Boks need a coach
5 Jul 2009
Gavin Rich, writing in the Weekend Argus, wonders how much longer John Smit will be able to keep his team together.
So a British & Irish Lions tour has come and gone and at least this time there won’t be any British journalists butting me on the head while muttering over and over again ‘We did you, we did you’, as happened on this night 12 years ago.
Instead I had to listen to former Lions scrumhalf Matt Dawson, who was on a BBC radio programme I took part in, telling the people of the United Kingdom that the Springbok coach was ‘absolutely bonkers’, ‘unbelievable’ and a ‘discredit to the game’.
And then afterwards, in the final Test, the Lions scored the most emphatic victory of the series.
So yep, you have probably figured it out – I am not sure how I feel.
It was ‘us’ who did them this time, but pretty much the same way as they did us 12 years ago – by exploiting some quite weak selection and strategy decisions from the opposing coach.
Had Ian McGeechan got his selections right for Durban, the Lions would probably have won this series 3-0, and the Boks would have been made to pay a much bigger price than just embarrassment for the fault-lines that are appearing under Peter De Villiers.
The Bok coach has been a severe embarrassment to the country, and those who argue in his favour on the basis of his results are either just not close enough to the team to know what is really going on, or they are wilfully ignoring the facts.
The fact is that De Villiers inherited a World Cup winning team held together by a core of individuals who rank among the most experienced rugby players in the world.
They played against a Lions team that, apart from being poorly selected first up, struggled to come to terms with the challenges posed to the Lions concept in the professional era, when provincial games are no longer proper examinations and there are not really enough of them to get the combinations to groove.
The Lions were hammered 3-0 in New Zealand in 2005, with not one of those games being close, and considering the scarcity of world-class players in the Lions unit, the Boks should have expected something similar.
There are probably a few reasons why this was not the case, and credit must be given to the Lions for the way they fought, but I am inclined to agree with Eddie Jones, who in a London newspaper column described the Boks as a team that looks under-coached.
Yes, the Boks were winning until yesterday, but how much has De Villiers had to do with those victories?
For those who know what is going on within the camp, it will not be news that the players are running the team. It is one of the reasons why they seem on their way to regaining their reputation for indiscipline.
You really can’t allow the inmates to run the prison indefinitely without there being some kind of drawback.
John Smit is taking a great deal on his plate at the moment, and his captaincy last week, the way he kept his players calm when the mortars were falling all around them in that first hour, played a big part in the way the Boks were able to win it in the final minutes.
But how much longer can Smit and his lieutenants Victor Matfield and Fourie du Preez keep the Boks together?
Yesterday the cracks were clearly becoming evident, and the Boks have got progressively worse during the series.
It is when the experienced players go that the Boks are going to need a coach. Is De Villiers the right man to take the Boks to 2011?
I don’t believe he is. His record might look impressive, but there is a big difference between a successful coach and a good coach.
Former Australian cricket coach John Buchanan was an example of a successful coach. The Australian team he was in charge of for several years was brimful of experienced, talented players – all of them world class.
Buchanan’s team picked up trophies and dominated the Test game. But Shane Warne had doubts over Buchanan’s credentials as a coach, and he was vindicated once Buchanan was no longer coaching a team of super-stars. His performance in the recent IPL was so poor that he has now been sacked.
They used to say about Kitch Christie – ‘the right man at the right time’.
It may be that De Villiers will be remembered as ‘the wrong coach at the right time’, meaning that if ever there was a time when a flaky coach could be carried, it is now, when the team has been playing together for so long and has such a long established winning habit.
Unfortunately that means they probably won’t kick onto the level where they should kick onto, and while the coach may, at the moment, be able to get away with having minor input to strategy, that won’t be the case forever.
When the experienced players move on or retire, and inexperienced players become more prevalent in the team, the Boks are going to need a coach.
In fact, they need one now.
