- Jacques Nienaber should have been gradually assembling his preferred Bok XV in his mind by now.
- Filling the likely Pieter-Steph du Toit gap at blindside flank would have been a critical issue.
- Sale-based Jean-Luc du Preez might have been in line for a recall after a two-year absence
This week, new Springbok head coach Jacques Nienaber should have been stepping up his plans for the initially-rostered first Test against Scotland on 4 July … less than a month from here.
Under normal circumstances, the Super Rugby semi-finals would have been played over the coming weekend, with only the final to follow on June 20, a fortnight before the Boks’ intended 2020 Test opener against the Scots at Newlands.
Be sure that, had Covid-19 not wreaked havoc with the season, Nienaber and his lieutenants would have had a fairly clear idea of their starting XV already, while hoping for no derailment intrusions through any ongoing SA aspirations in Super Rugby’s climax phase and the risk of last-minute injury casualties.
Instead, international plans have been comprehensively scuppered for the time being … but just how easy might the Bok side have been to choose if the July fixtures had been possible?
There is every chance that Nienaber – a notable disciple of Webb Ellis Cup-masterminding Rassie Erasmus who is still influential as director of rugby – would have stuck as far as possible to the side who so rousingly thumped England 32-12 in the RWC showpiece in Japan last year.
Why wouldn’t you?
On the reasonable assumption that all incumbents would have been fit, the backline might well have been summoned lock, stock and barrel again: Willie le Roux, Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe the back three, Damian de Allende and Lukhanyo Am in midfield, and Faf de Klerk and Handre Pollard the “nine-ten” combination.
The pack would have posed slightly deeper challenges, however.
For one thing, the post-World Cup retirement of richly experienced Tendai Mtawarira instantly impedes depth, going forward, at loosehead prop after his many yeoman years of service.
Logical, similarly premier-calibre replacement Steven Kitshoff would also almost certainly have been unavailable for the first Test of the new campaign: the acting Stormers captain tore a chest muscle in the mid-March derby against the Sharks in Durban and would only have been scheduled to return to any form of action in the first week of July.
That would have made him a very likely no-go for at least the first Scottish Test, probably creating a gap for the Sharks’ versatile behemoth Thomas du Toit to re-enter the picture for the No 1 jersey despite his broader transition to tighthead.
The Bulls’ now largely fulltime tighthead Trevor Nyakane would also have had forceful credentials for a fill-in task on the other side of the boiler room he knows just as well, and Loftus squad-mate Lizo Gqoboka – though only a two-cap Bok substitute to this point – had a shout of his own.
Another Stormers-based Bok front-rower, hooker Bongi Mbonambi, might have been touch and go for the Scottish challenge in Cape Town, as his own return from injury was earmarked, not long ago, for “around mid-June”.
Should he not have won the race back to fitness satisfactorily, close rival Malcolm Marx would have been the logical call-up for Nienaber, especially as he had been part of the trumpeted “Bomb Squad” of lively Bok substitutes at the business end of RWC 2019.
By now, regular Test captain Siya Kolisi should (assuming recent signals from Newlands were accurate) already have been a Super Rugby fixture or two into his own comeback from an injury layoff, so potentially able to occupy his customary No 6 Test shirt.
The only other selection concern – probably the biggest, nevertheless – would have surrounded star blindside flanker and World Rugby Player of the Year Pieter-Steph du Toit.
He picked up what turned out to be a quite dramatic injury in the Stormers’ shock home defeat to the Blues in late February: a haematoma that developed into an altogether more serious, acute compartment syndrome. But for alert post-game medical intervention, he might have lost a leg.
Du Toit’s rehabilitation was always going to require patience and caution, and the blond bomber would have been a long shot indeed for availability in the Scotland mini-series.
It begs the question: who would Nienaber have earmarked as back-up – and current, enforced alternative – to the runaway first choice No 7?
Someone like Franco Mostert, from the impressive quartet of Bok locks at the World Cup, is no stranger to the side of the scrum and has many of the attributes for it.
But there were no other true specialists of the blindside berth among the Bok squad in Japan … especially now that 76-cap Francois Louw, adaptable to all loosie positions, has subsequently retired from the green and gold cause.
The other Bok loose forwards at the World Cup were Kwagga Smith (much more an open-side tearaway) and established No 8 kingpin Duane Vermeulen who can comfortably play at seven but seems unlikely to vacate his more regular position for the moment – unless there was an irresistible urge to give the Sharks’ in-form athlete Sikhumbuzo Notshe a fresh crack in the starting line-up.
Of the overseas-based Bok resources, either of Marcell Coetzee (Ulster) or the Sale Sharks’ rugged Jean-Luc du Preez (who is still only 24, and an out-and-out No 7 before seeing some lock service for his English club) would probably enter Nienaber’s thoughts quite compellingly, especially given their prior Test experience.
Right now, who would step into Du Toit’s formidable boots is a matter simply for conjecture: he may instead be playing again by the time the Boks next run from the tunnel.
*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing
