Viljoen's vision put to the Test

He's made millions selling insurance and assets in turn, and now the Springbok coach, Harry Viljoen, is attempting to sell something new to his players and to the South African rugby public. Harry's game, or Viljoen's vision, as it might be termed, will be something special if it comes off, even something unique.

The players are already hooked. Fulfilling a pre-match dressing-room promise against Argentina last Sunday, the statistic that most impressed was that newly converted outhalf Percy Montgomery put boot to leather for the first time only in the 73rd minute.

"That's only the beginning," smiled Viljoen engagingly yesterday. "We're trying to create a special team, and one way of doing this is by special commitments." It was, ostensibly, an experiment to improve skill levels, yet nothing quite so daring will be maintained at Lansdowne Road, judging by the Springboks' press conference in the Killiney Castle Hotel yesterday.

"I want a team that can play different styles every week," he said. "That was a process to improve our skill levels, I think it gave the team a lot of confidence, we scored some wonderful long-distance tries and it's just part of the foundations we're building, and it's all about winning."

It helped that South Africa led all the way last Saturday. Sunday's weather, Viljoen admits, will be another factor. Furthermore, the flip side of the Irish As thorough beating of their surprisingly abysmal South African counterparts is that it has given the Springbok camp a wake-up call. They were shocked.

"I was very surprised by the Irish," admitted Viljoen. "They played with a lot of passion, they got over the advantage line, they never gave our team a chance to recover. On the other hand, I must say that seven of our players didn't even practice with our team. But I'm not taking anything away from the Irish team. It was a superb game they played and I was very surprised by the level of their rugby."

Lansdowne Road, he expects, will see Ireland's Test team offer more of the same. "They're obviously going to try and turn us. There'll be a lot of running at us. Keith Wood would be the leader there, but they've got a very well-balanced side, so it's going to be a very hard game. "But on the other hand, we're busy with a process that I don't want to veer off from, and I do believe that, if the weather allows it, it's going to be a great game of rugby."

Now comes the hard part, for, as he concedes, the South African rugby public are not the most patient, and Test rugby gives him less breathing space than provincial rugby. But he's put his neck on the line.

"I'm prepared to take that risk. I do believe in the process that I want to follow and I think I'm in a fortunate position in that rugby is not my life. Even though I've got a passion for it, I can do without it. But I'm definitely going to stick with the process. I'm looking for a special kind of ball player and I'm prepared to pay a price for that if it doesn't work."

He describes it as part of an exciting journey with a lot of young, like-minded players. Viljoen is not really sure how the folks back have taken to the revolution, but the feedback to what was apparently an epic 37-33 win was largely positive. In any case, Viljoen's vision is not for re-focusing, with the commitment to Montgomery as a converted outhalf cast in stone - for the moment anyway, given a lack of alternatives.

"With the style we wanted to play I had to look for another fly-half. We're concentrating on carrying the ball. Percy is very experienced, very explosive and has very good hand skills; it's a matter of getting him used to playing fly-half, and if we can succeed I think it's going to put a lot of excitement into the kind of game we want to play."

Viljoen admits to being both perplexed and concerned by the drop in standards of South African rugby over the last year, as evidenced by their standing of third in both the Super 12s and Tri-Nations. He's an inexperienced Test coach, he's going to make mistakes and he's had to play catch-up since his latest sabatical from the game; but it's still full steam ahead for this tour.

"I would personally like to see a team on this tour playing a different brand of rugby from anybody else. We're focused and committed towards this kind of brand, and there's no reason why in a few months we couldn't be right up there with something unique."

Jeremy Staunton suffered severe bruising to his jaw in Ireland A's victory over South Africa at Thomond Park on Wednesday night, but there was no break. He is, however, out of the Ireland squad for the sevens tournament in Dubai later this month. Meanwhile, Peter Malone has withdrawn from the Ireland Under-21 side to play the New Zealand Youths at Dr Hickey Park on Saturday. He is replaced by Niall Breslin.