By Gavin Rich, Weekend Argus
456 Comments
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5 Jul 2009, 18:02 pm
A Dragon of a coach
5 Jul 2009, 18:07 pm
We need Eddie/Jake/Mallet/Smal/Plumtree/Pieter Rossouw
Maybe have coach indaba like they forced upon Jake and Rudi
By the Matt Dawson must a racist for criticizing PDV
5 Jul 2009, 18:09 pm
All the journos around the world seem to think that PDV is waste of space as a so called coach
Are they racist?
5 Jul 2009, 18:09 pm
This anti-PDV stuff is ludicrous.
He’s just completed an unbeaten EOYT and a British Lions series victory and some people want to get rid of him?
5 Jul 2009, 18:10 pm
The only way to get rid of PdV is due to non performance. His team has just won the series against the Lions
PdV will be coach till the end 2011. Accept it!
5 Jul 2009, 18:13 pm
Doesn’t take a genius to work this out long ago.
5 Jul 2009, 18:16 pm
The anti PDEV stance by most local journos is very disturbing….if in fact the rumors of the senior players running the side are proved true….that is even more disturbing….
This issue needs to be brought out into the open…the SA rugby puplic have a right to know what the true situation is !!!!
5 Jul 2009, 18:17 pm
Let PdV be and get him better assistant coaches. If he is a political appointment, then he will never be fired.
Get the right people to back him up. Muir and Gold are not the right people.
5 Jul 2009, 18:19 pm
#8 Moerig: the forwards went pretty well and basically won the series, I’m not sure Gold can be criticised. The set-plays in the backs were also awesome and had a big part to play so Muir deserves credit too.
5 Jul 2009, 18:19 pm
#3 JL1: Didn’t you know that to be a journo you have to attend 3 meetings a month in a white pointy hat.
To confuse everyone you must then pick random black players and laud them for their ability. The current crop have chosen very randomly Beast and Habana as good players… only to enable them cunningly to then crit the coach and not be seen as racist.
Brilliant plan don’t you think. Unfortunately some SWAPO code breakers have figured this out and are causing problems
5 Jul 2009, 18:20 pm
#7 justrugby: Wait for Jon Smit’s book, it’ll open some eyes.
5 Jul 2009, 18:20 pm
after watching gold, bh,jpp and jdv on tv at bokworld on friday night, i got the distinct impression that there was too much buddy-buddy and familiarity between the players and gold.
a bit like our cricket team.
can’t say if muir and pdv have the same overly pally relationship with the players but it is not a good sign.
in these types of relationships between senior managers and middle-management in any corporation, the first thing to disappear is discipline.
then performance
then accountability.
5 Jul 2009, 18:21 pm
#5 dWeePer: 2 wooden spoons in the Tri-Nations enough? And a loss or 2 at the year end tour? Watch this space.
5 Jul 2009, 18:22 pm
#11 goyougoodthing2: Gonna be a good read for sure !!!
5 Jul 2009, 18:22 pm
Met some lions supporters this week , they cannot believe what a moron Piet Snor is , and what an embarrassment to the country he is.However, politics dictates we are stuck with him till the termination of his contract.We’ve had worse , though – Carel, Harry , Rudolph just as incompetent.
Two weeks for Shaw – disgrace , compared to Bakkies’ legal actions.
5 Jul 2009, 18:23 pm
#9 Big Hit: The forwards went pretty well for the first half in the Durban test. The last 20 minutes of the 2nd test, the back were good. Both were abysmal for 80 minutes in the 3rd test.
That is a whole lot of minutes where they were pretty bad in my opinion.
5 Jul 2009, 18:24 pm
#4 Big Hit: I can coach the All Blacks today and we will still beat Scotland by 20 or more. Should I get the credit?
