New Springboks, new danger for Ruddock's callow Wales

History tells us that South African rugby players have rarely been the happiest sportsmen on God's earth. They were lumbered with the "unsmiling giants" label long before the anti-apartheid movement got on their case in the late 1960s, and Springbok touring teams of comparatively recent vintage were undermined by the traditional tensions between the Afrikaaners from the high veldt and their English-speaking brethren from the coast. As recently as last year, when the Boks were on World Cup duty in Australia, they were as miserable as sin - and with good reason, given the extreme brutality of their training camp and the whiff of racism that hung over the squad.

History tells us that South African rugby players have rarely been the happiest sportsmen on God's earth. They were lumbered with the "unsmiling giants" label long before the anti-apartheid movement got on their case in the late 1960s, and Springbok touring teams of comparatively recent vintage were undermined by the traditional tensions between the Afrikaaners from the high veldt and their English-speaking brethren from the coast. As recently as last year, when the Boks were on World Cup duty in Australia, they were as miserable as sin - and with good reason, given the extreme brutality of their training camp and the whiff of racism that hung over the squad.

Can it all have changed in the space of 12 months? Apparently so. These Boks, coached in 21st century style by Jake White and captained by the gracious and articulate hooker from Natal, John Smit, are smiling from ear to ear. They have even agreed personal terms with their national union, which is quite something given the endless fuss and acrimony surrounding the issue. Having worn white armbands on Test day in protest against their employers' hard-line approach to contractual negotiations, they finally put pen to paper before leaving Johannesburg on Tuesday night. As we speak, everything in the garden is rosy.

And this makes them dangerous, as Wales are likely to discover at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff this afternoon. Just listen to their rehabilitated full-back, Percy Montgomery, whose relationship with his homeland was so prickly that he upped sticks and moved to Gwent a couple of seasons ago. "We have something special here," he said this week. "We can trust our coach and the decisions he makes, which is what our rugby has been missing. The South African game has been in turmoil, and we had to do something drastic to get it back. Jake and the union really did their homework on it. The players are happy at last, and now that we've set our standards, we intend to maintain them."

This does not sound like Springbok rugby at all, so the Welsh can be forgiven for feeling more than a little anxious at the prospect of facing an unusually positive set of southern hemisphere champions with a new-look team pieced together by a new coach, Mike Ruddock, off the back of a series of disappointments for the four regional teams at European level. Welsh sides have won one Heineken Cup game in eight thus far, and the Cardiff Blues are so hopeless that Ruddock has not felt able to include a single player from the capital in his starting line-up. A portent of doom? Perhaps. The last time Wales took on the Boks without a Cardiff man on the field, they shipped 96 points in Pretoria.

Ruddock has no shortage of skill at his disposal on his home debut in the top job. Duncan Jones and Michael Owen are footballing tight forwards of considerable quality; Colin Charvis, world-class when he decides to be, played so brilliantly for Newcastle against the Frenchmen of Perpignan last weekend that anything like a repeat performance this afternoon will at least give a high-octane Springbok loose combination something to think about; and the midfield link between Stephen Jones and Gavin Henson at outside-half and inside-centre respectively seems, on paper at least, to have a future worthy of long-term investment.

What is more, the coach confidently expects this contest to rise well above the half-baked match between the two countries in South Africa last summer, which the Boks won 53-18 without breaking sweat. But that cuts both ways, of course. Wales will be better, for the simple reason that they have more potent personnel now than they did then. But the tourists have won a Tri-Nations Championship since that last game, beating both New Zealand and Australia on home soil to launch White on a courageous mission to sweep away the last remnants of sporting prejudice in Bokke rugby and mount an enlightened challenge for a second world title in 2007.

Most of these Springboks will still be around in three years' time, including the lion's share of an outstanding forward pack boasting the form lock in the game, Bakkies Botha, and back-rowers of the calibre of Joe van Niekerk, Juan Smith and Schalk Burger, the blond titan who is the talk of every rugby town in Christendom. A healthy proportion of the Welsh team will also be going concerns, but that may not quite amount to the same thing.

Everything points to a comprehensive South African victory today, as the first step in a Grand Slam bid that takes them to all four corners of British Isles rugby. It will be fun watching them chase a first clean sweep in more than four decades.