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Springboks: Yes. No. Maybe

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World Cup style: Springbok rugby’s greatest weakness is its excessive devotion to structure and fear of taking chances. Luckily, this is also their greatest strength at World Cup tournaments – which usually reward this kind of play.

Experience: The tournament exposes teams to more pressure than they will ever experience in their careers. Some wither in the limelight. Fortunately, the Boks have a number of longtime players who know how to keep calm when things get hot. Victor Matfield, Schalk Burger and Fourie du Preez are only some of them.

Youth: The very young centre pairing of Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel has tongues wagging to such an extent that much too little noise has been made about the equally young lock pairing of Eben Etzebeth and Lood de Jager, possibly our best ever. I believe a rugby match is generally won by the numbers 4-7.

Rest: Everyone is carrying on about the Boks not being ready for action, but they have drawn the ideal group – in which they will be tested without needing to worry too much about losing.

After the group stages, they will probably be red hot, and we might stop using terms like being “raw” and rather concentrate on being “hungry”.

Desperation: There is almost nothing as dangerous as a South African who, one too many times, had to hear he’s a good-for-nothing and doesn’t stand a chance. Of all South Africans, this is most true of the Boks.

The draw: Whatever people tell you about the Boks’ draw, given the number of great but unfit players involved, they couldn’t have drawn a better group. They are going to play four games and probably win them easily – the perfect preparation for when it will matter.

New dimension: The gruesomeness of the hiding they got from the Pumas in Durban made everyone – possibly their opponents too – blind to how nearly the Boks managed a quantum leap in the tests against Australia and New Zealand.

Element of surprise: The All Blacks only have to turn up to win – that’s the general feeling worldwide. But that really puts the pressure on New Zealand, and the Kiwis also had to leave some star players at home for the sake of stability.

Adaptability: The Boks have one wild fullback and one too-stable one – and two types of fly halves. It should be no problem to adapt their game to the day, especially with so many versatile forwards.

Reserve bench: Do you start with De Jager and Kriel and bring Matfield and Jean de Villiers on to restore some calm? Or the other way around? Or a bit of both? Heyneke Meyer has lots of talent he can use in different ways.

And why they won’t:

Too many old men: In 2011, the Springboks were quite possibly the best team at the tournament (in 2007 it was probably the All Blacks) but had just too many old guys in the team. Most of them are still in the team.

Too many young guys: South Africa’s lack of experience in key positions was exposed badly over the past few months. They had particular difficulty in managing the pace of a match when young halves were given chances on the field. Ironically, Rudy Paige is the one upcoming scrum half who can properly manage a game and his inclusion is attributed to Cosatu.

Injuries: De Villiers, Duane Vermeulen, Du Preez, Jannie du Plessis, Francois Louw. These are five world-class players for you. But between them, there are many months without rugby. Are all their ailments really gone?

All Blacks: It’s painful, but for the last 30-odd years, New Zealand have been generally better than us. This is also possibly the best All Blacks team ever – maybe the best rugby team ever. We will have to hope their biorhythms are off if we end up having to play a match against them.

Little preparation: Yes, there were long training camps, and Namibia came to practise against the Boks. But players from my beloved motherland hardly pose the sort of challenge you need to sharpen your rugby teeth for the most difficult World Cup tournament ever.

Northern hemisphere: You would think the slower, more set-pattern rugby on the heavier fields of Europe would suit the Boks, but this is not true. Their record this century in the British Isles is nothing to brag about, and hidings at the hands of Ireland and Wales on their last tour means nothing is certain.

The draw: Yes, their starting group is miserable enough that we should be able to count on the Boks emerging on the other side undefeated. Which means the second-best team from the other group – England, Wales or Australia – await and, thereafter, probably New Zealand. Maybe throw the game against Samoa and try the other side of the draw.

Who to pick: Heyneke Meyer planned everything up to this point in detail but in November things started going wrong for him and his planning was exposed. Now, in the home stretch, he honestly doesn’t know who his best team will be on any given Saturday.

Referees: Neutral foreigners assure me no one complains as much as South Africans. The thing is, international referees already dislike Argentinians, Frenchmen, Afrikaners and Fijians more, because they always think you are swearing at them when you’re only talking to yourself. And we complain all the bloody time. The refs of the world hate us.

Reserve bench: Meyer these past months had to swallow undeserved humble pie, but the fact remains that during the past three years he was much too conservative in trying to reach that hypothetical inanity of fielding the best team every Saturday.

Now way too many team members have become a case of national humiliation

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