Boks must play to win every Test

ATest is a Test and every Test is a must win. It is not a series like the World Series in baseball or the Stanley Cup in ice hockey, both of which are the best of seven. You win four games you win the series. You don’t play meaningless games after the series is won.

In our beloved rugby, we talk of a series, but it is not a series, it is one, two, three or four Tests, each of which is a stand-alone game which must be won.

South Africa has just “won” the series, but we lost the last game, so we are losers!

We are only as good as the last game we play and it made me ill to hear our rugby commentators, as the siren ended Saturday’s third Test, saying the “series was won last week”.

We will only get onto an even footing with the likes of New Zealand when we play to win every game/Test.

A Test is not the time to “experiment” with “combinations” or “untested” players. A Test is a life or death spectacle and is a win at all costs sort of epic on the sporting field. Every Test is the Super Bowl ... it is a stand-alone game with no tomorrow; no second chance.

The notion that we fiddle and fool around for four years in anticipation of the big hoopla of the Rugby World Cup is absolute nonsense.

We must play every game to win and realise that we are only as good as our last game. No one remembers who won a “series”. PC Baker

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