KEY POINTS:
Springbok coach Peter de Villiers is under growing and increasingly fierce pressure in the light of the mistakes he has made so early in his tenure.
The wrong squad was selected for this Tri-Nations trip, the wrong team chosen against New Zealand last Saturday night and now the
wrong things have been said after the Springboks' defeat by the All Blacks. These are not promising portents for the times to come.
De Villiers, having refused to meet the media on Sunday to offer a post-test analysis, emerged on Monday to attack the All Blacks' scrummaging and, by inference, the referee. Seasoned observers could only have wrung their hands in despair at his naivety.
He claimed that the All Blacks had scrummaged illegally on Saturday night. Well, what a surprise.
Anyone who knows world rugby knows that the All Blacks have been scrummaging illegally (and generally getting away with it) for years. This is a world where you get away with what you can.
Why didn't these Springboks know that before Saturday night? Where have they been, if they weren't aware of it? And if they did know, why weren't they streetwise enough to get their retaliation in first, by making public their doubts and accusations before the match?
To complain that a team scrummed illegally, and then cry that the referee let them get away with it, beggars belief in terms of naivety. But de Villiers didn't explain why the strongest available tight head prop available to the Boks, B.J. Botha, was left at home.
Previous coach Jake White believed the most important guy on the team was the tight head prop and the second most important was the reserve tight head.
These Springboks forgot that message and paid a high price on Saturday night. Their scrum was dished, legally or illegally.
Besides, how on earth can you expect a referee as weak as Stu Dickinson of Australia to penalise a team for illegal scrummaging?
He didn't even penalise Brad Thorn for the dangerous spear tackle that has put Springbok captain John Smit out of this Tri-Nations tour.
Dickinson should be nowhere near the test arena, he's just not good enough.
But de Villiers' problems don't end there. I understand that what I was told are "highly placed sources back home" are deeply concerned at the lack of forward planning by the Springboks' new management in comparison with their Australian and New Zealand counterparts. De Villiers' appointment was supposed to hasten that process, but those back in South Africa are said to be disappointed at what they have seen so far.
The Springbok coach faces some tough decisions this week. He got his selection wrong last week and can't afford to do it again.
This is proving a tough testing ground for the new coach.
* Peter Bills is a rugby writer for Independent News & Media in London
