SA rugby ‘must discover its own route’ into future

COPYING and pasting what the New Zealanders do is not the formula for SA rugby, respected South African strength and conditioning specialist Niel du Plessis believes.

Du Plessis is part of the new Bulls coaching team under Nollis Marais that will do duty for the Pretoria side in next year’s Super Rugby campaign.

Having served as conditioning coach at the Cheetahs, a fitness consultant with the Springboks under Heyneke Meyer and travelled as far as the US “to learn techniques and principles that can be used in rugby” as well as New Zealand, Du Plessis knows a thing or two about rugby — particularly the strength, conditioning and skills aspects of the game.

While everybody seeks to emulate the All Blacks — who became the first team to defend the Rugby World Cup after recording 49 wins (two draws and three defeats) from the 54 games they played since winning the cup at home in 2011 — in terms of skill and conditioning, Du Plessis feels it would be wrong for South Africa to take the same route.

“We will never be the same,” said Du Plessis emphatically.

“What we need to do is stick to what we have and work on it.

“We can’t just copy what the New Zealanders do and implement it because we’ll come off second best.”

Somewhat unusually, Du Plessis is known to not be a fan of South African rugby’s obsession with the size of players.

At the Cheetahs, Du Plessis, one of the head honchos at nutritional products manufacturer PVM and US-originated Sports Science Lab, famously stated that “to bench press more doesn’t necessarily make you better on the field … We don’t want guys that belong on the front page of Men’s Health. A pretty guy isn’t really a good athlete. He is a bodybuilder.”

He is a fan of the “unique” physicality local players have — something he strongly feels should be enhanced for the betterment of South African rugby.

“We have to stick to our strong points — those are the things that we need to work on,” Du Plessis said.

“We have always produced physical sides; we need to continue with that. The only thing that we need to do is to up our conditioning in order to have a full impact.”

What is the difference between the way South Africans and Kiwis do things?

“Having worked in New Zealand, I learnt that what makes them different is that they have a different style in that their make-up includes islanders who have exceptional natural skills, then that is combined with the general Kiwi culture, where rugby is a part of their daily life. That is what makes them the strong rugby nation that they are,” he said.

Du Plessis, who played a crucial role in the return of Juan Smith from a career-threatening Achilles injury as well as the conditioning of Fourie du Preez and Victor Matfield during their comebacks to international rugby, is now focused on getting his charges at the Bulls ready, fit and in good nick for the upcoming Super Rugby competition.

He has been hard at work getting the players in shape for five weeks since his official appointment. While the players will be digging into the festive braais and Christmas pudding, Du Plessis has given the players strict training instructions during the year-end break.

“There is no off-time if you want to be an athlete,” he said.

“We’ve worked hard on the conditioning of the players. For the next three weeks until the players return, they have a strict training programme that they have to stick to.”

❛ We have always produced physical sides; we need to continue that