Strauss demands more fight
Chance to regain dignity of Bulls’ jersey in clash with Jaguares
BULLS captain Adriaan Strauss has never been a man for the glitz and glamour that comes with the game of rugby.
Instead, it is men like him the rugby gods have maybe dealt the cruel hand of never fully experiencing the intoxicating high of holding a trophy aloft.
As Cheetahs and Springbok captain, Strauss has endured testing times, from leading a franchise of no-hopers as far as the 2013 Super Rugby play-offs, where they lost to the Brumbies, to being at the helm of the national team last year through their worst rugby year yet.
This year, Strauss has again had to man up as the Bulls endure their worst start to Super Rugby in over a decade but the tough-as-nails hooker believes this is the time that real rugby players are separated from those in the game for self-glory.
With the Bulls having won only one of six matches this season, Strauss is not at all removed from the tough realities that face his side, and has urged the team to do all the talking on the field against the Jaguares at Loftus Versfeld today. “You need to stick in the fight no matter what happens. You need to make the step up and we now get that opportunity and I don’t want to talk a big game,” he said.
“We know what lies ahead of us. We had a chat and we are all still passionate and very hungry to play good rugby.”
As much as Strauss believes his side can turn their season around, he also understands that the position the Bulls find themselves at the moment is self-inflicted.
“We are not going to make any excuses. We had a slow start and after the Sunwolves game at Loftus we did gain some confidence, especially against the Blues in that first half, and against the Chiefs there were better signs as well.
“Against the Sunwolves (in Tokyo) we just let it slip; we had a very bad day, individually we made a lot of mistakes but we had a really off day. We could have done better with the beginning of the season but there is nothing we can do about it now.
“We can start rectifying and just look forward to the game, which is going to be a very tough one.”
The Bulls simply can’t afford to continue in the same vein in which they have been doing when they confront the Jaguares, and will need to eliminate the needless and costly errors while making sure they play to their strengths if they are to attain a favourable result.
“It has been a lot of execution errors but it is important to look at the positives for us as a team and look at the stages during the season where we have played good rugby, what we’ve done there and what makes us good as a team. We have to be positive and look at what we’ve done well. We need to play to our strengths knowing fully well that the Jaguares will have a rush like we faced against the Sunwolves. We need to handle it better and we need to carry the ball better,” said Strauss.
“They (Jaguares) get off the line quite hard, they cut legs which creates turnovers, they’re good with ball in hand and have a couple of guys in the forwards who have skill as well and can offload and hang on to the ball. They thrive off turnovers as well, but they are also a very constructive kind of team, especially when they get into the 22 metres where they can do the pick-and-go and hold onto the ball. Physicality will be key this weekend and if we can match them physically, we will be in the game.”
But the biggest challenge for Strauss and his underperforming Bulls team won’t be the Jaguares but that internal demon that has prevented them from playing their best rugby and putting their best foot forward.
Today won’t be about redemption, nor will it be about putting the record straight, it will be about a good team on paper showing that on the field, and putting in one last ditch effort to save a season that held so much promise at the beginning but has delivered little.
“We are all in this together. We are all equally responsible to do well each and every weekend. We want to play well and we want to bounce back. We are not in a good spot and we realise that, but we are not going to play for vengeance or anyone specifically. We are all going to play for the Bulls and ourselves and that includes the coach. We are going to play for the guy next to us and play for our supporters. We’ve still got the heartbeat, we just have to go out there and put it together now. Be clinical, play with passion and execute a lot better.”
For Strauss rugby may have never been about glory but he will take something from his own previous chapters in history and that of the many greats that have played for the Bulls in the hope that they will bring back the dignity of the jersey and show a glimmer of hope that the glory days aren’t too far away.
“Loftus won’t win you the game, but we are excited to be back. It is a special place, great legends have played here before us and we don’t want to let them and the supporters down. We know the responsibility we’ve got when we play at Loftus.” EVOLUTIONS and momentous events often start with a moment in time – or so history seems to teach us.
