With the Springbok squad set to be announced next Saturday everybody is predicting their choice of players to make the trip to the United Kingdom in November. But with a long season approaching in 2009 the jury is out on whether or not some player should be rested. Peter Murison and Rob Peters debate the issue…

Peter Murison admits we need to manage our players better, but he does not feel the international season is the right time to do it.

I’ve never quite understood the concept of sending an ‘under-strength’ Springboks side anywhere. By its very name the South African national team is representative of the country, and why would one therefore even consider putting out a team that they would not fully expect to get the job done as easily as possible?

The point I’m sure the people in the back are muttering to themselves is ‘rest,’ or ‘burn-out’, the argument that some of the countries leading stars are in desperate need of a break, and that their careers are simply not sustainable without a lengthy rest.

I fully admit, I am no doctor, and I am certainly no Tim Noakes style expert. But I am a rugby supporter, and someone who thinks they understand the game. So, while even I can therefore accept that we have to manage our stars better, why would one think the international season is the time to do that?

What genuine, guaranteed benefit is there to having the likes of Schalk Burger, Jean De Villiers and Bryan Habana relaxing in South Africa when their team-mates are fighting for all their worth some 12 000 kilometres away in the cold European winter.

In fact isn’t it perhaps an error to deny people like De Villiers, or a Fourie Du Preez, or possibly some other potential SA captain, the added experiences of another overseas tour?

But player issues aside, for me, the idea of sending anything but the best you have out on tour, particularly on a tour as important as any to Europe is, is disrespectful to your opponents, and disrespectful to all those who have battled bravely for the Green and Gold in the past. In fact, I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen enough single-figure capped Springboks to know that taking players on tour ‘to develop them’ or ‘give them experience’, has more often than not resulted in a handful of new Springboks who might actually never quite measure up to the standards we like to believe the blazer should warrant.

Worse still, how many potentially good players have been selected for these end of season tour to early and then subsequently entered the international wilderness and even fallen away on the domestic front?

The last point then is perhaps the most ignored, and yet, the most obvious.

There is no way, not for one second, that a South African public, weak side or not, will, or should, quietly enjoy one or two defeats during the end of year tour. Failure at international level, for a country as proud as the current World Champions, is never an acceptable thing.

To travel to the northern hemisphere, while they are in mid-season, and at their peak, with anything less than a full strength team, is asking for trouble and asking for unrest.

With everything that has gone on with coach Peter De Villiers this year, on and off the pitch, do we really expect him to allow himself to be used for target practice by critics after not selecting his best possible lineup, and therefore, potentially sacrificing on the teams performance.

If De Villiers is to be a success in the role, if he is to live out his expected long tenure, he needs stability, he needs success, and he need his best players available to him at all times.

If a player is not at 100 percent then he is not the best man for the team anyway, and that is a decision for De Villiers, but resting players simply because one feels that it might turn out to be the right thing somewhere down the line – surely not at international level, and certainly not when the Springbok name is at stake.

Rob Peters cannot understand how, with all the evidence available, the Bok selectors are even considering selecting players like Jean de Villiers and Victor Matfield for the November tour…

After winning last year’s World Cup I cannot believe we are still having this conversation… Jake White’s critics may have had their knives out when he rested his key player during last year’s Tri-Nations, but they were strangely silent a couple of months later when we celebrated in France.

Should we rest the key Springboks in November? Well, there is no ‘should’ about it — we have to rest them.

As luck would have it, the Boks could actually send an almost full-strength team north this November, while resting some key exponents of the team that will be fielded against the British and Irish Lions next year. Injuries have meant players like captain John Smit and Jaque Fourie have not actually played all that much rugby so there is no reason to rest them…

Of course the Bok selectors won’t do that, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t. It is high time we start planning ahead and stop running our prized assets into the ground.

To my mind the focus has to be on the Lions next June/July. No argument.

We travel north every year, with mixed results, and it is hard to understand why the selectors feel that with one of the busiest schedules on the horizon next year, they should send already weary players across the ocean to do battle against teams they will have a chance to meet again in 2009 anyway…

Never mind the fact that England and France have long adopted the approach of sending weaker teams south every year in an effort to placate the clubs in their respective countries.

Then add the knowledge that one of the world’s pre-eminent sports scientists, Professor Tim Noakes, has been telling South African sports administrators and coaches for the past 10-plus years that we are killing our players… well, now I am at a total loss as to why nobody is listening.

Finally ask yourself this: if we beat Wales, Scotland and England, but lose to the British and Irish Lions, do you think anybody will remember the 2008 November tour? Nope. The reverse, however, will be far different.

How many Springbok fans look back on the 2007 season and recall the Tri-Nations first and the Rugby World Cup second? None and that is my point. Certain matches / series will always take precedent over others. The Rugby World Cup is more important than the Tri-Nations, while a series victory over the British and Irish Lions is a hell of a lot more important than a solitary win over any of Wales, Scotland or England.

Apart from that, we are repeatedly exposed for lack of depth at international level when we have injuries. Remember what happened when John Smit was injured and Bismarck du Plessis banned during the Tri-Nations? The cupboard was pretty bare beyond those two hookers. And when Butch James was struggling for form throughout the season we all agreed he needed to be replaced, but nobody knew exactly who we were supposed to replace him with.

I am not saying rest the entire squad, but let’s give the key players a break, particularly those who have been playing non-stop since the beginning of the year…

It if was up to me I would definitely rest Jean de Villiers, Bryan Habana, Butch James, Victor Matfield, Schalk Burger and Juan Smith, while giving some of the younger guys a decent run in the team.

Ryan Kankowski, Andries Bekker, Jongi Nokwe and Peter Grant are all Springboks already, but their stock is sure to rise — use the opportunity now to give them a taste of what is still to come. And the Boks will be no weaker with any one of those players in the run-on team.

It’s time for SA Rugby to get smart. Please let 2008 be the year that happens…

  • So is Peter right correct in his views that the Springboks should always be at full-strength or are Rob’s concerns justified? Leave your comments below!

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