There was a line from John Smit during his captain's press conference in Wellington yesterday that highlighted who the real victims are in the controversy over the make-up of the touring Springboks.
Smit said his biggest challenge over the last fortnight had been keeping up the spirits and self-belief of youngsters continually told they were B-team material and not the real Springbok deal.
It's an unfortunate introduction to international rugby for these youngsters, a number of whom are going to form the core of the post-World Cup team. Playing for your country should be a proud and exciting occasion - not a time of self-doubt and public recrimination.
These guys didn't pick themselves, of course, after 21 (mostly senior) players could not tour (that number has swelled to 24 after three injuries last week). And the biggest problem is that there's no skeleton of senior leaders to help Smit bring through the raw and the inexperienced.
Of today's starting 15, there are 10 players with seven caps or fewer. That's far too little experience to seriously challenge the All Blacks. The full-strength Springbok starting side will have a test cap tally of close to 800 at the World Cup (there were 750 caps in the side that played the final Tri Nations match against Australia last year); today's team has 270, with the bulk of that thanks to Smit (103), halfback Ruan Pienaar (48) and No8 Danie Rossouw (55).
