No buts, he's a great kicker

Two years ago this column offered the possibility of Morné Steyn as a fullback for the Springboks. It was made at a time of flyhalf abundance and in the hope of retaining the Bulls man's unerring boot.

A common theory at the time was that no Springbok coach would dare risk going into a test series against the British & Irish Lions without a reliable goal-kicker. The disaster of 1997, when the Boks lost the series to the Lions and it cost coach Carel du Plessis his job, was still fresh in the mind. The absence of a decent kicker had been the undoing of the Boks rather than the Lions doing anything special to win, as they had in 1974.

Fortunately for South African rugby, the suggestion was not taken seriously. As we all found out a week ago, Steyn is no fullback.

But he remains a damn fine kicker of goals and that is something coach Peter de Villiers won't easily ignore as the Boks prepare to head for New Zealand next month to defend their world title.

It was, after all, De Villiers who had to change his mind about Steyn when the Lions were last here. Like the rugby romantic he is at heart, he first chose a running flyhalf in Ruan Pienaar.

All went well in the first test, which the Boks won 26-21 despite a late scare from the Lions, but Pienaar's kicking game disintegrated in the next match and Steyn came off the bench to nail two conversions and two penalties, one of them a monster from 53m, to win the game and the series. In the third and final test, Steyn scored all South Africa's points with three penalty goals as the Springboks lost 28-9.

In his next game, Steyn again scored all his team's points in a 31-19 win over the All Blacks at King's Park: a try, conversion and eight penalties. In just his second test-match start, Steyn's only blemishes were a drop-goal attempt that hit the upright and a penalty that he pushed wide.

Two years later Steyn has found there is no room for sentimentality in test rugby. He is back where he started, no longer the obvious choice for South Africa at No10. The only reason De Villiers has included him in the squad for this week's Tri-Nations test against the Wallabies is safety first.

Butch James will start in Durban on Saturday and Steyn will come on only if, as at Loftus in 2009, the Bok kicking is wayward.

De Villiers has, not surprisingly, decided that he will sleep easier with the hero of World Cup 2007 starting at flyhalf and Steyn primed on the bench to do a rescue job if needed.

Pat Lambie has been discarded, which is also not altogether unexpected. The best flyhalf in South Africa has started a test only once and you don't go into a World Cup with such inexperience, no matter whose fault it may be. Hopefully, the next Bok coach will show greater faith in the precocious Sharks pivot.

Having made his call on No10, De Villiers now needs to cleverly manage his two flyhalves. Steyn may not be a fullback, but he remains a flyhalf you can depend on when kicks are on the table.

The Springboks have a difficult bunch of opponents in the first round of the World Cup, with the game against Namibia the only sure win of their group. The other games could easily come down to goal-kicks and that is where Steyn becomes an essential part of any Bok 22.