5 Jul 2009, 18:26 pm
#10 goyougoodthing2: I think PDV has some selctions problems
Those he thought that are good enough seem now weak, players just get a chance and then do nothing with it
Zane Kirchner has had 2 now and messed up both, Nokwe seem really average
Ndungane seem always up for it
Beast is also not that good as a prop
Johann Muller is also not good enough imo
Chili was good but poor on scrumming
5 Jul 2009, 18:31 pm
#12 charo: You could be right, something seems missing although the squad look very happy-just look how all and sundry celebrated the series win in Pretoria
I think PDV is learning that some players are just not making the step up to international rugby, he is a bit living in cloud cuckoo land for actually trying them in the first place, but then again how would we know or get the players experienced
Maybe he is a poor planner
5 Jul 2009, 18:32 pm
#4 Big Hit: yes Biggy preach it as it is.
btw why is there such dead silence about PdV’s so called assistant coaches? Gold & ****.
What has Gold achieved? Look at the powder puff WP/Stormers team that he was involved in just a few months ago. Look at the rubble that **** dished up. You are only as good as your assistants.
5 Jul 2009, 18:36 pm
I am afraid things are looking grim – F Steyn, JdV and Jaque all leaving for Europe…
For the F Steyn critics – I hope Saturday’s game put in clear perspective to you the gulf in class between him and Kirchner.
5 Jul 2009, 18:38 pm
Ok, hold on quick…if PDivvie is such a bad coach and considering his record why do Rassie, Loffie, Pote, Naka and Frans Ludeke get years and years to ‘prove’ themselves?? If the senior players are running the team and they are winning, maybe a stronger coach would ruin that. Let’s get the tri-nations done and then assess…I know quite a couple of CEO’s in this country who are horrible human beings, cheat on their wives and do some very creative accounting yet their companies are successful..
5 Jul 2009, 18:41 pm
Can I recommend Graham Henry?
5 Jul 2009, 18:42 pm
“You really can’t allow the inmates to run the prison indefinitely without there being some kind of drawback.”
That is rather Rich of this writer to say something like this. Our players are not inmates are they? Only Burger qualifies as a criminal the eye gauging, face defacing thug that he is.
5 Jul 2009, 18:43 pm
It is absurd that the coach’s all-round ability are being based on his media skills. The coach’s record on the field is being wilfully ignored as hacks distort everything he says to fit their own agendas (we witnessed this play out this past week as the British hacks did everything in their power to deflect attention from the deficiencies of their team and management). When the team wins, it’s cos the players are playing for John Smit, and when they lose, it’s because of the coaching staff. Ludicrous! Are they all not doing it for South Africa and the pride of the jersey?!
From the start of PdV’s tenure, he has been undermined with most Afrikaans rugby hacks feeling that Heyneke Meyer ‘was robbed’ and their English-speaking counterparts (Gavin Rich leading the way and backed up by Mark Keohane and Clinton van den Berg) longing for Jake White (socio-political nature of SA Rugby I guess – trust the devil you know than the devil you don’t). Then the bizarre fascination with his moustache, dress sense and flowery use of the English language (not his native tongue) through anecdotes and metaphors.
This week has seen the campaign to malign the coach intensifying as he avoided attributing the action of eye-gouging, which implies intent, to the contact that Schalk Burger made with Luke Fitzgerald’s eye – anyone who reads the full transcript of Monday’s press conference would understand clearly the reasoning behind the coach’s view. Nevertheless, it is disheartening that most SA rugby fans/sheeple base their opinion of the coach on selected sound-bytes used by hacks to sensationalise articles. Perception rather than facts rules – seems to be a bitter pill to swallow that the most successful Springbok coach in the professional era is… ‘a black mechanic’!
5 Jul 2009, 18:45 pm
#25 Durban Poison: happens the world over… controversy and bending the truth sell more papers and get more hits on blogs like this…
5 Jul 2009, 18:49 pm
#23 chch: No thanks, I know PdV might not get us to the WC QF, but another SA coach will take us beyond GH’s limit.
5 Jul 2009, 18:51 pm
#25 Durban Poison: This particular article does not refer to his media skills. It is a direct reference to his ability to steer the team in the right direction.
