Time to pull the plug on overseas players
Bok coach must inspire players, and training camps are not a bad idea...
NO matter who the coach is next year, Springbok rugby badly needs a shake-up after a terrible season of eight defeats in 12 matches. Aside from the usual raging debate about issues like game plans and the captaincy, we suggest a couple of other remedies to fix the broken Boks. Coach, get into your players’ heads THE Springbok coach needs to be able to influence his players. He should be able to change the way they see things. He should be able to make his end-product clear to his players. And he should be able to inspire them to get there. There’s no ‘big’ rugby nation that needs that kind of guidance more than South Africa. The Bok coach and his players should still communicate and share ideas, if that’s his thing. But they need a strong-minded coach. Someone who is able to inspire the kind of belief in his charges that Eddie Jones did with a scarred England after their horrific World Cup campaign. He should be able to take them out of this hole that the Springboks are in, not only physically, but mentally as well. A camp or two wouldn’t hurt SPEAKING of Eddie, remember his training camp with the England squad after which several players returned to the Premiership clubs battered and bruised? The Brighton camp yielded three injuries: Wasps flanker Sam Jones fractured his leg in a judo session, Bath wing Anthony Watson broke his jaw in a collision, and Exeter wing Jack Nowell discovered that he had torn a quadriceps muscle when he returned to club training. After that there was a strong exchange of words between England Rugby and the Premiership clubs, olive branches were extended and Jones promised to communicate better with all parties involved. That might not have ended well, but at least the England team came together for a camp, and that is something the Boks have not done this year. A camp, be it for training purposes or team-building, is important. (And I’m not talking about a Kamp Staaldraad kind of thing). The players need that to get to know each other (that can’t be done only during training). And it’s a perfect place for a coach to lay out his plan and possibly engage the players’ thoughts. Pull the plug on overseas-based players THE trend of Springbok players playing for foreign clubs doesn’t do a lot of good for South African rugby. And there are a number of reasons why it isn’t in the best interests of the players themselves or the state of our rugby. But before I get into the cons, let’s look at the possible pros. Well, for the players, there’s the money. That’s the attraction which blurs all other things that need to be considered. Game time and “sharpening their skills” are some of the influencing aspects often mentioned by these men who opt to go to Japan, France or wherever. How true that is, I don’t know. Now the cons. Bok players who head abroad greatly increase their risk of sustaining injuries, and over-training. It also affects the Currie Cup pool. But back to the possibility of injuries. Look at Jaco Kriel. He was set to get his Bok starting berth in the absence of Francois Louw (injured), but he suffered an ankle injury while playing club rugby in Japan. That wasn’t only affecting him negatively, but also the Springboks. They had already lost a specialist openside flanker in Flo, and after Kriel’s injury, they had to look to Bulls youngster Roelof Smit (who was also hit by injury against the Baa-Baas) to take over at No 6 for the outgoing tour. The other issue is over-training. The continuous training and playing weigh on players. It’s no surprise that some of the guys who come back from club duty abroad are fatigued when they have to perform for the Boks. There is an off-season period for a reason. And I think it’s time that Springbok players decide what they want to prioritise.