Building towards RWC is a crock

 

359796918I’m no fan of “building” a team towards the World Cup.

This is what we have in the Rugby Championship with both the Springboks and the All Blacks openly talking about tomorrow’s match as a quasi-trial for World Cup selection, a chance to mix and match.

It’s true that all roads lead to Twickenham come September, but it’s a risky experiment. Instead of selecting teams for the here and now, they are chosen on the notion of what might work for the bigger picture. A team for tomorrow rather than a team for today.

Which puts a dent of sorts in the status of the Test match at Ellis Park. These games will always be full-bore, thunderous affairs, but it might have something of the phoney war about it.

If this is a Bok team in development phase – which might be a little late anyway – any chance of getting onto a roll could be destroyed. Remember, this is a single-round tournament because it is World Cup year. The scalp of the All Blacks, no matter how diminished they are sans Dan Carter and Sonny Bill Williams, must thus be claimed this weekend. The next time is likely to come in the World Cup semi-final itself. The momentum generated off a win at Ellis Park just 55 days out from the World Cup would be massive.

A reverse, however, would plant seeds of doubt, especially as it would be the third on the bounce (excluding the World XV lark). Not ideal.

The nature of Test rugby militates against being too cocksure about your World Cup picks, even now. Injury and form could wreak havoc with Heyneke Meyer’s plans. He would be the first to admit that he’s hardly ever selected a XV he was 100 percent satisfied with, mainly because injuries are an unhappy by-product of his job.

The same holds true for the All Blacks. This is by no means their best team. They too run the risk of blowing whatever momentum they have.

Joburg’s likely dank weather will be welcomed by the Boks – the softer the surface, the better for them against the hard-running All Blacks. This is especially true because two things were starkly evident in Brisbane last week: the Boks’ lack of out and out pace and a flagging of their energies.

The battle on the ground will be savage. Even if the Boks gain parity, or better, the All Black backs have serious gas to burn.

I expect them to rip our guts out.

 

 

2 thoughts on “Building towards RWC is a crock

  1. I agree
    Still i would love to see the all blacks live
    They never come to cape town

    • Cheers George. That’s because of the Cape Crusaders. Why should the Boks go where the All Blacks are cheered to the heavens?

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