- A bigger than usual tally of props and hookers will be buoyed by Bok coach Jacques Nienaber’s extraordinary front-row needs.
- The versatility of both Trevor Nyakane and Thomas du Toit would be a treasured attribute on a “Covid-era” tour.
- Joseph Dweba may well exploit the gap left at hooker by RWC squad member Schalk Brits’ retirement.
A record-sized travelling squad… but with an intriguing, special need to have a vast cupboard of specialist props and hookers available.
That is the likelihood for the Springboks if the Rugby Championship – still precarious, in truth – manages to take place in a single country (almost certainly New Zealand) nearer the end of the year.
It’s already apparent that should the Boks, also World Cup champions, be lucky enough to be ready to defend their title, it will be no ordinary occasion.
World Rugby has made clear, while providing a six-week window between early November and mid-December, that it won’t be played on the customary (at least outside of RWC years) full home-and-away basis.
If coronavirus-free NZ gets the staging nod for the four-nation 2020 event, it will be the first time it is held in one country.
That is a particularly tough prospect for the two teams required to travel from furthest away to take part, South Africa and Argentina, given the quarantining requirements that would significantly drag out their stays there and hugely complicate any reinforcement needs from home.
Against that backdrop, Bok head coach Jacques Nienaber has said that he would probably require a squad of 45 due to those rare preconditions: effectively three XVs.
To put it another way, if you like: that is a lot of business-class seats on a long-haul flight.
The Springboks have never before gone abroad with such a huge arsenal of players – a World Cup squad, for example, is traditionally 31 these days – but the need for a meaningful expansion in staffing is fully understandable because of the Covid-19 factor.
Where, for example, you would normally get away with three specialist scrumhalves, four is a likelier prospect for Bok purposes in New Zealand: if one went down injured, there would often only be two left (one starter, one bench player) and you cannot endure weeks in that delicate situation without the option of summoning an emergency replacement quickly from back home.
But modern scrum safety requirements make it especially vital that a large stock of front-rowers is immediately on hand, hence Nienaber’s revelation that he will need a quartet each of looseheads, tightheads and hookers (locks and loose forwards, remember, can be significantly interchangeable).
That will spark renewed interest among various “bull necks”, currently outside the Bok squad picture, that they can feature in the Championship plans.
As it is, there is at least one glaring vacancy in the front row for 2020: a need to replace the 117-cap left-shoulder strongman Tendai Mtawarira who has retired from Test rugby after a highly distinguished career.
While Steven Kitshoff will be a comforting, reasonably obvious new regular fit in the No 1 jersey, where he always pushed “Beast” extremely hard for favour, that still leaves three extra loosehead berths up for grabs under Nienaber’s intended model.
The next best out-and-out loosehead would potentially be the Sharks’ Ox Nche, not yet the finished article scrummaging-wise (few are at a just-turned 25) but a brilliant ball-carrier and committed, hunt-’em-down tackler and breakdown pilferer.
He has one prior appearance, and not the happiest of memories as he was on the losing side in that controversial, experimental-themed Test against Wales in Washington DC right at the outset of Rassie Erasmus’ coaching tenure in 2018.
South Africa being unusually well-catered for at tighthead these days, the next two best options on the other side might well be two players who, more recently, have spent time patiently adapting to tighthead but whose best instincts and skills probably remain at No 1: Trevor Nyakane and Thomas du Toit.
Their very versatility would be like gold to the Bok brains trust on a coronavirus-era tour, so that pair are squad “musts” regardless of the more specialist-berth arguments around them.
All that said, Bulls-based Lizo Gqoboka (two substitute Test caps in 2019) would be a worthy addition to the strictly loosehead equation in New Zealand and help create a healthy sense of balance across the Boks’ prop department.
So what about No 3 strongmen? There would be little reason, after the blistering way both scrummed in the World Cup final against England in Japan, to depart from Frans Malherbe, the incumbent starter, and “Bomb Squad” member Vincent Koch as the frontline duo there.
But while Du Toit and Nyakane would have strong ambitions in the role, there’s another reassuringly seasoned, proven character to add to the stock: now Sale-based Coenie Oosthuizen.
The barn-storming, 128kg Oosthuizen – neck injury issues some time ago necessitated a permanent switch to tighthead – has 30 prior Bok caps, though the last in November 2017.
At 31, he is an appealing age for a gnarly No 3, and he would have broadened his scrummaging education in the English Premiership.
Also pushing afresh, though, he may well be one of Jake White’s high-profile signings at the Bulls: old Loftus favourite Marcel van der Merwe, another naturally gargantuan unit.
If Van der Merwe, most recently with Toulon, gets to strut his stuff sufficiently in a domestic competition (whether Currie Cup or “mini-Super Rugby”) hopefully starting in a few weeks’ time, the 29-year-old could put himself back into a position to add to a tally of seven international appearances which ended in 2015.
Right now, there should be little change – considering the months of rugby dormancy – to the senior pecking order at hooker, where Bongi Mbonambi and Malcolm Marx reign supreme and run each other neck and neck.
But with grand master and popular RWC 2019 “dirt-tracker” Schalk Brits finally retired, the likelihood increases that former Cheetahs rising star (now with Bordeaux) Joseph Dweba will come very forcefully into Bok consideration.
The rampaging customer is 24, so still with excellent future blossoming potential and a spell in Europe will only aid his game.
For the fourth desired Bok element in the middle of the front row, it could be a head-scratcher between the Stormers’ Scarra Ntubeni – has his terrible injury hoodoo finally been laid to rest? – and another Sale-based player in Akker van der Merwe.
That pair have four Bok caps between them, but not yet in a starting capacity in either instance.
My proposed eight props at this point: Frans Malherbe, Vincent Koch and Coenie Oosthuizen (all specialist tightheads), Trevor Nyakane and Thomas du Toit (both extremely versatile), Steven Kitshoff, Ox Nche and Lizo Gqoboka (specialist looseheads).
My proposed four hookers: Bongi Mbonambi, Malcolm Marx, Joseph Dweba, Scarra Ntubeni/Akker van der Merwe.
*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing
