Final countdown:If somebody had told Jake White that to win the World Cup the Springboks would have been required to beat Fiji, Argentina and England in the knock-out stages he wouldn't have believed it.
Furthermore, England could not have second-guessed their presence in Saturday's World Cup final nor the composition of their team up to a couple of weeks ago, but White's team have reached their target with a starting line-up that could more or less have been flagged a couple of years ago.
In making only one alteration to his replacements - Wikus van Heerden returns to the bench ahead of Bobby Skinstad - White has retained the team that accounted for Argentina in the semi-finals. This means South Africa will again field the most experienced Springbok side ever with a collective tally of 668 caps.
Despite England eventually stumbling and settling upon an unlikely mix, featuring a host of veterans mostly back from voluntary, injury-induced or selectorial wilderness, their starting XV have a total of 609 Test caps.
However, the Boks' tally of caps is because White had virtually settled on his side a year ago - the core of which have been together throughout his four-year tenure as coach. While all bar CJ Van der Linde have been at previous World Cups, White has since introduced Fourie du Preez, Butch James, Bryan Habana, Francois Steyn and JP Pietersen to the Boks' backline. John Smit, whom White made captain from day one, will lead the Springboks for the 48th time, while the peerless combination of Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha will extend their record secondrow pairing to 36 Tests.
As White said yesterday, "This is the final between preparation and non-preparation." In that, the Springboks' coach - who can feel utterly vindicated in resting many of these players from last autumn's Northern Hemisphere tour and the two away legs of the Tri-Nations - derives some considerable comfort.
"I've always said teams that fail to prepare must be prepared to fail, that's been a motto of ours since we got together. We can't change anything now, we've been working towards this for four years. We know exactly what we're going to do. We've won Super-14 and Tri-Nations titles. They already know they have just got to use whatever they've learned along the way. If you've prepared properly, all other things are immaterial."
However, their only previous World Cup winner is Os du Randt - who will make a record 16th World Cup appearance - and White is acutely conscious of the proven winning mentality of many of the English players, a dozen of whom along with the injured Josh Lewsey were in the final 30-man squad in the triumph of four years ago.
"England's players have won a World Cup away from home before . . . and that is a huge advantage," White said. "They must be in a great mindset. They were dead and buried two weeks ago.
"They've got a group of players who have won a World Cup. They can have team meetings and discuss what happens in the lead-up to a RWC final. I've only got one guy who can do that, Eddie Jones (technical adviser), and he's been a massive help to me. I can only imagine what goes on in their meetings, with Lawrence (Dallagio) talking, (Martin) Corry talking, (Phil) Vickery talking, Brian Ashton talking."
Van Heerden's return to the bench as loose forward cover in place of Skinstad is not especially surprisingly, not least because the 28-year-old starred in South Africa's 36-0 win over England in the same stadium five weeks ago, as openside flanker in place of the suspended Schalk Burger. He also came on as a second-half replacement for Danie Rossouw, with Burger moving to number eight, in the quarter-final win over Fiji.
Only six of this starting line-up featured in the 32-15 defeat to Ireland last November, including four of the pack, Smit, tighthead Van der Linde, flanker Juan Smith and number eight Dannie Rossouw, who played at number six that day. Similarly, the two try scorers, Bryan Habana and Franois Steyn, played out of position at outside centre and left wing.
Steyn, on his debut, was one of the few stand-out Boks' players. In selecting the then 19-year-old, and in resting the remainder of tomorrow's line-up from that tour, White was suffering a few brickbats and a dent to his win-loss record in building towards the ultimate prize. He is one step away from being vindicated.
