Home truths about Boks
I ONCE saw a cartoon depicting a distraught CEO addressing a harassed financial manager: “It doesn’t matter what went wrong – just find out who we can blame”. South African rugby fans have been doing just that for days, weeks and months. By now they probably feel they have “covered all bases”.
Wrong! There are two former Boks hiding out somewhere who are the cause, at least, of the latest debacle against Italy on Saturday.
Both Nick Mallet and Naas Botha enjoyed some extremely successful coaching stints in that country – Mallet with the national team and Botha took the club Rovigo to league honours a number of times.
Of course, there are other reasons and perhaps now that our rugby is heading to junk status the suits in charge will wake-up to the following truths.
Neither the All Blacks nor the Wallabies choose players who are campaigning overseas. We, in stark contrast, regularly call on the likes of Bryan Habana, Francois Louw, JP Petersen, both Steyns – Morne and Francois (flyhalf and fullback), Willem Alberts, Marcell Coetzee, Schalk Brits and recently, even Jannie du Plessis who mercifully cried off due to injury.
These people earn huge salaries, deservedly so, but some have already passed their sell-by dates. Inviting them to make “guest appearances” – at great cost incidentally – not only disrupts team spirit but can destroy it almost entirely. The Italy game refers.
Three weeks ago, instead of fielding our best available team against the Barbarians, Allister Coetzee sent out no less than NINE new caps. It was then, I believe, that feelings of self-doubt among the players and a lack of confidence in their own management began to worsen. Not surprising when, for example, one of the “newbies” on the left wing who had an outstanding game was replaced the following week by an ageing, overweight Petersen.
Still, one cannot but feel for Coetzee. He has, I believe, become yet another example of a person being promoted beyond their capability. Under his guidance the Stormers earned the dubious reputation of being the best defensive team in South Africa. Now sadly, our Test rugby is a mirror of the Stormers’ tactics.
Immediately after the Cheetahs “won the Currie Cup” their coach, Franco Smith, became the flavour of the day and was drafted into the Bok coaching lineup – a sure sign of early panic and an example of trying to repair a leaking drain with a Band Aid.
The year’s most glaring example of a missed opportunity was when Adriaan Strauss announced his intention to retire at the end of the season. He should, for obvious reasons, have been immediately replaced by someone like Warren Whiteley – a suggestion which hardly requires the luxury of hindsight! So, what to do? Replace the entire coaching team; appoint Johan Ackermann AND his assistant as soon as possible and have them mould the players into a cohesive unit, where the players know that if they deliver they will stay together long enough to become a winning team with, importantly, a WINNING CULTURE!
Our coach speaks earnestly of “tapping into the experience” of overseas players. What rubbish! Rather choose a squad of players from among the players who entertain us regularly during the Currie Cup series. Continuity is what we need more than anything else. — Eric van der Vyver, Nahoon