LONDON: They may be big and burly, but two attributes which Paul O’Connell’s 2009 British Lions and Irish rugby squad for the three-Test summer tour to South Africa starting next month, lack, is pace and star quality.
The 37-man squad, comprising 14 Irishmen, 13 Welshmen, eight from England and two Scots, announced Tuesday by head coach Ian McGeechan and his fellow selectors who include the legendary Gerald Davies of Wales, may live to regret the omission of two or three players that could have tipped the balance between victory and defeat.
Rugby in South Africa is a way of life. To some it is even more important than life. And there is nothing like a Springbok with wounded pride. South Africa is looking forward to this tour with bated breath because they want to avenge the 2-1 series victory in 1997 inflicted on the Springboks by Martin Johnson’s Lions team.
Never mind the politics of the famous Springbok, one of the iconic emblems in world sport. There is an ideological struggle headed by leftwing activists, and supported by the new Tsars of post-apartheid South African rugby including Cheeky Watson, a former white Springbok international, who wants to see the Spingbok emblem removed from the South African rugby jersey. The reason is that the emblem is too closely associated with apartheid rugby, when South Africans of color were barred from representing their country in any sport.
This would be a travesty of the historical truth. Yes apartheid in sport needs to be rooted out wherever it is practiced. But Black involvement in South African rugby, contrary to the myths perpetrated by the white supremacists and the leftwing ideologues, is as old as the white dominance of the sport. In fact, two of the oldest rugby clubs in South Africa, Roslyns and Arabian College were formed in 1882 and 1883 largely by Muslims of Cape Malay origin. A recently discovered photograph of the Arabian College RFC of Bokaap (Upper Cape) shows the team in full kit but also wearing the Fez as it was traditional for Muslims to do until well into the 20th century. In fact, the South African Rugby Union, the governing body of non-white players, has had the Springbok emblem on its official jersey since the early 20th century. So much for its being a symbol of Afrikaner sports nationalism.
No doubt this ideological battle will be put on the back burner for the time being so as not to undermine the South African preparation for the battle with the Lions. But the dreaded quota system which forces any South African national rugby coach to choose a quota of black players irrespective of merit in the Springbok, is perhaps one of the most asinine in world sport. The sooner the South African government gets rid of it the better. The truth is that even in post-apartheid rugby there is an element of inverse racism against the non-white minorities - the Cape Malays, the Indians and the Coloureds (mixed race). They have been involved in rugby for more than a century and yet since the ANC came to power and South African rugby became non-racial, not a single Cape Malay or South African Indian player has won a Springbok cap. Only the odd colored players such as Conrad Jantjies and Brian Habana, the current International Rugby Union ‘World Player of the Year’, have hitherto been capped.
South African rugby is one of the richest in world rugby second only to the RFU in England. While it needs to get its political house in order, it should also be cautious of hubris and arrogance that the Lions team, which was selected Tuesday, is nothing spectacular and therefore the series outcome is a foregone conclusion.
As any previous Lions player will attest, South Africa is one of the toughest touring locations but also one of the most fascinating. If the Lions can combine purpose and ambition with fun then they will thrive. To win in South Africa you have to win both on and off the field. In a multi-cultural society, which has only just over a decade emerged from a pernicious racist set-up, socializing and interacting with the ordinary South Africans of all backgrounds is crucial.
Then there is the altitude factor. South Africa is a huge country with different climatic regions. In the Highveld of Guateng the altitude is high, which means for those players used to playing at sea-level they will find it difficult and often gasping for air. Similarly, in high altitude the oval-shaped rugby ball travels much further. As such Stephen Jones and Ronan O’Gara, the two fly halves will have to get used to kicking in the Highveld as quickly as possible. This is perhaps the most glaring weakness in the Lions squad at half-back.
O’Gara was out of form even though Ireland won the Grand Slam and Six nations Championship this year. Most importantly, he and Stephen Jones are not running fly halves, which suggest that the Lions will try to emulate their 1997 predecessors by playing a defensive game, and hope that they can similarly pull off a series victory.
The selectors could have been more imaginative by choosing Danny Cipriani , the mercurial England flyhalf, who definitely has that X factor, or even James Hook, Jone’s understudy in the Welsh team. Similarly, the scrum-halves especially Harry Ellis, a surprise choice from England and with a dubious temperament, will struggle especially in the thin air of Guateng.
The itinerary too is maddening. The Lions will play only one test match at sea-level - the first Test in Durban. They will finish with a Test at Loftus Versveld in Pretoria and then in Ellis Park in Johannesburg. This is a punishing schedule on the hard South African grounds for any team let alone one not used to playing at high altitude.
