Springbok coach could learn from the northern hemisphere, or a good book on rugby
penned Teach Yourself books on lawn tennis, cricket, football and hockey. Peter Minto’s biography on the man claimed he had “revolutionised the coaching of football throughout the nation”.
The book has sound advice. “It is a good thing to have six studs in each sole; this gives a good grip when swerving and it cannot be too strongly emphasised that outsides [backs] especially should immediately replace any lost or loose stud. Shorts should be as strong as possible and it is an advantage if they have pockets because you can often use a moment of waiting to warm cold hands.”
There are detailed drills for learning how to “swerve”, one of Creek’s favourite topics, and how calling forwards “muddied oafs … whose only job was to shove hard and battle for the ball”, was wrong. He felt that forwards who specialised in one role would narrow their chances of being picked.
He concluded the book with a chapter on Modern Tendencies and the “increasing domination of the play by backrow forwards in defence”.
He looked back to the golden era of rugby, before the 1914 war, when the “indiscriminate hurly burly was replaced by the passing game”, where forwards scrummed and took “little part in open play”. Ah, the good old days.
I bought Teaching Yourself Rugby Football in a Parkhurst book store. I also picked up a 1956 copy of Lions Rampant, the story of the 1955 British and Irish Lions tour of SA by Vivian Jenkins, who had played for Wales, Barbarians and the Lions, as well as cricket for Glamorgan. He was the chief rugby writer for the Sunday Times of London.
Former England loose forward Wavell Wakefield, who wrote the preface for Lions Rampant, was described as the man who changed the role of back forwards.
He was the poster boy of 1920s rugby, big and athletic. He could run and pass.
Wakefield encouraged specialisation in forwards.
In Lions Rampant, he wrote of the fear the rest of the world had for the Springbok forwards, the rocks around which their game was based. Not a lot has changed, not remotely enough.
The Lions showed SA “what could be done by running and passing,” he wrote, “instead of kicking for touch, by a side determined to attack. They showed the value of retaining possession of the ball by running and passing and the taking of calculated risks.”
The Six Nations starts this weekend and, with it the battle for places in the Lions tour of New Zealand later in 2017.
What to expect? Coach Eddie Jones arrived at a media conference last week with a black eye after a fall.
Some of his team are black and blue from injuries picked up in training.
Italy will look to continue their upward curve, with Brendan Venter now on their backroom staff until the 2019 World Cup.
France coach Guy Noves seems to have put Les Bleus on the right path, more consistency instead of flimflam and flair.
Jonny Gray, the 22-year-old Scottish lock, is being compared with the best in the world and he will take on an Ireland side without the magnificent Johnny Sexton on Saturday.
And through it all, SA and the Springboks will look on in trepidation as the north rises.
Perhaps, Allister Coetzee, failed and confused by the mess of Springbok rugby and, seemingly on the brink of losing his job every week, will receive a book with the inscription: “Dear Allister. Read this book carefully. Lots of fun and enjoy your rugger. Good luck. SA.”