The song, Time and the river, is an old favourite, going back to the sixties, toe manne nog manne was, en die Bokke bo.
The opening lines occurred to me when I was pondering the Springbok team selected for the crunch game against the All Blacks, early on Saturday morning.
Time and the river/Will bring my love to me.
In the aftershock of last weekend’s loss to Australia, we all had wonderful suggestions to help the coach turn around our fortunes, but after the emotion died down, sanity prevailed. Time, although a scarce commodity in our instant gratification era, is needed to build the team that will make us proud.
Wholesale changes will not enhance our chances. The selection of Francois Louw as a specialist open side flanker as a counter to McCaw does indicate a change in Meyer’s selection approach. I suspect that Brüssow is also likely to come into the frame later if the experiment with Louw bears fruit. Marcel Coetzee was long overdue for a breather.
The loss of Etzebeth is huge, but sanity prevailed with the selection of Flip(flop) van der Merwe. With discipline a key element, one hopes that Flip will curb his natural aggression to stay within the law – Cruden’s kicking boot is too deadly.
If Pat Cilliers plays, it will not weaken the team. In fact, it could help bring down the penalty count against us. Frans Malherbe is obviously rated very highly, and his call up confirms this.
The intelligent use of replacements on Saturday could prove crucial. If one looks at the bench, players like Goosen, Lambie and De Jongh are all game breakers who can swing a match through individual genius. Timing their participation will be vital – not even the best player in the world can make a significant impact in seven minutes.
My voorspelling is dat Meyer die stormramme gaan gebruik om die All Blacks sag te maak, en dan die vlugvoetige Bokkies gaan gebruik om die bresse te slaan.
Dis nogal ironies dat die lied waarna ek hierbo verwys, in Suid-Afrika deur The Dream Merchants bekend gemaak is. Die laaste strofe weerspieël waarskynlik ook my, en baie Springbok ondersteuners, se lojaliteit en drome.
Time and the river/How swiftly they go by/But my heart will beat for no other/Till time stands still and the river runs dry.
Mag die beker van oorvloed Saterdag vir die Bokke soos ‘n rivier bruis.
Individual brilliance and lessons learnt
– by Bobby Londt
After the high of the test victory the ODI’s were always going to live in its shadow. Coupled with the rain interventions, the rest of the tour lost its edge for me in terms of excitement.
That said though, the Proteas managed to draw both the ODI’s and T20 competitions which in itself is a great result against such a formidable outfit.
The difference in the final game of the T20 series between the two sides came down to two things: a terrible start from Morne Morkel (16 runs in the 1st over – of which 7 runs was extras) and individual brilliance from Jos Butler (England) at the latter stages of the innings (32 runs off a Parnell over). Those two overs constituted 48 runs – which was 40 % of the England total! A lot of positives would be taken though, and AB would have learnt a lot about his captaincy and tactical approach in terms of assessing conditions. Perhaps, on that wicket, he should have made use of spin bowling options in Faf du Plessis or Justin Ontong. Other than that, I don’t think we can read too much into last night’s result. Bring on the T20 World Cup.
