Mike Greenaway: Boks fresh and hungry for battle-weary Samoans

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Judgment Day has hovered on the periphery of Rudolf Straeuli's Springboks since June, around the time that Scotland - who have turned out to be so poor in this World Cup - were unlucky to lose their matches in Johannesburg and Durban.

All part of the plan, said the gruff coach. Judge us on the World Cup, he added defiantly.

He said it again when the Boks came last in the Tri-Nations, and he repeated the plea when his team left for Australia three weeks ago.

Now a heroic horde of terminators from a tiny Pacific island have hastened Straeuli's day of judgment by at least a week.

A month ago, the South Africans regarded Samoa as a tough little warm-up game that would do nicely as preparation for the do-or-die quarter-final with the All Blacks.

Well, there is a little more urgency about the Springboks after England were shaken, rattled and rolled to their very core by a special performance from the Islanders.

Trouble is, the Samoans are expected to front up just six days later against a team who will not have an ounce of complacency.

The Boks can thank the tournament schedule for that. If it had been the Springboks who played Samoa last Sunday in Melbourne, they may not have had the composure and the experience to weather the 80-minute hurricane.

Forewarned, as they say ... but this timely reminder of the fact that the Samoans have big hearts is of less significance when you consider that the South Africans have had two weeks to prepare for this game, and the Samoans less than a week.

The front-line Springbok team have not played since October 18, the day of the England match. They have occasionally climbed out of their cotton wool to hone their fitness.

Since then, Straeuli played his B team against Georgia - a convenient exercise to give his also-rans some game time and also to give one or two players a "trial" for the test team.

The fact that the Boks were poor against Georgia will not worry Straeuli in the least because the players who count were in the stands enjoying the show.

The point I am making is that the Boks are fit, fresh and acutely aware of Samoa's capabilities.

Samoa, by contrast, arrived in Brisbane on Monday and coach John Boe had no choice but to give them two days off to recover from their courageous battle in Melbourne.

"Why flog a dead horse?" Boe said.

The coach then said that this week "the most important game in Samoa's history will also require the biggest effort in the island's history."

He is not bull-dusting. The unanimous view of the rugby world is that Samoa have played their final.

To expect them to repeat their performance six days later is asking too much. They will give it a full go, but against a hungry, fresh Springbok team they surely will perish.

We must never forget that the Judgment Day theme permeates every Springbok move, so the fervour with which the Samoans play will be matched by a Springbok team who this year have endured more hardship, controversy and pressure than possibly any other major rugby team in history.

As hooker John Smit says: "If we lose to Samoa, we are out of here, but we dare not go back to South Africa. Not for a long time."

It is only a mild exaggeration. If the Boks lose, Straeuli must do the honourable thing and fall on his sword.

There can be no possible excuse for failure. He has no injuries, and the Boks have been in a training camp for the World Cup virtually since the end of the Tri-Nations.

The opposition had four days together, plus two warm-up games in New Zealand.

A look at the formidable Bok 22 suggests that Straeuli's Judgment Day is at least a week away.

He has selected an excellent pack.

His front row of Faan Rautenbach, Smit and Christo Bezuidenhout is a new, unheralded combination, but experts on scrummaging claim this front row is the best the Boks have put on the park for many a year.

There is nothing wrong - and a lot right - about the second row of Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha; the youthful loose trio outplayed England in Perth; and then there is the change at first five-eighth.

"At long last Hougaard," is the cry in South Africa.

Limited Louis Koen has been replaced by the youngster whom so many South Africans are relying on for glory.

The 20-year-old Derick Hougaard has extraordinary talent and has been carefully "warmed up" with time off the bench before displaying his talents against Georgia.

* Mike Greenaway is rugby writer for the Natal Mercury.

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