Blood the youngsters

rugby365.com columnist Robbie Fleck would like to see the Springbok selectors plump for youth on South Africa’s upcoming three-Test tour of Europe.

Well, it’s been yet another crazy week in rugby, but, sadly, it’s all the off-field dramas that seem to be capturing everyone’s attention…

It’s a pity, really. Wouldn’t it be great if we could simply concentrate on the game and not all the silly, off-field sideshows that seem to be dominating the headlines?

Personally, I was very impressed by the two Currie Cup semifinals last week and the Sharks and the Bulls both deserved to go through to the Currie Cup Final. (As I predicted, of course!)

As I said last week, the Sharks and the Bulls are the teams to beat, but I will chat about the final properly in next week’s column. I will say this now – repeating something I said last week – I am expecting one helluva game and it will be close. There is little to choose between these two teams, with quality players on either side.

For this week, I thought I would play selector, with the Springbok touring squad set to be announced after the Currie Cup Final.

It’s always a nervous time for prospective Springboks, but I was always rather relaxed before squad announcements. There is no point worrying about stuff that is not in your control. As a player, all one can do is play to the best of your abilities – the rest should take care of itself.

This three-Test tour of Europe – with Tests against Wales, Scotland and England – is an important tour for Peter de Villiers.

After an up-and-down Tri-Nations, and with the players still buying into his gameplan and approach, he needs to take his team on an unbeaten tour and establish some more continuity in the process.

For that reason, they need to pick the best available touring squad; with John Smit coming back in to captain the side and the likes of Schalk Burger, Victor Matfield and Jean de Villiers – to name just a few key men – all touring, too.

The big challenge next year for South Africa is the British & Irish Lions tour and it would be great if the Boks toured Europe now and laid down a serious marker ahead of that mouth-watering series.

A guy like Jean, for instance, has probably been our best back this season and it would be great for him to go on this tour and show Britain’s best backline players just how good he is and how difficult it will be to beat the Springboks come June/July next season.

Make no mistake, that Lions tour is a big one, with plenty at stake, it’s important for Springbok rugby that we win that series. Also, with all this talk of the Springbok emblem changing, wouldn’t it be great for the Boks to return from Europe unbeaten, adding even more honour to the already famous emblem?

Speaking of all this emblem talk, I am in regular contact with former players in Australia and New Zealand and they were pretty horrified to hear about the possibility of the emblem changing. It just wouldn’t be the same for the Wallabies and the All Blacks on Test-match days if the Bok emblem were to change.

But, back to the Bok tour… I have already mentioned the likes of Smit, Matfield, Burger and De Villiers as tourists, but I would like to see all the senior players – fitness pending, of course – on the tour.

A guy like Butch James springs to mind immediately. Butchie, by all accounts, is playing some great rugby for my old club Bath and he will be invaluable to the Boks come November.

Butch is still our No.1 flyhalf and he will be the first choice come the Lions tour next year. Not only is he a class act, but his experience of playing in Europe will make him an even more valuable team member.

Peter Grant is his obvious back-up as far as I am concerned, but Morne Steyn has impressed for the Bulls. Why not take them both on tour? Steyn could only benefit from an opportunity like that.

The ‘other’ Steyn, Frans, is once again back in the No.12 jersey for the Sharks – where he belongs! Regular readers of this column will know that I am a big Frans Steyn fan and it is no coincidence that he is playing good rugby for the Sharks – he is settled and back in his best position.

Wynand Olivier is also playing good rugby at the moment – as I mentioned in last week’s column – and he is worth another look, but I think the selectors should also identify a group of youngsters to take on the tour in order to blood them for the future.

Yes, there are only three Tests and not everyone will be able to play, but the Wallabies always tend to blood youngsters on their end-of-season tours, like they are doing this year with that youngster, O’Connor, from the Force. Why don’t we do the same?

What I would like to see is a 30/35-man squad; made up mostly of senior Boks, but with a sprinkling of raw, talented youngsters and then rewarding the Currie Cup form of say, Duanne Vermeulen, Jean Deysel, Keegan Daniel, Johann Muller and Willie Wepenaar.

Then, there’s the youngsters… Imagine how much someone like Nick Koster would learn from touring with the world champions? Koster, at 19, represents the future of this country’s loose forward resources and the Barbarians have already noticed his potential by inviting him to play for them at the end of the year.

Koster was in the South Africa Under-20 team this year and he has a few teammates from that squad who would also benefit immensely from touring with the Boks. Inside centre Robert Ebersohn is a guy that comes to mind immediately – a wonderful talent – and his Free State teammate Wilton Pietersen is a wing/fullback with a bright future, too.

Koster would be able to spend a few weeks with Schalk Burger, Ryan Kankowski, Juan Smith and Pierre Spies; Ebersohn would be able to rub shoulders with Jean de Villiers and Pietersen could only become a better player after spending time with Jaque Fourie, Bryan Habana and Conrad Jantjes.

Speaking of Jaque Fourie, it would be great to see him back in the mix. As well as Adrian Jacobs has done, Fourie is a better option at outside centre, especially on the heavier fields up north.

Another World Cup winner who I would like to see back – along with Olivier and Fourie – is Sharks lock Johann Muller. He has not featured under Peter de Villiers this season, but he has just kept his head down and churned out performance after performance for the Currie Cup finalists.

Until next week,
Fleckie

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