Bok coach under pressure to arrest slide
With the Rugby Championship already lost for the Springboks, coach Allister Coetzee will have to prove that his threats to act on poor performances were real when he picks his team to face Australia in Pretoria on Saturday.
The biggest talking point in the Bok team has been the flyhalf position, where Elton Jantjies has struggled to translate his Super Rugby form for the Lions into the Test arena.
Jantjies, who is a renowned attacking playmaker, has seemed unsure of himself as the Boks try to play a game that appears to be a combination of the Lions’ all-out attacking approach and the more percentage-based tactics of the Stormers under Coetzee’s watch over a number of years.
The Bok coach has bemoaned the lack of quality tactical kicking from his players in the 41-13 defeat to the All Blacks in Christchurch and the 23-17 loss to the Wallabies in Brisbane in their last two Tests.
Jantjies is supposed to be the general who dictates the Bok pattern but hasn’t been convincing in that regard, while he has also missed a number of kicks at goal during 2016.
He made a big mistake against New Zealand when he dropped a kickoff five metres from his own tryline immediately after the Boks had scored, and the Kiwis pounced with a five-pointer of their own.
But the problem facing Coetzee is that there isn’t a clear-cut alternative to Jantjies at the moment for Saturday’s Test against Australia at Loftus Versfeld.
Veteran Morné Steyn is regarded as a conservative pivot who kicks possession away, while Patrick Lambie was out for over three months with concussion and only made his comeback last week with 20 minutes off the bench for the Sharks in a Currie Cup match.
Lambie was cleared by the Bok medical team on Monday to be considered for selection against Australia, but will he be sharp enough to handle the intensity of Test match rugby?
The left-field choice available at flyhalf to Coetzee is Johan Goosen. The Racing Metro utility back has operated at fullback for the Boks in their last few games with mixed success but made his debut as a flyhalf. He has played at outside-centre for his French club as well but has the big boot to execute a better tactical kicking game than Jantjies.
He has been erratic as a No 10 in the past, though, and it would be a considerable risk by Coetzee to make Goosen the new Bok general.
Goosen will be under threat to retain his place at No 15 following the recall of the experienced Willie le Roux, who was dropped after the June series against Ireland and has been playing club rugby in Japan. Le Roux has played Test rugby at wing in the past too, and could even come in for Francois Hougaard out wide, with Hougaard possibly taking over from Faf de Klerk at scrumhalf.
Whatever Coetzee decides in the end, the fact of the matter is that he needs to do something to arrest the slide of the Boks after they lost their last three matches to Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.