Last Wednesday marked a small, but important milestone for Allister Coetzee – the one-month countdown to his first match as Springbok coach.

History will both help and hinder him as he pulls his squad together later this month. In the 20 seasons of professional rugby since 1996, the Springboks have won their season-opening match 17 times. This demonstrates SA rugby’s capacity to pull things together fast. It also suggests the weight of expectation will be heavy.

Ireland will arrive in early June for three Test matches – hooray for it being an almost traditional tour – and they will have their own ambition. It won’t have gone unnoticed that Ireland is also aiming to host the 2023 World Cup, which may be a given now that SA Rugby has been squeezed out of the bidding process. Pity.

Both are teams in stark transition. Coetzee’s immediate task is to grapple with selecting a team for both now and the medium term, and also apply his mind to transformation. None of his forebears got it right. We ought to be hopeful, though: his record is good.

Ireland’s game under Joe Schmidt – low-risk with an accurate kicking game – brought back-to-back Six Nations crowns, but they’ve eased back since the World Cup where Argentina destroyed their semifinal hopes. A mid-table finish in the recent Six Nations and a no-show in the European Cup have led to much introspection since. Hand-wringing is the new national sport.

If they don’t get skinned alive in South Africa, this tour may be the making of a new generation. Ireland have been without Paul O’Connell, their great totem, since last autumn and have yet to recover from his retirement. They are also likely to travel lighter than they’d have hoped. Right wing Tommy Bowe is injured and top loosies Sean O’Brien and Peter O’Mahony are also unlikely to make the trip through injury. The attrition is not surprising – most top Europeans have been playing non-stop since last July.

SA will offer a white-hot challenge, but if you’re ever going to make your mark, a tour down here is a splendid place to do so. Look out for midfielder Gary Ringrose, so too old friend CJ Stander, who has shot the lights out since arriving in Ireland four years ago.

We’ve done the tourists a favour by giving them an opener at sea level (Cape Town), but they won’t relish the trip to Johannesburg a week later. The Boks thrive there and they will have a Test under their belts. Port Elizabeth a week later may be a game too far for the tourists, especially if they’re two-nil down.

As ever, Coetzee will have precious little time with his squad before the first Test. The Bulls and the Lions and the Stormers and the Cheetahs will knock the daylights out of each other in Super Rugby action on May 28. The Bok squad will then convene a day later in Stellenbosch; bruises and bandages mandatory.

Even now, it’s not difficult to see where Coetzee’s challenges will lie. SA’s Super Rugby season has had the consistency of custard, which is to say not very good. There have been bright moments along the way, but teams have shown an inability to recalibrate tactics along the way, the Lions being a case in point.

Also, with so much going on and new teams and styles emerging, very few fresh-faced players have demanded attention, the exception being flyhalves Garth April and Jean-Luc du Plessis. And this is why Coetzee’s first team is sure to have a mostly familiar look to it with names like Eben Etzebeth, Beast Mtawarira, Adriaan Strauss and JP Pietersen a sure thing.

The early word on Coetzee is solid. He has impressed in public engagements and visited the franchises and given strong assurances. This is important, but he will be measured strictly by how his team performs.

I’m dying to see how Coetzee gets the Boks fired up. Ireland could hardly be more ideal opponents for him to show his early hand. They will fight hard and offer stern set-piece resistance, to a point.

I’m hoping for more than just substance from the Boks. Some style would be welcome too. – © Sunday Tribune