By Lucky Vince Pienaar
“It isn’t the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog that counts,” is a famous saying.
Rassie Erasmus often says that he looks for the mongrel in a player when selecting squads and teams. Kwagga Smith is an example of such a dog. But there are many others. Malcolm Marx, Siya Kolisi, Bongi Mbonambi, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Cheslin Kolbe, Jasper Wiese, Eben Etzebeth and Jesse Kriel are examples of dogs—and they are not the only ones.
The All Blacks have very few dogs. In Saturday’s Test match in Cape Town against the Springboks, Wallace Sititi would stand out as a dog, and so would Codie Taylor. TJ Perenara, with all his faults, is a fighter, but there aren’t many others.
Perhaps it is a cultural thing, that South Africans have a fight in them that New Zealanders don’t have, but All Blacks coach Scott Robertson (known to have had that special fight in him as a player) should start looking for dogs when selecting players.
➤ Speaking of selection, New Zealand Rugby have given Scott Robertson the job of winning the World Cup (which really does mean beating the Springboks, doesn’t it?), but they want him to do it with one hand tied behind his back.
They still insist that players who play overseas are not eligible for selection for the All Blacks.
Anybody who says Damian McKenzie is the best All Black flyhalf is ignoring the fact that Richie Mo’Unga is sitting in Japan, playing for Toshiba Brave Lupus. Would Mo’Unga have missed that game-changing kick in front of the poles that McKenzie made such a hash of? We’ll never know.
TJ Perenara’s terrible mistake of going into the maul when he should have been defending the blindside is probably worse than McKenzie’s missed kick. Perenara and Cortez Ratima are both good scrumhalves, but Aaron Smith, even at 35, is still the player of choice. Ironically, Aaron Smith, who plays for Toyota Verblitz, mentions that he loves playing with Pieter-Steph du Toit. And there is no limitation on South African Du Toit, who is one of the stars of the current Springbok team.
It appears that New Zealand Rugby are prepared to allow the All Blacks to lose because of an outdated rule, while some of the best players in the world are excluded from their team.
➤ Sadly, it is time for Willie le Roux to play in his 100th Springbok match and then be taken into the coaching team, where he belongs. He played a satisfactory match on Saturday, but the cracks are beginning to show—and it could cost the Boks matches.
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu may have put both Manie Libbok and Handré Pollard out of business. Pollard, as Rassie says, “tackles like a loose forward”, but he still has a mechanical type of play that slows the game down. Now that we have a flyhalf who is an excellent kicker as well as a playmaker, Pollard and Libbok may be out of the picture.
However, if Sacha surrenders to the arrogance that he is showing some signs of, he will have to spend some time sitting on the bench, learning some humility.
Pictured above: The All Blacks haka on Saturday in Cape Town.
Source: All Blacks/X
