'Nucleus of SA rugby sound'
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Cape Town - The nucleus of South African rugby is fundamentally sound.
That is the view of the convener of the national rugby selection committee, Peter Jooste, after "one of South Africa's best weekends" in this year's Super 14 series.
Jooste says the Stormers convincing victory over the Crusaders, the brilliant level of play in the match between the Bulls and the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld, the Cheetahs nail-biting defeat in Bloemfontein and the Cats fight-back at Ellis Park have put a rosy hue on the Springboks prospects.
"What the Stormers and the Sharks have done in the past two weekends is especially important for our rugby.
"We want to see our teams play the overseas sides off their feet when they tour here.
"The Stormers did this against a virtual All Blacks side, while the Sharks did the same against the Blues, also with several All Blacks.
His expectations have been boosted
The Bulls also showed the Waratahs a thing or do earlier on in the competition.
"What I've seen in the past few weekends, especially of our established Springboks, has boosted my expectations of what we can achieve in the Tri-Nations."
These optimistic views come just a few weeks after there was major pessimism in South African rugby circles.
South Africa's Super 14 teams had performed disappointingly and the Under-19 team was soundly beaten in the World Cup tournament in Dubai.
Jooste says South Africans tend to become panicky when they face adversity.
Continuity is important
"We have the talent and it just depends how it's developed.
"It's easy to discard players after one or two poor performances, but that is not the answer.
"We should rather place our confidence in them and work hard to rectify their mistakes.
"The same happens to coaches. When teams don't produce the results, everyone wants the coaches to be dismissed.
"It's important, however, that there's continuity in our teams.
"Many of our teams struggle in Super rugby because there are too many changes of coaches, management and players.
"For the past few years, the Bulls have been our most-successful team because they've stuck to one coach and he has retained a nucleus of players.
"When players are content, they play so much better. We see the same thing with the Springboks.
"Our strategy at national level is to give the players as much Test experience as possible."
Given the chance
The same applies to coaches. Jooste believes a coach could improve only if he is given the chance to gain experience.
Apart from the senior Boks who have put up their hands in the past few weeks, the performance of other players who are trying to break through to national level has been noted.
Jooste declined to name them, saying it would create unfair expectations.
He has acknowledged, however, that the Bok selectors want to include a few youngsters to expose them to the Bok culture when the squad for this year's Test season is finalised on May 12.
Two names to be discussed are, without doubt, those of BJ Botha (the strong tighthead of the Sharks) and the omnipresent Stormers lock, Ross Skeate.
They have shone against the best in the southern hemisphere this year and if form and level of play are the most-important yardstick for wearing the green and gold, they deserve higher honours.
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