KEY POINTS:
The portents might seem alarming to some.
South Africa's captain and hooker is forced to go home early; a fresh-faced 24 year-old is chosen to replace him. What is surely worse, it is the All Blacks who will confront the young man and in Dunedin's "House of Pain" of all venues. Could it be much worse for the Springboks this weekend?
Well actually, the answer is yes. It could be 100 times worse. For a start, Bismarck du Plessis, the inexperienced 24-year-old who replaces John Smit, is one of the most pragmatic, sensible, down-to-earth young men you will find on the international rugby circuit.
A young man likely to be intimidated by the withering combination of Dunedin and the haka? Not a bit of it. For example, listen to du Plessis on the haka.
"It is something I respect, it is great for them to do it and lay down the challenge. What you want to do as a South African is play the All Blacks in their country and face the haka. And then beat them ... "
No shrinking violet then, as you see, this 1.89m, 105kg young man. And neither is he a person to offer meaningless platitudes, excuses or such like. "Last week [in Wellington] we made some fundamental errors, our tactical kicking wasn't good and we were beaten in the scrums. So are the odds stacked against us this time? Well, the challenge is Dunedin and the House of Pain. That story speaks for itself.
"But we just want to beat them, the venue doesn't matter. If you are a Springbok and don't have self-belief, you should not be a Springbok. Things can change in this game. Last week, the All Blacks were underdogs facing the World Champions but look at the result. So people's minds change just like that."
In the warrior stakes, it is unlikely that du Plessis will take a backward step. He inhabits a world where brutality is a companion. The blows and blood are like bruises to the blacksmith's thumbs. He, like all his ilk, including the absent Smit, understand the realities of their role.
"It will be massively physical, up there with one of the tests of the year" he suggests. And the Brad Thorn incident last weekend that caused his predecessor's early departure? "It was poor sportsmanship".
The inconsistency of such sentencing is troubling, he suggested. Didn't Schalk Burger receive an original four-week suspension during the World Cup last year and he didn't even tackle somebody, du Plessis intoned. The point made, he moved on. Perhaps there is a politician waiting to escape du Plessis' soul when his rugby days are done ...
A wise owl? Well, du Plessis was born in Bethlehem in South Africa's old Free State. Wasn't that where the wise men came from ... ?
He acknowledges the masterclass he has enjoyed under Smit's tutelage these past few seasons.
"John and I go back a long way. I left the Cheetahs in 2004 and joined the Sharks to learn from him.
"He taught me my trade and I have all the respect in the world for him."
But du Plessis is a different type of hooker to Smit. For a start, he's 11kg lighter than Smit. But that offers greater options around the field, as he demonstrated eloquently in the test against Italy in Cape Town last month with two tries. Granted, they both came from rolling mauls - "I just had to fall over the line," he smiled. No matter: by the time he has his grandchildren on his knee, they will have been sparkling side-stepping affairs from 70m.
Vive le rugby life ... !
* Peter Bills is a rugby writer for Independent News & Media in London.
