Springbok highs and lows
Kolisi topped a year of wins and losses
South African rugby has had the kind of year that’s been mirrored by the Springboks’ 5050 win-loss ratio.
The good has matched the bad, tooth-fortooth, claw-for-claw, and as the 2018 rugby calendar has drawn to a close (except for the HSBC World Sevens Series), it’s time to reflect on a year for a lot of firsts for Bok coach Rassie Erasmus as well as some changes that showed that a lot still hasn’t changed in our game.
Highlights
Fellow Port Elizabeth-born flanker Siyamthanda Kolisi being chosen as the first black African Springbok captain earlier this year ranks among the country’s most pivotal moments.
In a nutshell, it was what Nelson Mandela dreamt about for the Boks – an integrated national rugby team that represented all demographics in the country, while maintaining its rugby aura.
While there is still some way to go before rugby is fully integrated, Kolisi’s appointment rallied the rugby public as well as the general public behind the Boks again and it was beautiful to see. Movements like the Gwijo Squad sprung up, adding fervour to most of the spectacles.
A Kolisi-led Springbok team won in New Zealand for the first time since 2009 when they shocked the All Blacks in Wellington during the Rugby Championship. They were given no chance, after losses to Argentina and the Wallabies in the weeks leading up to the Westpac Stadium.
Lowlights
Seasons preceding the World Cup year often spell the nadir of Springbok performances but 2018 proved an aberration. Granted, there were defeats that should have not come to pass such as the loss to England at Twickenham, to New Zealand at Loftus and Australia in Brisbane.
However, if you are searching for lowlights, the boardroom is where you’ll find them. SA Rugby, in its efforts to remedy the many ills the game faces at the moment, has taken shortcuts en route to solving the bloated player pool problem by slashing funding for non-franchise unions, forcing provinces to issue semi-professional contracts in the professional era.
This has led to an abhorrent trend mushrooming, where unions fail to honour their away fixtures in an effort to curb budgetary spend and opt to forfeit the points altogether. Surely, someone should have seen this coming.
The mother body’s handling of the Border Rugby Union crisis has also left one with a bitter taste in the mouth. Now facing two years without professional rugby, Border will become the first province since unification to be wiped off the calendar completely.
Sadly, all this happened after Border produced the standout youth team of the 2018 Craven Week which went unbeaten in Paarl.
Breakthrough moments
For his role in making 2018 one of the most splendid years to watch rugby, Aphiwe Dyantyi must be commended. His story has been chronicled in plenty of newspapers and magazine columns, but it’s worth reminding ourselves that this young man was playing Koshius rugby at the University of Johannesburg less than two years ago.
He wasn’t even a first team player at his alma mater Dale College, but he belied that tough start to rugby by turning out some jaw-dropping performances for the Lions in Super Rugby and then following that up by doing the same at international level. That he won the World Rugby Breakthrough Player award came as little surprise.
Dyantyi has the skill, finesse, finishing and scramble defending that will count for plenty come Japan next year.
His strike partner, Sbu Nkosi, also had a wonderful breakthrough year before injury stunted his progress. He brushed off his absence during much of the Rugby Championship by returning with a bang during the end-of-year tour to Europe.
The pair of them, mixed in with Cheslin Kolbe and Makazole Mapimpi, will add a different dimension to the Bok attack that had looked stale – if we are honest – since the Heyneke Meyer days.
Lukhanyo Am as well as R G Snyman can also hold their heads high for their contributions in this their first real foray into the international scene.