By Andy Colquhoun
Springbok coach Rudolf Straeuli attends his first press conference in his new role in Cape Town on Monday clinging to a glimmer of hope offered to South African rugby by the Stormers and the Sharks in Saturday's round of Super 12 matches.
It's not time for the ticker tape parades just yet but the nature of the Stormers' performance in going down to a 49-46 defeat in a thrilling match with the Reds in Brisbane and the Sharks' 20-13 win over the Blues at least salvaged a modicum of national rugby pride.
The Stormers showed composure, great character and no little skill in overcoming the sin binning of two players (Cobus Visagie and De Wet Barry) to come within an ace of pulling off the first overseas victory for South Africa's sides in 10 attempts this season.
They led the Reds with five minutes to go until a Jacob Rauluni try from a quickly taken tap penalty nosed the home side ahead. Percy Montgomery had two shots at goal to level the scores in the final three minutes but was wide with both.
Meanwhile the Sharks scored a nervous and hard fought 20-13 victory over the fancied Blues on their return to the Absa Stadium in new coach Kevin Putt's first game in charge.
And while South Africa's sides remain in the bottom half of the log, Straeuli will believe that he can select XV players to be competitive in the Springbok jersey. He will also be aware that although Australia and New Zealand each have two teams in the top four of the competition - their national coaches can also only pick XV players to represent them.
The simplest thing for Straeuli to do would be to graft the Sharks' lineout onto the Stormers' game to produce a dangerous combination. He also needs to solve the post-Braam van Straaten riddle of who is to be the Springboks' goalkicker.
The Stormers were again severely hampered by their dysfunctional lineout. As well as losing a distressing amount of their own ball some of the ball they did win was desperately scrappy. It was a repeat of their nightmares endured against the Brumbies and the Waratahs. Having lost three matches by three or fewer points one wonders what might have happened had they had a working lineout.
However there were again some outstanding performances from the men in black. Wing Pieter Rossouw scored two tries - as did centre Marius Joubert in his most impressive performance in the Super 12 - while Werner Greeff continued to impress at flyhalf.
Bolla Conradie's work at scrumhalf was again of a Greganesque crispness while Corne Krige, De Wet Barry and Cobus Visagie demonstrated their Springbok pedigrees.
On current form it's entirely possible to imagine a scenario in which a Springbok team entirely comprising of the Stormers back division is selected en masse (with Paulse returning for the faultless but unfortunate Gus Theron) although that would still leave Straeuli with a goalkicking problem.
Mind you, no kicker is suggesting that he can currently do a better job than Montgomery - not even at Vodacom Cup level.
In the pack, Krige, Hendrik Gerber and Visagie have the strongest of the Stormers' claims although none of the rest of the eight would disgrace national colours.
Tjoepie van den Heever has played well in the tight loose but his lineout problems could not be excused at national level.
Lukas van Biljon, once fit, would be a better option although Straeuli prefers to pick John Smit while a lineout forward of the prowess of Victor Matfield or Albert van den Berg would be a boon to the Stormers.
A creative eighthman would give the national side more potency than most South African sides have demonstrated from the base of the scrum although again the Natal connection may come to the fore.
Current Sharks No 8 Shaun Sowerby is a powerful target runner in the manner of Straeuli himself although he does not possess the mobility of Adri Badenhorst or the skills of a fit-again Bob Skinstad.
Straeuli may cast only a cursory glance in the direction of the Bulls and pay only a little more attention to the Cats, who lost 36-25 to the Chiefs on Saturday.
The Bulls' most destructive force, Adrian Jacobs, plays largely from the bench while potentially devastating players such as Matfield, Danie Rossouw and Wylie Human have been dragged down to the rank average level of their colleagues.
Andre Pretorius has shown glimpses for the Cats of an elusive future but few other players have stood out.
Still, the Sharks' win over the Blues prevented a fourth clean-sweep of South African sides. And that's the first good news we've had in almost a month.