Pienaar shoulders the demands of a nation

STEVE BALE

reports from Johannesburg

Heaven knows what it will be like if South Africa reach the final, because the place is already in a ferment as the Springboks make ready for this afternoon's semi-final against France in Durban.

The players left Johannesburg for the coast last night, contrarily carrying the expectations but not necessarily the highest hopes of the rainbow nation. Rugby may have little, certainly less than some imagine, to do with the well-being of this remarkable land but there is a palpable sense of impending national disaster (defeat) or impending national triumph (victory).

The inconvenient reality that there are millions to house and educate hardly impinges on the rugbyfest. The World Cup is not the real world, yet the Citizen, a daily founded during the apartheid era by Louis Luyt, now president of the South African Rugby Football Union, unfailingly devotes its front-page splash to Francois Pienaar's team.

Not that the period leading to today's great event at King's Park has been as they would have wished. The euphoria of the opening defeat of Australia was a balloon of hot air waiting to be pricked, though the subsequent series of misadventures have actually done Pienaar and his men something of a service.

We have had the battle of Boet Erasmus (which in fact was nothing like as bad as last year's when England were there), suspensions, citings, allegations of biting and racial taunts against Joost van der Westhuizen (so vehemently denied that the heart-throb is threatening to sue Pat Lam, the Western Samoa captain), even a risible accusation by Murray Mexted, the former New Zealand No 8, that the South Africans would bribe the World Cup referees.

But somehow the 'Boks have come out the other end with integrity more or less intact and still, apparently happily, fighting the PR battle. "We would not throw away what is one of the most important contributions this World Cup has given to South Africa: uniting the people," Morne du Plessis, the Springbok manager, said. "That is far too valuable for us to tamper."

Oh what a beautiful Morne: when Du Plessis speaks, he really means it. South African rugby is contending not just to beat France today, nor after that to win the World Cup, but also to win the hearts of its own people and the rugby world. The struggle continues at King's Park with a lock playing at eighthman (as they call it here) and a full-back with a broken hand.

Du Plessis can recollect his own illustrious career, when the late Danie Craven persuaded, or maybe told, him to make the same switch as Mark Andrews is about to make, though Du Plessis was given rather more than three days before a Test match to acquaint himself with unfamiliar responsibilities.

Andrews, who announced last year that he did not care to play in the back row, may have been surprised to learn that the change had been planned all along. "Apart from the 'Boks and New Zealand, almost every other nation has adopted a policy of picking a mobile lock as a loose forward," Du Plessis said. The benevolent Rudi Straeuli, now condemned to the bench, has been cutting his own throat by helping give Andrews a crash course in No 8 play.

Andre Joubert needs the soft cast that will protect his broken hand to be approved by the referee but when the item was exhibited on Thursday there was no obvious reason for Derek Bevan to refuse. Far be it from anyone to suggest the French could conceivably target the suspect extremity, but only Joubert himself appreciates how vulnerable he is.

The French have been as untypically relaxed this week as their opponents, secure in the knowledge that if their forwards play as well as they did against Ireland they will again have no need of inspirational back play beyond the meticulous goal-kicking of Thierry Lacroix.

The sole exception to the collective sweetness and light is Aubin Hueber, the scrum-half who has taken the rap for France's quarter-final shortcomings and lost his place. "There are favourites in the side who get away with anything," Hueber said in an unsubtle reference to Christophe Deylaud, the forlorn but selectorially favoured stand-off. This is not a cordial entente; the two were room-mates in Pretoria throughout this week.

SOUTH AFRICA v FRANCE

at King's Park, Durban

A Joubert Natal 15 J-L Sadourny Colomiers

J Small Natal 14 E N'Tamack Toulouse

J Mulder Transvaal 13 P Sella Agen

H le Roux Transvaal 12 T Lacriox Dax

C Williams Western Province 11 P Saint-Andre Montferrand, capt

J Stransky Western Province 10 C Deylaud Toulouse

J van der Westhuizen N Transvaal 9 F Galthie Colomiers

P du Randt Orange Free State 1 L Armary Lourdes

C Rossouw Transvaal 2 J-M Gonzales Bayonne

S Swart Transvaal 3 C Califano Toulouse

J Wiese Transvaal 4 O Merle Montferrand

J Strydom Transvaal 5 O Roumat Dax

F Pienaar Transvaal, capt 6 A Benazzi Agen

M Andrews Natal 8 M Cecillon Bourgoin

R Kruger N Transvaal 7 L Cabannes Racing Club

Referee: D Bevan (Wales). Kick-off: 2.0 (ITV)