Mike Greenaway: Bok bumblers out for a duck

For South Africans, the best thing about watching last week's Springbok-Wallaby test was that every time a Bok blunder brought play to a halt, you could switch to the cricket at Lord's, where Proteas captain Graeme Smith would be smashing the England attack to the boundary.

That picked the spirits up, and back across to the rugby you would go. But the bumbling oafs would have you switching back to Smith in no time.

Smith is the Greatest Living South African after his 621 runs in three innings as captain of South Africa.

Word has it that he was a damn good schoolboy first five-eighth. Now there's a thought ...

The renewed interest in cricket in South Africa is directly proportional to the growing bitterness towards the Springboks.

The manner in which the 22-year-old Smith has led the cricketers to total domination over England - just a few months after they failed so abjectly in the World Cup - has seized the sporting public's imagination.

In sport there is a thin line between love and hate, and right now cricket is adored and rugby is a subject of utter derision.

Mobile phones beep ceaselessly as the latest jokes about the Boks are circulated, most of them too crude to be printable.

In short, the mood of the rugby public is foul. There was a time when fans were disappointed but hopeful, but as the record defeats pile up, now there is simply anger.

During the sad days of the pre-Tri-Nations tests, fans were consoled by the explanation that a puzzle was being put together and that the picture would become clearer during the Tri-Nations.

Well, with one match left for the Boks before the World Cup, we are more puzzled than ever.

In the 17 tests that coach Rudolf Straeuli has been in charge of the Boks (since April last year and up to last week's loss to Australia), 35 new Springboks have been created among the 65 players he has called up.

And to put that into perspective here's the number of changes he has made from test to test (and this is assuming injured players would have kept their places): 4, 4, 8, 3, 0, 4, 0, 2, 6, 5, 6, 1, 7, 8, 0, 6, 5.

Straeuli has never fielded back-to-back unchanged teams. To quote a Cape Town writer, that says "either the players are uniformly dreadful or the coach can't make up his mind."

Which brings us to Dunedin. It was while Straeuli was there as coach of the Sharks that he was told he had been given the Springbok job.

Later that day his team lost by 40 points to the Highlanders in the first match of their Super 12 tour.

The Sharks lost their remaining three tour matches by similar margins.

It was an unfortunate start for the new Bok coach, and things have not really got any better.

Bok coaches have been fired for infinitely less severe results than those suffered by Straeuli.

Nick Mallett was sacked after his team lost by one point to Australia a week after they had beaten the All Blacks - the last time the Boks had a win over New Zealand.

By rights, Straeuli should have gone long ago. Would a New Zealand coach have survived a 50-point loss at Twickenham, the week after a 20-point loss at Murrayfield?

South Africa's rugby bosses have been deafeningly silent, suggesting that Straeuli will see out the World Cup come what may.

But if there is another huge loss tonight, surely there must be a rethink on the management issue.

We are told that we must have continuity in a World Cup year and that it would be madness to appoint a new coach two months before the big event. But could a new coach do any worse?

The web of negativity around Springbok rugby is so suffocating that it can be lifted only by a miraculous performance tonight ... or a change of management.

* Mike Greenaway is rugby writer for the Natal Mercury.