Springboks will hope Hougaard can resurrect World Cup hopes

SOUTH AFRICA, whose World Cup hopes seem doomed, look certain to turn to 20-year-old Derick Hougaard at flyhalf for their remaining group matches against Georgia and Samoa.

The 1995 champions lost their key pool C match 25-6 to England, their fifth successive defeat to the European champions, and they now face a tortuous path through the remainder of the tournament.

But had flyhalf Louis Koen been able to match the accuracy of his opposite number Jonny Wilkinson, it might have been a different story.

Wilkinson scored 20 points as he landed four penalties, a conversion and two drop goals. Koen missed four penalties in a row, kicked badly out of hand and had a clearing kick charged down by Lewis Moody for Will Greenwood to score the only try of the game.

Coach Rudolf Straeuli had resisted pressure to select Hougaard, who won his first cap as a replacement last week, but Koen’s display has left the coach little option but to go with the youngster.

Although captain Corne Krige made optimistic noises after yesterday’s loss, history is against the Springboks.

They now face a probable quarter-final meeting with New Zealand followed by a semi against defending champions Australia.

Should they do the unlikely and get past their two Tri-nations rivals, they would then face a final against probably England or France.

None of the winners of the previous four tournaments has had to negotiate such a difficult path and no team who has lost a pool match has gone on to win the Cup.

“It’s a tournament, it’s not over yet,” said the defiant Krige. “You have to play the top teams somewhere along the line.

“What I have seen as given me a lot of heart. There is unity here so there is possibility and hope.

Krige was right to be proud of his inexperienced team, who showed real passion and commitment to knock England out of their stride in the first half.

But South Africa’s recent rugby history has been the story of goalkickers, good and bad. Straeuli was on the field as a player when Joel Stransky landed the extra time drop goal, having earlier scored all his team’s points, to win the 1995 World Cup final.

Four years ago it was the boot of Jannie de Beer that took the Springboks past England into the semis.

In 1997, however, Percy Montgomery and Henry Honiball combined to hand the British Lions a series victory with a lamentable display and now Koen joins the hall of shame.

Straeuli can only hope that Hougaard will grab his opportunity and while he is at it he might even think the unthinkable and drop Joost van der Westhuizen, the only survivor from 1995, to try the younger, sharper, Neil de Kock in a new halfback combination.

Any changes will have almost certainly have come too late to save South Africa’s title hopes, and with them Straeuli’s job, but at least he would go out trying.