Boks need to end on a high

rugby365s Robbie Fleck is back from Bermuda and he looks ahead to this weekend’s Springbok Test against England at Twickenham.

It’s great being back home, despite spending a great 12 days in Bermuda with the Elan South African Legends where we attempted to defend our World Classics title.

We came very close, going down 19-5 to the British Lions in the Bermuda World Classics Final on Saturday night (early Sunday morning SA time) and it was rather disappointing to be part of a losing side.

But all credit to the Lions – who had the likes of Andy Ward, Shane Byrne and Anthony Foley in their side – they deserved the win, even if we were a bit depleted due to injuries by the end of the tournament!

We did well to make it into the final with wins over France (12-5) and Australia (21-0), but the last game – between the best two sides on offer at the tournament – was just a bridge too far for us. Yes, it was a huge pity, but it still could not detract from a very good few days spent in Bermuda.

As I said in last week’s column, everybody made us feel very, very welcome and we had a fun time of it; both on and off the field. We had a bit of niggle in our game against France, but the tournament was played in a fantastic spirit throughout.

On a personal level, I would love to see a tournament of this nature come to South Africa or, in particular, Cape Town, but at least we have the Cape Town Tens to look forward next February!

Bob and I learnt plenty from our time in Bermuda and we were able to chat to a bunch of guys about possibly coming out here to play in the first ever Cape Town Tens.

The likes of Scott Robertson and Keith Lowen from New Zealand, Australia’s Jeremy Paul and a bunch of the Lions players seemed genuinely keen to come out and play, but there are obviously costs involved, so the guys will have to head home first and do some sums before committing properly.

The good news, however, was that a lot of the SA Legends players like Jannie Brookes, Joe Beukes, Piet Joubert, Craig McIntosh and Neil Cole are all dead keen to make it down to the CT Tens and with John Allan having promised two SA Legends team for the event, it will be great to see some familiar faces around. (I just hope Craig McIntosh is a bit more careful riding a bike in Cape Town than he was in Bermuda!)

The only downside to spending 12 days in Bermuda was me having to spend 12 days away from my wife and kid, but a few days abroad playing social rugby is not as bad as spending virtually all year long on the road – like the top Springboks have been doing in 2008.

Saturday’s Test against England at Twickenham will be South Africa’s 13th of the year – add to that a full Super 14 campaign and a physical Absa Currie Cup season, and one can understand why Peter de Villiers claims that his players are mentally and physically exhausted.

It must be quite hard for the guys to keep their full attention on Saturday’s Test, without thinking about those well-deserved breaks ahead of them; either spent on the beach in Cape Town or St Francis or perhaps even overseas. It’s been a long season and it’s natural for the players’ minds to wander – but they need to shut that out and concentrate on those final 80 minutes on Saturday.

The Boks are currently two from two on their end-of-season tour and even if they make it three from three, this tour – like the last Tri-Nations game against the Wallabies – has thrown up more questions than answers…

In my mind, the Boks should have used this tour as a ‘warm-up’ for next year’s British & Irish Lions tour of South Africa, but they have not achieved this. They stuttered to wins over Wales and Scotland and now they’re facing an England team that it is in a rebuilding phase. This should have been a game to showcase the Boks’ talent and ability – not a game that we will hopefully win at a ground that has not been kind to us over the years. (The Boks have won just three from 10 matches at Twickenham since 1992 – ed.)

Losing Bismarck du Plessis is a blow and the Boks were nearly caught out by having just Brian Mujati to back up John Smit, but it’s not often that you lose the world’s second best hooker in Bismarck and replace him with the world’s best – and a World Cup-winning captain to boot.

Fourie du Preez’s fitness is a worry for the Boks, but so too is the form of Bryan Habana; he is a class act, but injuries have hampered him this season and that, in turn, has affected his confidence. At the same time, however, he is not getting a lot of ball in space at the moment and I doubt a fully confident and in-form Bryan Habana would be making much of a difference right now.

England might have taken a bit of a hiding up front against the Wallabies last weekend, but they actually have a very dangerous backline at the moment, with serious pace in their back three. Delon Armitage, Paul Sackey and Ugo Monye are not footballers in the Bryan Habana mould, but if they get decent ball in broken play they could be devastating.

One area we could dominate them is in the midfield, but we need to start with Jaque Fourie in order to achieve this. I seem to mention this every week in my column, but Jaque brings a direct and physical approach to the midfield that few teams in the world are able to match. It is harsh on Adi Jacobs, who has not done much wrong this season, but he could still make an impact off the bench.

Looking at the match-ups between the two sides we should dominate them up front – where John will have more freedom to do damage at hooker – and our loose forwards have more experience and power than their fairly young back row.

The backline battle, however, is not that clear-cut… Ruan Pienaar has shown flashes that he could well be our best No.10, but he still needs more time in that position and he needs to form a proper attacking combination with Jean de Villiers at inside centre. Out wide, I have already spoken about Bryan’s issues, but JP Pietersen has been the only member of the back three that has impressed on this tour.

The big threat in the England backline is their flyhalf Danny Cipriani, who has copped some criticism in the English media for his performance against the Wallabies.

Cipriani is a real talent, but maybe all the criticism levelled at him will bring him back down to earth a bit and help his game – hopefully not this weekend, however, as South Africa can ill-afford a masterclass from him at a ground that has not been kind to them since 1997 (they have beaten England once at Twickenham since then).

Fleckie’s prediction: It won’t be pretty, but I’m expecting a real battle and tipping the Boks to win – only just.

Catch you next week,
Fleckie

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