Everything about the Springboks at the moment is hit and miss. It will be no different at next year’s World Cup.

Events in the last two months have shown up the lack of World Cup planning, starting with the warm-up match against the World XV, the debacle at Newlands against the French and the embarrassment overseas during the Vodacom Tri Nations.

Each time the Boks stumble, the management ducks in behind a World Cup excuse. There’s no crime in that if there was a World Cup excuse. If the Boks were losing and struggling because of World Cup preparation, you could still stomach recent events. But there has been nothing to suggest any sort of plan with any player.

Let’s go through the list, starting with Meyer Bosman last year. Bosman was the controversial selection for the end of year tour and White waxed lyrical about the natural talents of a 20 year-old he said could play anywhere in the backline. White told the media he had been following Bosman’s career since the player was a 16 year-old and that the kid had it all. He picked him against Wales and started him against France. And that’s been Bosman’s exposure to the big time, other than warming international benches and carrying tackles bags.

White could have played him against the World XV or in two Scottish tests if he had a plan with the player. He never did and despite Bosman not making the initial playing squad for this test season injury to Andre Pretorius prompted White to pick Bosman again. He took him on a Tri Nations tour and never played him again. Instead he flew Butch James to New Zealand and played him against the All Blacks. There has been no plan with Bosman whatsoever, other than to stuff him around.

White introduced 32 year-old veteran Andre Snyman from Leeds and told the media Akona Ndungane lacked pace. Two months later and Ndungane is the test winger and Snyman is trying to get a release from a World Cup contract to play in France. Danie Coetzee, another veteran playing in England, was flown in from London Irish and paid to travel with the Boks. He is 32 years-old and played eight out of 22 matches for London Irish in the last year. We saw nothing of him in the test arena in the last two months. He’s on his way back to England. When Jaco van der Westhuyzen signed to play in Japan White said it was the best thing for him. White (YAWN) quoted his good mate Eddie Jones on the pros of Van der Westhuyzen playing in Japan and how the player could improve his skills because of the lack of pressure. Now White says he needs to get Van der Westhuyzen out of his Japanese contract because it is killing his international rugby. Van der Westhuyzen’s also gone back to Japan. Three players on Bok salaries not currently involved in the Tri Nations.

White at the start of the year said this was the season that he needed to find out if he had capable back-up to Percy Montgomery. In seven matches, six of them being tests, he has tried no other fullback and in four of the tests Monty has been appalling. When asked in Australia who Monty’s back-up was, White mentioned the likes of Johan Roets and Willem de Waal. He did this while Pietersen was lugging tackle bags around. Pietersen will get a game this weekend, but it will be for the Sharks. White wants him back with the Boks on Monday. Why? To carry more tackle bags. After 79 tests with Montgomery, he knows what he has. Why doesn’t he expose Pietersen to test rugby and see what he may have in the 20 year-old? If there was any planning around the likes of Pietersen, we would have seen a game schedule mapped out for him.

White and his selectors continue to clutch at straws. The majority of players who cocked up in Australia continue to be rewarded, while domestic form has proved meaningless.

Breyton Paulse has been lured back to South Africa and is now on holiday. White has axed him from the Tri Nations squad.

Brent Russell was not in the mix before the French test in Cape Town. He got picked because of injury to Paulse and was one of the Boks better players. He got taken to Australia and New Zealand and never made a match 22. Now he is out of national mix again. Where was the planning around Russell? There wasn’t any.

Pierre Spies was overlooked for the initial season’s training group and the excuse was used that he would be available for the under 21 World Championship. He excelled as a flanker in the tournament and White picked him to tour Australia. He then capped him as a No 8 in a one-dimensional ball-carrying loose-trio to play Australia in Brisbane. Spies was poor and the hapless Joe van Niekerk was even worse playing out of position as an opensider. A few weeks earlier Van Niekerk had looked good as a No 8 against the World XV and Scotland. Now he can’t make the starting XV.

