The stature of Victor Matfield in South African rugby

The stature Victor Matfield commands in South African rugby was reflected at Kings Park last week when the 34 000-strong crowd roared their approval when he jogged onto the field to mark his comeback after two years in the Bulls’ coaching box.

Matfield is a Springbok legend, and quite possibly the best No 5 lock in the 110 years the Boks have been playing Test matches, but is re-launching his career at 36 a good idea considering the point of the comeback is to play for the Boks at the 2015 World Cup, when he will be very much a veteran at 38?

Will the lock pairing in London in 2015 be Matfield and Bakkies Botha, who Heyneke Meyer brought back into the Bok fold on tour last November, or will it be Eben Etzebeth and Pieter-Steph du Toit?

The latter pair will be hitting their straps in two years time, their apprenticeship at the highest level long complete. The former pair are already yesterday’s heroes, will they honestly be the way to go in two years time?

Botha probably won’t make it any way, given the hammering his body has taken. He is 34 and could be an “old’ 36 in 2015. Meyer is more likely looking at using Botha in a mentorship role, but while Matfield can obviously do the same, he is the more likely of the two to be seriously considered by Meyer for a starting role.

Meyer can’t really lose. He involves two great locks in his squad to advise, teach and inspire, and play a bit too, and if they prove they are better than Etzebeth and Du Toit, then they get the jerseys.

I can’t see it. I reckon the younger pair can grow into a lock partnership as good as Matfield and Botha in their prime, maybe even better. But if that is going to happen, they need to play as much together as possible. They should start every Test between now and the World Cup. Finished and ‘klaar’.

Matfield may well prove us wrong, and good luck to him. Surely nobody is willing him to fail. He is a highly intelligent bloke (five As in matric!) and he would not have made this comeback if he was not convinced he could again reach the level of play that earned him the Man of the Match award in the final of the 2007 World Cup.

On his side is the fact that he is a natural athlete and was never going to go to seed after retiring after the 2011 World Cup. He has stayed lean and never stopped training. Fitness is not an issue.

You wonder, though, how much appetite for the physical stuff you will have after two years away from the action. Can you put your body through the mill for another two years? Can your body still take the collisions? Is physical warfare better left to 26-year-olds rather than 36-year-olds?

We will get the answers soon enough as the Bulls go through their Super Rugby campaign, and Matfield’s playing time grows from the substitute role he had against the Sharks.

Matfield is rightly acknowledged as the finest lineout technician the game has seen. His ability to expertly command his own team’s lineouts and read and disrupt the opposition’s ball was uncanny.

He has enormous intellectual capacity and in one way or another must be involved in the Springboks. His knowledge and expertise must not be squandered. He must be with the Boks at the next World Cup, for sure, but should it be as forwards coach or with the No 5 jersey on his back?

by Mike Greenaway