SA rugby at the crossroads

IT SEEMS that the performance of the Springboks has become the barometer for tensions in South Africa. Quite rightly, there is a huge amount of interest in the Boks, because they, more than any other sports team, are the epitome of South African sport.

The Proteas may express diversity more than other national teams, and Bafana Bafana may have a larger slice of the populace following their fortunes, but the Boks have come to mean infinitely more to the man on the street.

It may have to do with the fact that they are the only national side that has been crowned world champions, or that its tribal nature in this country means that there will always be disagreement, even in victory.

There will always be a player from the Cape who is viewed with suspicion by fans up-country, and vice versa. There is an opinion on everything, not least when the team plays as poorly as it did last week. It is natural for disappointment and anger to follow, but South African rugby is in desperate need of some perspective.

For a long time, we have only known New Zealand and Australia as our true enemies. Even in barren seasons, the Boks usually had enough to dispose of Wales, Ireland and Scotland, though, there was the occasional loss to England, at the end of a long season.

A look at the offerings of Wales and England in the Antipodes confirms that the status quo is no more. England have gone beyond competitive, and represent the most sincere challenge to New Zealand in the modern game. As the incomparable All Blacks have pulled away at the top, the northerners have shut the gap in the middle.

The harsh reality is that South African rugby finds itself at a rather tricky crossroads, where they have to try and merge success with succession plans. That Allister Coetzee has to pick up all those pieces is not his fault alone. The Bok cupboard should not be quite as bare as it is in terms of players who have been exposed to top-level rugby, but there is no use crying over flat Castle. Coetzee has to build again, and he has to do so while winning, and ignoring the whining.

Whining about ‘back in the day’. Whining about transformation. Whining about playing style. Whining about playing in white. In South African sport, there is always someone with a grudge, and they can’t all be entertained at once.

Coetzee had asked to be judged in four years, at the end of his journey. Within one week – 80 truly forgettable minutes, mind you – there were calls to boycott the Boks, from former players, nogal. You wonder what that does for morale in a dressing room at the start of its journey, when someone who once wore the same jersey, felt the same nerves and battled the same demons, undermines your quest so savagely. And so prematurely.

It would be interesting to see precisely what side those who have been so quick to judge would pick. A rash of the overseas players some are now clamouring for won’t make it to 2019, so what point would be made by picking them now, and papering over the cracks?

The Boks of 2016 are surely not as bad as they were last week, and certainly not so bad as to warrant a boycott.

They are also not quite as good as some may have thought before kick-off last Saturday. Many are still settling at the highest level, and they will be better for the harrowing experience in four months’ time, never mind in four years, at the next World Cup.

In the meantime, perhaps it would be prudent for players of the distant past to appreciate that there is a different challenge in striving to meet the demands of an entire nation, instead of a privileged portion of the Republic, as they did.

A lot has changed. Apparently.