Sharks were always going to be dead in the water with that dumbbell approach
AS Kieran Read galloped over the tryline in Christchurch, Muhammad Ali suddenly floated past my eyes like a butterfly and stung my memory like a bee. As he so often does.
I remembered Ali’s ringside interview with Howard Cosell after George Foreman had extinguished the fire of Smokin Joe Frazier by knocking him down six times.
“I’ll admit George hits harder than me,” said The Greatest. “I ain’t got no beef with that. I’ve fought many men who hit harder than me. But jab him, stick him and move him, the combinations, speed and skill. Whup the man on points. That’s what I’m gonna do.”
What Ali was essentially saying that you need more than power in the ring. Ali was the quickest and most handsome heavyweight boxing has ever seen. Not to mention a marvellous chin that could take shots that would crumble the walls of a city. Ali believed his speed and skill, his reflexes, and the cumulative effect of his rapier jab and chopping right would wear the heavy hitters down. He was proven right time and time again.
I was thinking of Ali when I saw the speed and the skill of the Crusaders overcome the power of the Sharks. And I again wondered just how long it’s going to take South African rugby teams to realise that, even though rugby is a contact sport with no place for the weak, brute force and heroic defence will only take you so far.
Just like the Stormers of 2011 and 2012, the limited gameplan of the Sharks took them to the semis and no further. It’s no coincidence that the three other semi-finalists have so much more to their game than a dumbbell approach.
The Sharks illustrated that typical South African mindset in the build-up to the playoff against the Highlanders. “We know how dangerous the Highlanders can be from broken play. So we know our kicking must be spot-on and our defence has to be strong,” Sharks scrumhalf Charl McLeod told the media. The implication was clear: We can’t (or don’t want to) match them with creative play, so let’s just focus on suffocating the pas- sion out of those Kiwis.
The problem is that the Crusaders, like the other semifinalists the Waratahs and the Brumbies, also have a stong scrum, a resolute defence and potent kickers. But they approach the game of rugby with a positive mindset. They place an equal amount of emphasis on the basics and the bold. They are enthusiastic subscribers to the art of scoring tries. They play the situation. They believe the ball will nearly always beat the man. They love width and space, speed and skill. They know they have a responsibility to entertain their fans. They know that entertaining rugby and winning rugby can be the same damn thing. So get ready for a cracker of a final in Sydney on Saturday.
It just gets way too much for me when our coaches start talking about the dangers of playing “too much rugby.” WTF is that all about, as they would say in whatsapp land.
Nick Mallett had a full go at the Sharks (and inter alia other South African teams) in the studio after the semi. But Mallett also pointed out that “at least the Springboks have picked someone like Willie le Roux” and that he was very much looking forward to seeing what Le Roux could bring to the Bok game in the upcoming Rugby Championship.
Ashfak Mohamed tells me Heyneke Meyer goes out of his way to say “we want to score tries” at every Springbok press conference. That is a positive sign. The selection of Le Roux is another. South African rugby badly needs a general change of mindset. Otherwise, more often than not, our teams are just gonna get whupped on points.
Ian Smit is the sports editor of the Cape Times and a former rugby writer of the paper.