The Tri Nations have just begun and we’re already hearing stories about how tired and fatigued some of the Springboks are. Endless seasons for Smit, Matfield, Habana, du Preez, Spies, Botha, du Plessis… are finally taking their toll, the New Zealanders had rest, rotation and recuperation and were ridiculed for it? Graham Henry, Wayne Smith and Steve Hanson must be having a wee chuckle at the moment.

Player depth in South Africa is huge and definitely one of it’s strengths (we saw this when the Lions toured and during the Super 14 finals) but we have a coach, and his team of assistants, that don’t pick enough new talent and give them adequate game time. Something that is needed just one year out from the world cup, even the Aussies are building their talent pool with limited resources.

NZ still wont pick their overseas talent which has forced them to blood new players each year, they also get to form combinations not to mention inject some new enthusiasm and energy into their squad. Look at Isreal Dagg, Aaron Cruden, Rene Ranger, even Tom Donnelly and Kieran Read?

The Boks are still good enough to win this weekend, they need to sort their tactics out though. I’m happy to see Kankowski in there, he can play the game at pace but Potgieter could have featured in the starting mix somewhere? Perhaps Spies could have been on the bench as an impact player. Ruan Pienaar was useful last week and is dangerous when he runs, Aplon is diminutive but has a great skillset if the Boks finally decide to play an attacking game… the Wallabies will most definitely attack!!

The Wallabies will not want to scrum, they may not want to have too many lineouts either although Nathan Sharpe, Dean Mumm and Rocky Elsom are very good jumpers, they have seen that the All Blacks still struggled at times in Wellington after a great start in Auckland.

Players to watch:

Ryan Kankowski, Ruan Pienaar, Zane Kirchener, James O’Connor, Adan Ashley Cooper, Drew Mitchell, Quade Cooper, Will Genia, David Pocock, Rocky Elsom.