Our players don’t need to become dinosaurs once they leave Craven Week
THE cream of South Africa’s young rugby talent will again be on show at the Coca-Cola Youth Weeks during the coming June school holidays.
The Under-13 Craven Week will take place in White River from 29 June to 3 July, while the Under-16 teams are in Oudtshoorn for the Grant Khomo Week between July 6-9.
The big one, of course, is the senior Craven Week from July 13 to 18 at Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch, one of the highlights of the South African rugby calendar.
Every year these tournaments produce many good play- ers who eventually go on to wear the green and gold. These tournaments are a celebration of the abundance of talent in South Africa, kids showcasing their natural flair and skill.
However, this flair and skill seem to disappear like dew on a rose petal when these boys make their way into professional rugby.
It seems to be a case of brawn over brains, and instead of enhancing the skills and match awareness, the focus is put on creating robots who can only play a certain type of rugby. A type of game based on physical domination at the con- tact situation, and trying to overpower your opponent.
It’s something we have got accustomed to over the last 20 years, but it’s a way of playing rugby that is stuck in the Stone Age, and the rest of the rugby world has overtaken us.
This weekend we saw the Highlanders and the Brumbies mix skill, power, pace and intelligence to qualify for the Super Rugby semi-finals.
Yes, standing up physically is important, because rugby is a contact sport afterall. But playing with intelligence and being able to sum up a situation is just as important as trying to tackle somebody backwards.
The Junior Springboks highlighted exactly this fact when they were blown away by England in their semi-final match at the Under-20 World Championships.
The South Africans overpowered the Australians in their previous match, shoving the Aussies backwards in the scrum and getting good frontfoot ball. But, in the semi-finals, they looked absolutely clueless when they came up against a team who matched and even dominated them upfront. There was just no Plan B. Earlier this year at Newlands the Chiefs showed that a team can win a match even though their scrum is going backwards. It’s just about adapting to the situation, and then finding the best avenue to win the match.
Size is an important part of rugby, but if you can combine size with some rugby intelli- gence and speed then you have a recipe for success.
It’s unbelievable that some Springboks can’t run straight and pass, or even offload in the tackle.
But Bok coach Heyeneke Meyer is one guy who has identified this problem and he has tried to expand the national team’s game over the last four years.
He knows that an all-encompassing game is the only way the Springboks are going to win the World Cup later this year. You can’t just kick the ball to the All Blacks and try and defend, because New Zealand are going to match South Africa physically. This is 2015, not 1995.
It’s maybe also time that the Springboks play with a genuine fetcher, a guy who can compete for the ball at the breakdown, and not someone sent to get a beer in the fridge.
The game is becoming faster, and a loose trio made up solely of big bruisers may not always be the answer, especially if you are playing against a guy like David Pocock, who, legally or illegally, caused the Boks great heartache at the previous World Cup.
It’s time we evolve our rugby in this country. Otherwise we could become extinct, just like the dinosaurs.
TWEETS OF THE WEEK
@pocockdavid: Thanks to @THESTORMERS for hosting us. Always a tough game at Newlands. Really proud of Brums effort tonight & congrats @CLealiifano on 100!
WHO TO FOLLOW
@wnaholo: The Highlander winger is an absolute beast with the ball in his hands.
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