#26 poppa69: Yes it does, but those are normally found with Ryan’s name attached to it.
5 Jul 2009, 18:53 pm
#20 RedLion: Oh my word, is that really Gold’s background? Stormers/WP forward coach? I can maybe give Muir the benefit of the doubt, because any backline will suffer with a pack of forwards that performed like ours did on Saturday.
Sorry, but the main problem with the Boks are the coaching team in general and not PdV specific.
5 Jul 2009, 18:56 pm
How many games are allowed in the final set?
Should I set my alarm?
5 Jul 2009, 18:58 pm
#30 chch: there is no tie break apparantly – it will be a long final set.
5 Jul 2009, 18:59 pm
#30 chch: has to be a 2 game winning margin, so could go all night… longest third set I think ever was like 26-28 or something…
5 Jul 2009, 19:04 pm
game on now
5 Jul 2009, 19:06 pm
#28 King Shark: Read between the lines fella. I’ll be the first to say that Jake White was a good coach with fantastic media skills, but none of us would know how he would have reacted to the British media circus of fire-breathers and clowns. By the end of a long week, it was clear that PdV was gatvol and even admitted that he let ‘them’ get to him. I think we underestimate the pressure the coach is under, especially in light of closeness of second test, citings, yellow-cards, allegations of eye-gouging and general ‘over-physicality’ from the Boks. All I’m saying is, back-off with all the negative stuff, and back the team (including coaching staff) cos they are bloody winning!
5 Jul 2009, 19:06 pm
Again, did we not win the series? Did we not have an undefeated eoyt? Did we not win in new zealand, name another coach who has done that. It is quite weird that suddenly everybody cares how we win…Heyneke Meyer has for years implemented a gameplan that had them lose quite a lot in the beginning..then it turned. Suddenly nobody cared how we win but we won.
5 Jul 2009, 19:08 pm
#18 JL1: IMO we lack in the tight 5.
Not Beast or Bismark, been watching them at the Sharks for ages and studying them. Smit on TH is weaker than Jannie, it shows. Because the Sharks don’t have great 4 and 5′s it shows up even more. At the Bok level Smit looked okay in front of Bakkies and not okay when Bakkies is absent. So we have a decent LH and a few in the wings. We have Bismark, Kuun, blah blah blah and Chilli 2, we have TH Smit and Jannie and and and. We lack depth at 4 and 5 and this was shown up in this series. IMO Smith isn’t adding anything at the moment.
8 is much of a much with Spies and Kanko, think they BOTH struggle behind a weak pack. Find of the tournament has been Brussow bless his cotton socks.
9 FDP had a bad game on Sat, it happens. 10 Pienaar or Steyn, flair vs conservative. I’d play Pienaar with Steyn on bench. If I were to be mercenary then the other way around as Ruan can play several positions.
WO didn’t do much for his chances yesterday. JF was solid as usual. That said I don’t think JDV is up to it either this year. Jacobs in the mix but we have issues I think at inside centre, unless they play FSteyn there.
The wings, well people forget how big JPP is and what a presence he can be. I doubt anyone forgets what an impact Banana can have on a game, I am the first to admit his form was shocking earlier in the year and I thought he was game over.
Fulback, well Frans Steyn really is the choice isn’t he? Zane did nothing yesterday, bad kicking, too much kicking just poor decisions and those charge downs – how slow was he? So Steyn at 12 means… hold your breath, the old man Terblanche.
We do have
5 Jul 2009, 19:12 pm
#29 Moerig: Muir is just as useless. Was at the Sharks and continues at the Boks.
**** is the same as Hugh Reece-Edwards was at the Sharks. A great mate but terrible coach. Drinking with the lads and the like does not make for a good player/coach relationship.
When DM left the Sharks no one cried. Plumtree had been doing the hard yards for years already.
