with in order to prove his worth, and which he has dealt with superbly. Bosch has played some great games for the Sharks in the past, but the mature way he directed the game in Christchurch might well have been his coming of age.

It is often forgotten when Bosch comes under discussion how young he is. Bosch played provincial schools rugby at every juncture from his selection to the Eastern Province under-13 team for the 2010 primary schools week in Graaff Reniet, and first made the South African Schools team after the 2014 Craven Week in Middleburg.

But the spotlight intensified on him when he became the talking point of the 2015 Craven Week in Stellenbosch. He was responsible for driving the EP Schools team into the unofficial final, and the media headlines were all about where he would be headed.

All the top unions were interested, but the Sharks won the race to secure his signature. In the final game of that Craven Week EP Schools were run over by a Western Province side that came close to posting 100 points, and it was in that game that question marks over Bosch’s defensive abilities started to become a talking point.

It was the reason why the then Sharks coach Gary Gold selected him at fullback when he first made it into the Sharks senior team after serving an apprenticeship in first the Impi university team in the Varsity Shield and then the Sharks XV in the Currie Cup qualification tournament in 2016.

He was at flyhalf though when he first started stamping his authority in senior rugby in the 2017 Currie Cup season, and he was driving force in the Sharks easily topping the log. Alas, although he proved his X-factor by dropping a goal from behind a retreating scrum near the halfway line, WP exposed his defensive frailties in both the final and the last league game.

Robert junior just happened to be playing for Province, and he played well for them too, which justified Robert senior’s decision to start with Robert at No 10 last year.

However, the fact Bosch never got any opportunity to play his other position started to become a concern later in the year, and it is understood it was at the heart of one of the “philisophical differences” between Du Preez senior and assistant coach Dick Muir that led to a parting of the ways between them at the end of 2018.

Bosch isn’t just a gifted kicker of the ball, he is also a skilled and talented attacking player, and when he got selected back into the Sharks team as a fullback earlier in the year he showed off those strengths in sublime fashion in the big win over the Lions in Johannesburg.

His defensive game does still require work, but the boy who dominated the 2015 Craven Week is now four years on from that and turns 23 next month. He has become a man. Given that some players ahead of him in the national pecking order have fluffed their lines and shown temperamental deficiencies when they've played in Christchurch, Bok coach Rassie Erasmus should be thinking of promoting him up his list of flyhallf options for the World Cup. He's proved he can handle pressure, and then some.