Stick to your guns, Harry
What's all this then - ruffled feathers, name-calling, and a Springbok coach running scared and making excuses about selecting a 19-year-old flyhalf for his training camp in Plettenberg Bay next week?
The young man in question is Francois Swart of Potchefstroom University. He has been included in the 32-man Springbok training squad from whom a team and substitutes (22 in all) will be chosen to play in the first of two Tests against France at Ellis Park on June 16 - and we've hardly had a moment's peace ever since.
Coach Harry Viljoen, who used to have one of the longest scrumhalf passes in the game, has already knocked this one on in his haste to clear it from an increasingly clamorous maul.
Playing for Mpumalanga Pumas is another up-and-coming star, Nel Fourie, and the two lads apparently have had a close rivalry dating back to their under-15 schooldays. An incensed Pumas boss, Fanie Vermaak, has labelled the whole affair a "commercial gimmick" by Viljoen because he rates Fourie, a regular member of the Pumas senior provincial squad, more highly then Francois Swart.
A number of other people have also poked their noses into the hullabaloo, and coach Viljoen, blushing like a teenager at his first dance, has hastened to assure everyone concerned that it's all a big misunderstanding.
All he was trying to do in inviting Swart to the camp, Viljoen has been at pains to assure all of these long noses, was to present the youngster with "a feel of the culture of Springbok rugby". In his uncharacteristically meek reaction to these various jibes, Viljoen has implied he has no intention of playing the Potch lad in any of the three early-season Tests (two against France and one against Italy).
Heck, Harry, you didn't have to do that. Stick to your guns. Does no one remember 1965 and a 19-year-old flyhalf named Jannie Barnard, who leapt straight into the Test arena, against Ireland and Scotland and then the All Blacks in the last two Tests in New Zealand that year?
Brilliant
In a brilliant career - this may sound like a contradiction in terms but it isn't - he was fated to play only those four Tests. Those qualified to comment likened Barnard to the legendary 1937 Springbok flyhalf Tony Harris. Some said he was even better.
Killed in a car crash in his mid-30s, his career was dogged by persistent controversy and a fair amount of ill-luck. But his skilful, attacking style gave a special lustre to the Transvaal and Western Province sides he represented in the mid '60s through to the late '70s.
No one worried that he was only 19. He became the idol of thousands throughout the country, infusing the often stereotyped South African approach of those years with a breath of spring air.
The same applies to Swart. If he's really good enough, who cares how old he is? In the heat of the argument, many seem to have forgotten that none of those in the 32-man squad, if they haven't already represented their country, aren't yet Springboks anyway. They will only become Boks when they are included in the final 22.
Blowing one's own trumpet isn't good form, but I think you'll find it was the Independent on Saturday which first seriously punted Butch James's possibilities as a Springbok a full 12 months ago, after Sharks coach Rudolf Straeuli decided that was the way to go in the Currie Cup.
James could be as good as it gets, with a little more honing of his already considerable skills and improvement of his goalkicking strike-rate. The latter is an aspect of his play he needs to take seriously, just as Henry Honiball did when it became apparent there was no one else who could adequately do the job.
Now that Viljoen has included Charl van Rensburg in his training squad it is a little easier to pick a Springbok team plus substitutes for the Ellis Park Test. Japie Mulder may not yet be passed fit and this would bring Trevor Halstead into the frame. Though neither he nor Craig Davidson were invited to Plettenberg Bay, I would have them in my final 22.
My team would read: Percy Montgomery; Breyton Paulse, Japie Mulder, Deon Kayser, Dean Hall; Butch James, Joost van der Westhuizen; Andre Vos (capt), Andre Venter, Rassie Erasmus, Johan Ackermann, Mark Andrews, Willie Meyer, John Smit, Robbie Kempson. Substitutes: Thinus Delport, Trevor Halstead, Craig Davidson, Ollie le Roux, Charl Marais, Albert van den Berg, Charl van Rensburg.