Coach Coetzee passes his first test
New Springbok coach Allister Coetzee has named what can be described as a very balanced team to face Ireland in the first of three Tests at Newlands on Saturday.
Considering this sports hack was spot on with a speculative radio report on the possible team to face the Irish, it was also perhaps bordering on the predictable.
By Coetzee's own admission, though, it wasn't an easy team to pick and there were a number of head-scratching decisions to be made in light of the 'competitiveness for places and intensity of effort in training'.
Much has been made of late about a 'new era' in Springbok rugby, but there is certainly an air of familiarity to the latest crop, with in-form Lions scrumhalf Faf de Klerk the only player in the run-on side never to have pulled the coveted Springbok jersey over his head.
Eight players in the starting XV played in the third-place playoff against Argentina at last year's Rugby World Cup - Beast Mtawarira, Frans Malherbe, Eben Etzebeth, Francois Louw, Duane Vermeulen, Damien de Allende, JP Pietersen and Willie le Roux.
There are just six in the match-day 23 that never made the trip to last year's showpiece rugby tournament -- De Klerk, Elton Jantjies, Warren Whiteley, Julian Redelinghuys, Lionel Mapoe and Bongi Mbonambi.
Of those, only Stormers hooker Mbonambi is uncapped.
So clearly, the balance is there and it would have been foolish for Coetzee not to lean on the experience of the likes of Mtawarira, with 75 Tests behind him, JP Pietersen with 66 caps, captain Strauss with 54 and Patrick Lambie with 50.
Mtawarira is just five Tests short of Os du Randt's record of 80 for the Boks as a prop.
But were Mtawarira and Pietersen necessarily the form players of the season in their respective positions? Most would have to say no.
Then there are those Bok fans who choose to debate who wasn't picked as opposed to who was.
Coetzee's assurance that he would be guided chiefly by the form book certainly didn't apply in some instances, but experience was also an overriding factor to counter a cagey Irish side.
The season's stand-out player Ruan Combrinck is probably the unluckiest player to be kicking his heels this weekend instead of taking his sublime form on the wing for the Lions into Saturday's Test.
Julian Redelinghuys should at least get game time off the bench but where is Jaco Kriel ? The man dubbed 'The Destroyer' didn't even crack the nod in the match-23 -- Am I missing something here ?
The fact that Warren Whiteley has been included in the match day 23 is small consolation for another of the stand-out players of the Super Rugby season, and should at least have been rewarded for his loyalty by getting a start.
Coetzee can also take comfort from the fact that the SA Rugby net has been cast wide this year, with some exceptional talent lurking in the SA 'A' side chosen to face the England Saxons in two 'Tests'.
Coetzee has perhaps not entirely appeased the advocates of transformation, with nine players of colour in the 23, but leaned more towards form.
Coetzee was quick to pour water on any potential revival of that debate, swiftly switching straight back to the mission at hand.
" We will select the best team for the country and whoever is not happy with that, I can't help it. I'm happy with the choices, " said Coetzee."
So in my book, the new Bok coach appears to have passed his first selection test, now it's up to the Boks' Class of 2016 to turn in an A-plus performance at Newlands on Saturday - and beyond.