Losing to win?

IT IS a miserable time for South African rugby fans. This weekend the Springboks slumped to their seventh defeat in eight Test matches, having lost their last four in a row. In Adelaide, too, there was a defeat for a South African side, but at least the Proteas had already clinched a series win against Australia. And while the cricket squad looks settled, happy and all marching in the same direction, the same cannot be said for our national rugby team. They finished their end-of-year tour with a whimper against Wales, concluding a forgettable year for the Springboks and especially coach Allister Coetzee, who has been roundly blamed for the team’s poor performances.

Coetzee has stoically said he wants to continue, and he may well survive the chop because there isn’t exactly a queue of world-class talent banging on the South African Rugby Union’s door for the Bok head coaching position.

In fairness to Coetzee, it is patently obvious he has been let down by the administration, who dragged their heels over his appointment and have shown little support over these difficult months. He has also been let down by his players, who have not shown the hunger, desire and focus we have come to expect at this level.

Many of the overseas-based players picked this year have looked unfit and out of form, while players like Elton Jantjies, Faf de Klerk and Lionel Mapoe, who shone for the Lions in a memorable Super Rugby season, have looked out of their depth in Test match rugby.

The backroom staff and assistant coaches seem inexperienced and bereft of ideas and if there has been a specific game plan, it is clearly not working.

IN 1965 a Springbok team that included Frik du Preez, Dawie de Villiers, Mannetjies Roux, Keith Oxlee, Tommy Bedford and Jan Ellis, lost seven out of eight matches that year, including losses to Ireland and Scotland. During the next six years the nucleus of that team would lose just four matches out of 27.

Is it too optimistic to believe that perhaps, as in the case of that barnstorming team of the late 1960s, these current Springboks have had to learn how to lose before they can start winning again?