5 Jul 2009, 19:13 pm
Alex Ferguson can attend Wimbledon now that Owen is looking after the horses
5 Jul 2009, 19:15 pm
All this talk bout ppl who criticise pdiv, tht are racist is ****.I’m coloured and i must admit,pdiv must go.He’s disgraced our country,discraced Springbok rugby and has disgraced da coloured community.I say fire his *** along wit Hoskins
5 Jul 2009, 19:20 pm
#37 goyougoodthing2: I always had the idea that Muir is not as good a coach as some would make him out to be.
I think we are stuck with the terrible trio. Together they will drive any team into the ground.
Terrible Trio. You heard it here first
5 Jul 2009, 19:21 pm
In Jake’s first year he had a win percentage against NZ and Aus of 50% and won the Tri-nations. Coach of the year and team of the year.
Second year he had a win percentage of 66% against NZ and Aus and lost the Tri-nations by one bonuspoint to NZ.
In his worst year where most wanted him fired he had the same success as PDV last year. 2 out of 6. Unfortunetly Bakkies and Schalk was out injured most of 2006 – and we saw on saturday what Bakkies means to the Boks.
2007 he rested a couple of players as well as a couple of injuries before the 2007 WC. Again got coach of the year and team of the year. The rest is history. PDV might be a good coach, but forcing him into a position that he was not ready for was the biggest mistake.
He should have assisted or coached in the CC premier league or Super 14 as Jake did. Jumping from junior level rugby to Head coach of the Springboks is a huge jump.
PDV should not be getting the blame. SARU should. Hoskins should. He didn’t appoint himself. If they want to keep him there, rather get a quality consultant…a director of rugby of some sorts.
Were slowly heading back to pre-White era.
5 Jul 2009, 19:23 pm
#40 Moerig: Sorry I said it first ages ago LOL. But I won’t tell anyone.
****’s name is quite apt considering his notorious behaviour on tour. If he concentrated on rugby it would be slightly helpful.
Don’t know Gary Gould personally but of the stories I hear Noddy or Big Ears would coach forwards just as well.
5 Jul 2009, 19:25 pm
#41 WilladieLeeu: True. Hoskins and the small Unions have continued to be a thorn in the side o rugby rather than promoters of it.
5 Jul 2009, 19:27 pm
Terrible Trio??? Did we lose against the Lions??
5 Jul 2009, 19:29 pm
Excellent article one again.
Probably give a couple of blogger a racism hernia, but fact is fact.
5 Jul 2009, 19:30 pm
#44 RugbyStudent:
Who are the Lions? Under par NH teams combined. Were measured solely against our SH opponents. His first year in Tri-nations 2 out of 6 with a full squad of non-injured players.
I bet you we’ll only win one this year. Aus in SA.
5 Jul 2009, 19:30 pm
bring in Meyer before its too late.
5 Jul 2009, 19:31 pm
Great stuff
Federererer wins
5 Jul 2009, 19:32 pm
Yarra Yarra Yarra Yarra Rich.
It must really grate you to know that the coach you described as an embarrassment to Bok rugby has kept on winning.
It must really grate you that the guy ‘who supposedly’ is holding this team together was taken out of the French rugby wilderness by this coach to come and captain the Boks again saying that he was honored and privileged to work under PDV.
It must really piss you off that this team, that only achieved a 66% overall record uner White, and lost more than they would have liked to against the top teams in the world, is now suddenly winning more than what they did under the previous coach!
But I reckon, none of this comes close to the fact that someone, who has given you the middle finger as a coach, who cannot speak (read bullshit) his way around the media and kiss your ***, is proving you (who know f-all about the game – I mean let’s be honest, you are only a journalist) wrong as he goes along.
Fok…
I cannot wait to read the bile if this oke manages to coach a team to a 3N victory this year!
I live in hope.
(Then again, you live in fear – I like where I am sitting)
5 Jul 2009, 19:33 pm
#45 Bul-a-Bhloo: anyone who says anything bad against PdV is a racist…according to some. but i don’t give a damn.. bring in Meyer.
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