Springbok defense coach John McFarland
The Springboks want to keep the Wallabies guessing over who will fill the blindside flanker’s role for them in Saturday’s Castle Lager Rugby Championship clash at Newlands for as long as possible.
The Bok team is to be announced at lunch time on Wednesday, and more clarity will probably be offered on what the starting line-up will look like in Saturday’s match when the Boks train in a session that is open to the media and public at Cape Town Stadium on Tuesday.
SuperSport
However, defence coach John McFarland stressed at a press conference call on Tuesday that any assumption about who would join the back row in the absence of the injured Francois Louw was purely speculative at this point.
“The team hasn’t been announced yet and we would like to keep the surprise element at least until that has happened. (Bok coach) Heyneke (Meyer) hasn’t told us what he is planning as yet so I wouldn’t like to speculate,” said McFarland.
“There are a number of different options available to us, and the players who are in line to take up loose-forward roles at the weekend all have something different to offer and have varying strengths. It is not cut and dried.”
The media line this week is that Oupa Mohoje will make his first start for the Boks as a No 7 flank, but no-one has seen the Boks train in team formation yet and Meyer has not gone public about his plans. His other options are to select Schalk Burger into the starting team, where after all he was the incumbent blindside flank when last he was available for the Boks in June, or to introduce Warren Whiteley, normally a No 8, into the mix.
Logic suggests that Mohoje will start this week for the following reasons – a) he is the specialist blindside flanker in the squad, b) Burger can play there but has only just flown in from Japan and might be better utilized off the bench in preparation for a possible start against the All Blacks the following week, and c) Whiteley isn’t necessarily a natural fit for No 7 and moving Duane Vermeulen from No 8 to the side of the scrum would be a potentially disruptive change.
What is certain though is that the switch of Marcel Coetzee to the openside flank position shouldn’t leave the Boks short as he was in superb form in that position for the Sharks in Super Rugby.
“We will miss Francois as he is a superb player but Marcel is also a very good player. Who knows, we might get something a bit different,” said McFarland enigmatically.
What the Boks do lose though is the two fetcher combination that was responsible for some of the success in winning ball on the ground against the All Blacks in Wellington.
“There were nine turn-overs against the All Blacks. We didn’t get a single breakdown turn-over at Ellis Park last year and we got nine now so obviously there has been a big improvement in that aspect of our game,” said McFarland.
If the Boks are wanting to retain that element – of course not forgetting the contribution of the two hookers, Bismarck du Plessis and Adriaan Strauss in that aspect of their game – Burger, a veteran of 71 test caps, is probably the player pressing for a place who is the most rounded, as he can carry, is a strong defender and played for years as a fetching flank under Jake White.
But there is a question mark over whether it would be wise to play him in the starting team after playing in Japan over the past few months. His are probably the best credentials though for the Ellis Park test against the All Blacks if he can be eased back in some way in the Wallaby game. The questions over why he leapfrogged over Mohoje, if he does play at Ellis Park, are based on a false premise if you consider that Burger was ahead of Mohoje in the line before going to Japan.
Either way, the Boks are happy for the Wallabies to be guessing for now.