In fact, there is often more to it than that, but looking back, instances often get the credit. World War I would have started even if those fatal shots hadn’t been fired in Sarajevo. Certainly, 25 years later, Hitler was going to invade somewhere else soon. History records Poland was the place but you name it, it could have been there. The key was the line in the sand, not the choice of destination from the Nazis. History is full of such moments. That police dog incident in Soweto in 1976? What actually happened is disputed by some even today, but it is part of our history nonetheless.
It is the same in sport. Rugby, in particular, has moments that are forever etched in its history. For goodness sake, the whole sport supposedly started with an Englishman deciding to pick up a football during a game and, breaking the laws, to run with it.
Those of us from Ireland know William Webb Ellis used to spend time on the Emerald Isle and probably played the ancient Gaelic game of “caid” which must have influenced his rash moment of madness at Rugby School.
Which other sport can trace itself back to a single event in time?
It’s hard to believe that before Chris Laidlaw, the All Black scrumhalf, unleashed the spin pass at Oxford University, all No 9s used to flip pass the ball or dive pass it away every time. Gareth Edwards copied Laidlaw and added metres to the pass, but interestingly never perfected the skill off his left hand until after he retired.
Nowadays, aided by the nippled and sticky surface of the modern rugby ball, every player in a side can spin the ball off either wing in a manner that, to players before the millennium, would seem miraculous.
The Bulls tried it in the 1991 Currie Cup final. Look at the video. They lost to Natal.
Passing a rugby ball has been revolutionised and it started with Laidlaw.
A tackle in South Africa didn’t change everything in defence but it issued in a revolution nonetheless.
People forget just how good the 1970 All Blacks were on that tour here, but have a look at their record before the first Test. They won all 10 games by a street and looked in a different class to the locals. They were hot favourites for the first Test at Loftus and were widely predicted to become the first All Black side to win a series here.
The Boks took to the field more in hope than in expectation. After five minutes, the visitors won a scrum in midfield and moved it confidently to the right. Wayne Cottrell, their strong five-eighth, received the ball and was then hit by a torpedo called Joggie Jansen, who was making his Test debut. It has gone down as one of the most brutal yet perfect tackles of all time and, even on the old grainy black and white YouTube footage, it takes your breath away.
Talk to the players who were
Ron duty that day. They say that tackle showed the All Blacks were not supermen, and the rest is history. That tackle started a revolution of belief. In a way it was the equivalent of Joost and Japie’s tackles in 1995 on Jonah Lomu. Do yourself a favour and watch it. A terrible beauty was born.
Carlos Spencer was the player I would love to have been. I was tidy but always a bit timid. I was clever but not spectacular. I was cerebral but not spontaneous. He was simply spectacular. It was probably from Aussie Rules that he developed the banana kick in rugby. Today it is still used to gain metres from a penalty kick close to the touchline, but he used it differently. He very deliberately lined up kicks in broken play and thus dragged defenders out of position in anticipation of his delivery. At the last moment he dropped the ball onto the outside of his foot and his leg trajectory was at a completely different angle to that expected. He opened space and made defenders look silly. He showed that ingenuity is still possible in an activity that is ancient. What an entertainer he was.
Did we witness such a moment at Newlands last week? Dillyn Leyds says he’s surprised at the reaction to his marvellous scoring off-load to SP Marais. Who is he kidding? Those who have seen South Africa slip further and further behind in terms of skill over the years have been crying out for a moment like that. A talisman has been needed to rally us all to the cause and the cause is belief.
We have needed evidence that all is not lost. Yes, the Lions have shown it over the last few years, but they have been like Britain against Hitler’s Germany all those years ago. They were fighting alone. The fact that Leyds does not think it is such a big deal indicates that maybe skill is coming back in our rugby arsenal.
The whole world will be watching this weekend for more green shoots of recovery. Maybe in years to come we will look at YouTube and remember the Leyds moment as the instant when the revolution started. It is early days, but let’s hope it was so.