White had the opportunity to introduce new midfield talent against France, if there was indeed a plan. He didn’t. He phoned De Wet Barry, asked him to play 80 minutes of test rugby after a month’s break and then dropped the player because he lacked penetration in the test match. White then told the media that he was keen to pick Marius Joubert on the Boks return to South Africa. Joubert had not been on a rugby field in two months and when he eventually got back on a week ago he hurt his ankle.

White in May flew Anthony Eddie, an Australian consultant, into Bloemfontein to work with the Bok backs. He waxed lyrical. Now Eddie’s out of the mix and White has turned to Alan Zondagh to work with the backs. Zondagh has been in Cape Town for the last few years and has been running his own academy in Cape Town. Where was the planning around that one? Where was Zondagh in May?

Gary Gold was White’s ‘rush defence’ expert and go to man in 2004 and 2005. Gold is now working in South Africa, but his expertise has not been asked for again with the Boks? Planning?

Gert Smal went to Toulouse to find out a bit more about scrumming techniques, but no call was made to Heyneke Meyer, the best forwards specialist in South Africa. White ended up with Balie Swart, whose role at the Sharks was reduced to a cameo post Kevin Putt.

Andy Marinos, National Teams general manager, lambastes his players for lacking professionalism in a rugby magazine in an article that reads desperation and not inspiration.

All World Cup planning as far as selections go were put on hold when France beat the Boks. At least that’s the excuse at SARU.

But if there was a World Cup selection plan and it was founded on solid principles then a win or a defeat against France should not have altered these selections.

New Zealand’s coaching staff declared that Dan Carter would play only two matches on the Grand Slam tour and that only a few players would play more than two matches. They were true to their word. When the All Blacks beat England to set up only the second Grand Slam for New Zealand the following week against Scotland coach Graham Henry made 13 changes. He said that playing the new guys meant more in terms of the World Cup planning than playing his best team to win a Grand Slam. He said the same when he juggled for the two test series against Ireland and the one-off against Argentina. In all three tests New Zealand struggled and were in a position to lose all three. Henry stuck to the plan because he had a plan and it was a plan he and his team believe in.

Henry had picked both Irish and Argentinean test line-ups three weeks before the tests. Results did not change this.

Take young Isaia Toeava as an example of World Cup planning. He was taken on tour with a coaching staff intent on playing him only in the last test. This done, he was drafted to the Canes to play regularly at fullback. This done, he was picked to play Argentina at outside centre. This done, he was picked in the match 22 for the Australian test. This done he was released to play for Auckland at inside centre one week and a request was made that he play outside centre last week. Now, nearly nine months after first touring with the All Blacks, the management are comfortable to give him a start at outside centre against Australia. It is part of the World Cup plan.

The All Blacks have even pencilled in the team to play the Boks in a fortnight. It is called planning. Now compare Toeava to Pietersen, Russell, Spies, Ralapele, Sephaka, Gary Botha, Pienaar and Bosman and talk about a World Cup plan.

This week White will again talk about his axed international coaching mates Eddie Jones and Clive Woodward and the need to explore every avenue. Unfortunately there is no conviction about any World Cup plan. There is a lot of talk about it, more as an excuse when things go wrong, but the examples I just listed illustrate how little thought has gone into who the 30 World Cup players should be and just what each player’s role will be.

Again I ask. What happens when Monty goes down? Who replaces him? Still Jake plays him into the ground, as he does with John Smit. For what? To gain some redemption at winning home test matches?

It is all hit and miss as are the excuses about Luke Watson’s continued omission.

The latest one is that the senior players don’t want Watson. Yep, those brave souls who turned their backs and threw in the towel 49-0 in Brisbane. Those senior players.

As I said, all in the name of World Cup planning.

Yeah. Right.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 16th, 2006 at 2:39 pm and is filed under News, Springboks, Tri-Nations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.