Both teams want a rousing finish
by Gavin Rich | 03 July 2009 (09:05)
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| Paul O Connel © Gallo Images |
The Springbok players have been quietly seething this past week as they have built up towards the final test against the British and Irish Lions at Ellis Park on Saturday.
The object of their anger has been the way their achievement of winning the series, which was secured with their 28-25 win at Loftus Versfeld last Saturday, has been deflected by the sideshows that have played out since that game.
Word from within the camp is that while they believe the media have not helped the issue, every player and management member knows exactly who is to blame for the situation – their coach Peter de Villiers.
Instead of answering last week’s simple question at a post-match press conference with the logical and only answer – “I have not had time yet to study the video of the Schalk incident, I will not comment until I have” – De Villiers tried to defend the indefensible.
His mad-cap attempts to do what most coaches would by standing by his player then took a turn for the even worse two days later when he told a press conference that he did not condone eye-gouging, but then said that those who could not take it should go off to the nearest ballet shop and buy a tutu.
It was ridiculous, it was bizarre, it quite rightly invoked the ire of not just the Lions but the rugby community as a whole, and Graham Rowntree, the Lions scrum coach, had the right word of it – “crass”.
The upshot was that the Springbok series win was forgotten, and the Schalk Burger incident left an even more sour taste in the mouth than should have been necessary.
The word from the Bok camp is that the players and assistant coaches are starting to become severely embarrassed by De Villiers, and they are also becoming highly irritated. Of course they will defend him publicly, but privately they are seething that their hard work, for De Villiers has little input to strategy, is being undermined by their coach’s ramblings.
When he should have been trying to establish who would play lock in Bakkies Botha’s place and who would back up on the bench, De Villiers was apparently spending much of the week devising ways to defend media criticism of himself.
Defences, may we add, which never worked, for every time it seemed he might be getting through a press conference without saying anything bizarre he would scotch the good work by turning it on its head – such as on Thursday when an otherwise mundane press briefing ended with him talking about British superiority complexes.
De Villiers has been an embarrassment to South Africans who would like their coach to be an ambassador, dare we suggest he has been an insult to the intelligence of those who have had to listen to him talk. But it is his fellow travellers in the Bok camp he may have irritated and insulted the most, and this may have raised the ante for an otherwise irrelevant final test.
With ten changes to the starting team, you have to wonder whether the Boks have done what assistant coach Dick Muir said they would during the week by picking their strongest possible combination. If we are talking about building momentum for the Tri-Nations, this team makes little sense, for the first choice combinations did not cover themselves in glory in the first two matches, and with almost a month to go still until the Tri-Nations, there was no good reason the side should not have played together again in a quest for the missing synchronisation.
There are some areas, such as the halfback and midfield combination, where the Boks are stronger now than they were before, but the glaring weakness could be the tight five, where the suspension to Bakkies Botha and injuries to Andries Bekker and Danie Rossouw have been compounded by the decision to drop the impressive hooker, Bismarck du Plessis.
This has left retreaded prop John Smit facing possibly his biggest test yet in his new role – he is up against Andy Sheridan – without the help of one of the best scrumming hookers in the game alongside him and the powerful Botha behind him. Fortunately, he and replacement lock Johann Muller do know each other well as they are provincial and franchise teammates.
Lions skipper Paul O’Connell has said his team want to finish on a strong note, and for them there is the small matter of restoring Lions pride at a time when questions are being asked about the future of these tours in the professional era.
That should provide motivation for them, as should the number of players in this game who have a point to prove, Ugo Monye and Phil Vickery, two casualties of the first test, being the most obvious example of that.
Teams
Springboks: Zane Kirchner, Odwa Ndungane, Jaque Fourie, Wynand Olivier, Jongi Nokwe, Morne Steyn, Fourie du Preez, Ryan Kankowski, Juan Smith, Heinrich Brussow, Victor Matfield, Johann Muller, John Smit (captain), Chiliboy Ralepelle, Beast Mtwarira.
Replacements: Bismarck du Plessis, Gurthro Steenkamp, Deon Carstens, Steven Sykes, Pierre Spies, Ruan Pienaar, Frans Steyn.
British and Irish Lions: Rob Kearney (Ireland), Ugo Monye (England), Tommy Bowe (Ireland), Riki Flutey (England), Shane Williams (Wales), Stephen Jones (Wales), Mike Phillips (Wales), Jamie Heaslip (Ireland), Martyn Williams (Wales), Joe Worsley (England), Paul O’Connell (Ireland), Simon Shaw (England), Phil Vickery (England), Matthew Rees (Wales), Andrew Sheridan (England).
Reserves: Ross Ford (Scotland), John Hayes (Ireland), Alun-Wyn Jones (Wales), David Wallace (Ireland), Tom Croft (England), Harry Ellis (England), James Hook (Wales).
Referee: Stuart Dickinson (Australia).
Kick-off: 3pm
Read more on the British & Irish Lions page.
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