Body language doesn’t inspire confidence
By all rights New Zealand should beat South Africa in today’s Rugby Championship Test at Newlands, but it has been rather surprising to observe Springbok coach Allister Coetzee’s rather glum refusal to talk about the chances of what would be a massive upset.
Having been hammered 57-0, 57-15 and 41-13 in their last three meetings with the All Blacks, it would be unreasonable to expect the Springboks to suddenly turn the tables on the world’s No 1 side. But the glory of sport is that wonderfully unexpected upsets do occasionally happen – South Africans should need no reminding of that after the shock Japan inflicted on them in the last World Cup.
I am certainly not advocating that Coetzee should have his players living in some dreamland where the outcome of today’s game is somehow a 50/50; but the coach should at least be leaving the door open for the possibility of a massive and timely upset.
But in all his press conferences this week, when asked whether his team can beat New Zealand, Coetzee has fudged the answer, talking about the team being in a process.
Instead of saying “Of course we can win, anything can happen in sport”, Coetzee has said things along the lines of “We are a work in progress and this is another opportunity for us on our journey that started just three months and three weeks ago. I’m really happy with where we are, there has been massive improvement since last year”.
One of the most important attributes a coach can have is belief in his team and it always ends in tears when the players don’t feel their mentor has confidence in them. A prime example is the 1999 Test against the All Blacks in Dunedin when Springbok coach Nick Mallett blamed rookie halfbacks Gaffie du Toit and Dave von Hoesslin for the 28-0 defeat. When it emerged that Mallett and his assistant Alan Solomons had predicted a loss when they wrote their bets for the scoreline on their match programmes, it was the beginning of the end for their coaching tenure with the national team.
If you don’t believe you can win, you almost definitely won’t.
The Springboks are certainly lacking assurance at the moment, which can be seen by the way they are rushing opportunities, snatching at their chances with desperate over-eagerness. They are bravely trying to embrace a more expansive, high-tempo game, but they probably should have played more to their strengths and been more direct in their two disappointing draws with Australia.
The All Blacks, meanwhile, are being besieged by a steady flow of fans stalking them outside their hotel in the leafy suburbs near Newlands; hopefully they are a little distracted by all the praise and love they are getting.
But it’s fair to say that while the Springboks are occupied with the here and now, trying to regain their standing in world rugby and erase some of the humiliation of the Albany hiding, New Zealand are already putting their plans in place for a hat-trick of World Cup titles in 2019.