Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber made up for time lost during the hiatus from Test rugby by bleeding in some new talent during the home international season, but it is when South Africans look at what is beyond the current squad that they get really optimistic about what the build-up to the 2023 World Cup could bring.
The arrival of Jasper Wiese and Ox Nche as viable alternatives to Duane Vermeulen and Beast Mtawarira respectively were the most obvious strikes in the cause of progress during the series against the British & Irish Lions where Nienaber was forced by circumstances to go largely with the group that brought success in the 2019 World Cup. The lack of top rugby in the interim just made it impossible to go any other route.
But there were other players who started to come through, particularly when Nienaber spread his net for the first Rugby Championship Test against Argentina. Aphelele Fassi was successful again in adding to the solitary international cap he had picked up against Georgia, and other players got their first starts or first opportunities during that series of games.
There were obvious problem areas too, and the lack of quality backup to the starting flyhalf and scrumhalf was highlighted in this column last week. Cobus Reinach is a little too slow in clearing the base, Jaden Hendrikse is now injured and Herschel Jantjies has flaws in his basic game that make it hard for him to be envisaged as a starting No 9.
Faf de Klerk is streets ahead of the rest of the scrumhalves; ditto Handré Pollard when at flyhalf. Elton Jantjies has never made a full fist of his opportunities and is anyway not the same style of No 10 as the other players in the squad, while Morné Steyn is unlikely to still be playing when the next World Cup comes around. Nienaber needs to be giving some serious consideration to the next in line.
But flyhalf turns out to be one of the positions where the cupboard might not be as bare as it appears if you just look at who is in the squad. Frankly, it surprises me that Marius Goosen has not already been added to the Bok group given his form and the obvious additional advantage he has of being able to also play centre and fullback.
The former Grey College schoolboy star has had a troubled career in terms of falling out with employers at various points, and perhaps that is standing in the way of a call-up to the national squad. If that is the case, perhaps the Bok coaches need to remember that one of their best team men now and at the 2019 World Cup, the veteran Frans Steyn, was also considered to be a problem child for much of his career.
I remember former Bok coach Peter de Villiers lamenting that Steyn was missing out on the opportunity to become the most capped Springbok of all time through his reluctance back then, 12 years ago, to be a team man. Steyn has matured. I haven’t forgotten the tears that streamed down Goosen’s face when he sung the anthem on debut, so there is no denying he’d have passion for the Bok jersey, just as Steyn clearly has.
Beyond Goosen, it is hard to see who the Boks could turn to if there are injuries at flyhalf. Curwin Bosch has his supporters but he clearly has issues both in defence and taking contact, and that certainly doesn’t fit him into the warrior mentality that has been the prerequisite for a player to represent SA during the Rassie Erasmus era.
Damian Willemse was the other young prodigy coming through in the position, but now he looks the likely alternative to either Damian de Allende at flyhalf or Willie le Roux at fullback. Where I’d like to see Willemse tried though is at outside centre, where the Boks do have a potential problem beyond Lukhanyo Am and Jesse Kriel, especially if you consider that the prodigiously talented Wandisile Simelane needs time to develop.
Willemse has all the attributes to be a good No 13. While that is a difficult position to adapt to, we have seen some do it, the obvious examples being two Blitzboks, Ruhan Nel of the Stormers and Werner Kok of the Sharks.
Inside centre doesn’t really require too much concern should Nienaber be prepared to call up overseas players. To my mind the disappearance of Jan Serfontein from the national radar after being the best Bok player for much of 2017 was pretty bizarre. André Esterhuizen, now based in England, wouldn’t let the Boks down either.
Talking of bizarre, though he is injured at the moment and not available, that is still the word I would use to describe the continued absence of Marcel Coetzee. Not that we should be too concerned about loose forwards, where talented young players such as Western Province’s Evan Roos, the Sharks’ Phepsi Buthelezi and the Bulls’ Elrigh Louw are turning in consistently good performances.
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