Rugby: South African hopes of a badly needed, restorative win in the opening match of their 2004 international campaign hinge partially on the premise they will take out their pent-up desire on Ireland in Bloemfontein this Saturday. That's if they haven't taken it out on themselves by then. Gerry Thornley reports from Cape Town.
Training up to three times on some days while in-camp for the last three weeks, the latest casualty in new coach Jake White's push for much improved fitness levels is self-styled midfield hardman De Wet Barry.
The Stormers' centre sustained an ankle injury in yesterday morning's team run-out which will sideline him for four to six weeks.
In something of a callow, remodelled and untried, if physically imposing, team, the loss of his experience and presence is a significant blow, and deprives the Springboks of one of their few established combinations with his provincial team-mate Marius Joubert.
Instead Wayne Julies returns for his first cap since playing against Spain in the 1999 World Cup. Also returning for the first time in five years is gargantuan prop Os du Randt, whose collisions with John Hayes are liable to make the earth quake at the Free State Stadium, now named Vodacom Park.
There are three new caps in a much-changed team from the one which was dissected by the All Blacks in the World Cup quarter-finals: tight-head Eddie Andrews, scrumhalf Fourie du Preez, and left wing Henno Mentz.
The selection of Leicester's Jaco van der Westhuyzen would seem to signal a shift toward a more expansive, multi-phase, high-tempo, ball-in-hand style game designed to test Ireland's lung power at altitude next Saturday.
In place of the injured Percy Montgomery at full back, the Springboks have gambled on the largely unfulfilled talent of the sometimes brittle Gaffie du Toit, who made his outhalf debut against Ireland at the same venue six years ago.
White, who coached several of this squad as under-21 boss which culminated in their 2002 World Cup success, admitted losing Barry was disappointing and deprived the first Test of an interesting midfield tussle "between our experienced centres and Ireland's world-class international pairing".
Fourie, he said, will bring different qualities to what White also conceded was a young team.
"We don't have the same amount of vast experience Ireland can boast. But every South African plays to win and this team will try its best to start the international season on a positive."
It's also mostly a form selection, fitness permitting, but although the South African sides started off strongly and the Stormers reached the semi-finals of the Super 12, ultimately their four outfits won only 12 of their combined 32 matches against their Australian and New Zealand counterparts.
Fourie has only just recovered from a muscle injury picked up on the Boks' first day in camp, though dynamic flanker Joe van Niekerk hasn't, and nor has winger Ashwin Williamse. And the sense of foreboding among their media hasn't been helped by events off the field.
Far from wiping the slate clean after the post-World Cup fall-out which saw the departure of the South African coach, managing director and president, the barbs have been flying bitterly after the extraordinary bout of blood-letting recently, and it seems to be open season on the thick-skinned president of SARFU, Brian van Rooyen.
Seven members of SA Rugby, the professional branch of SARFU which has reluctantly granted control of the Springboks and their Currie Cup and Super 12 sides, have departed or been removed under van Rooyen.
On becoming the seventh last week, the outgoing managing director, Songezo Nayo, responded to van Rooyen's claims that SA Rugby was "a comedy showcase" by saying that the actions of the SARFU president were "totally irresponsible, inappropriate and wrong".
Over the weekend Hennie le Roux, as president of the SA Rugby Players' Association, declared war on van Rooyen after SARFU's latest refusal to sanction SARPA representation on its executive despite assurances they would do so. It makes the recent IRFU/IRUPA spat over tour fees seem like a tea party.
"You can't build a future for SA rugby if you have someone like Brian van Rooyen running the show," fumed le Roux, whose association represents 100 per cent of South Africa's 400-plus professional players and had supported van Rooyen's presidential campaign on the assumption he would uphold his verbal assurance.
He also accused the SARFU deputy president Keith Parkinson of being "a Jekyll and Hyde character", to which the latter said "I could say the same about him", in claiming it was the 14 presidents of the regional unions who rejected the players' association.
Le Roux had enjoyed more fruitful dialogue with the sacked Nayo, and having given SARFU a deadline of tomorrow to respond to the dispute, which also revolves contractual issues, declared: "It's the liars leading the blind, and the blind are in control of rugby."
SOUTH AFRICA: Gaffie du Toit; Breyton Paulse, Marius Joubert, Wayne Julies, Henno Mentz; Jaco van der Westhuyzen, Faurie du Preez; Os du Randt, John Smit (capt), Eddie Andrews, Bakkies Botha, Victor Matfield, Schalk Burger, Pedrie Wannenburg, Juan Smith. Replacements: Hanyani Shimange, Faan Rautenbach/CJ van der Linde, Quenton Davids, Jacques Cronje, Johannes Conradie, Jacques Fourie, Brent Russell.
