STARING INTO THE ABYSS
TO say the Springboks have been written off is putting it lightly. They have been chewed, spat out and trampled all over like used bubble gum.
It is a sign of the times that a coaching indaba has been called in the week leading up to the Currie Cup final.
It used to be the pinnacle of the South African rugby year where players have the final showcase to put their hands up for the end-ofyear tour.
Such has been the rapid demise of its prestige, local coaches alongside Allister Coetzee have kicked its importance to touch, even though Blue Bulls coach Nollis Marais harped on about the importance of winning the Currie Cup.
However, it was telling Marais was more eager to attend to national rugby business, highlighting an urgency foreign to local rugby.
“South African rugby has taken a lot of flak in the past two weeks and it’s understandable,” Marais said. “People have pride in the Springboks. It’s going to be a good meeting about the thinking for the next four years, to see who is in the pipeline and also what’s expected from us.”
It may point to a willingness to work together and find direction that will benefit the national game. Ideas that work at the top often filter down to the bottom. That was the case with New Zealand rugby after a chastening 2009 where they were forced to take a long hard look at their game.
It was the year in which the Chiefs conceded the biggest losing margin (61-17) in a Super Rugby final against the Bulls and the All Blacks were cleansed by the Springboks.
It took the New Zealand franchises another three years before Super Rugby success came their way, but the foundations laid from that painful year have supported the current fortress.
Because of South African rugby’s tendency of pulling in different directions, a systematic overhaul of the game will take longer than the three years New Zealand needed to right their ship. WHERE TO FROM HERE? Springbok captain Adriaan Strauss cuts a lonely figure at the end of last weekend’s humiliation against the All Blacks at Kings Park in Durban
The disjointedness of South African rugby from administration to the field was evident throughout the home season. The bare bones of the Boks’ glaring lack of success lies in the 15 tries scored in nine test matches this year alongside the 25 tries shipped in the same time.
Coetzee’s Stormers’ sides never made headlines for their tryscoring exploits, but they were defensively sound. It’s the lack of rearguard solidity that was alarming and it led to last week’s Kings Park capitulation.
Defence is also about attitude and the passive manner in which the Boks dealt with their defensive duties spoke volumes about their current psychological state.
While it is correct for Coetzee and his embattled coaching staff to shoulder the majority of the blame, the defensive woes at Super Rugby level were always going to manifest at the highest level.
Defensive sharpness was not a watchword South African teams lived by with the exception being
The bare bones of the Boks’ glaring lack of success lies in the 15 tries scored in nine test matches this year alongside the 25 tries shipped in the same time
time when the Boks used aggressive defence to win games and pressure the opposition into unforced errors.
It was the Hurricanes who laid the template in the Super Rugby playoffs. They did not concede a try on their way to collecting their first title.
South African rugby needs fixing, along with the Boks, but Coetzee can’t do it alone. While Coetzee hopes for better European pickings, Wales and England will line up potential wins, with the latter aiming to end a 10-year losing streak stretching 12 matches.
The questions left unanswered by the Rugby Championship may or may not be answered at the Millennium Stadium and Twickenham.
Overnight changes have never worked at international level and Coetzee cannot be expected to wave a magic wand with the dysfunctionality that thrives in South African rugby. Hope has never been a bad thing, but that’s all South African rugby lives on at the moment.