Indiscipline endemic to anarchy
The Springbok discipline has been shocking throughout the three-Test series, a fact that confirms all is not well in the South African camp.
‘That was just two minutes of the game, and we play for 80 minutes,’ head coach Peter de Villiers replied when asked about the senseless scuffle that afforded the Lions a late penalty in Saturday’s defeat.
The Lions won by more than three points, but that wasn’t the issue. De Villiers dodged the question pertaining to brain explosions that are becoming the norm rather than the exception.
Why is he dodging the question? Because the answer is a poor reflection on himself. The Boks are an aggravated lot, just as they were under Rudolf Straeuli. Does that suggest they don’t back their own coach or are unhappy under his rule?
You look at the evidence and you decide.
The senior players have had to take on greater responsibility since De Villiers came to power. A tumultuous 2008 Tri-Nations was characterised by what De Villiers called total rugby, a brand that was devoid of sense or structure, and most importantly a brand that led to a last-place finish. On the end-of-the-year tour, the game against England witnessed the reversion to a more structured approach as the senior players put their collective foot down to force De Villiers into submission.
De Villiers was hailed in the aftermath, but insiders confirmed the senior players were determined to play to a pattern akin to the one that won the World Cup.
In 2008, De Villiers’s advisors peddled the line, ‘Give us time to work with him’, implying that given a chance, he could become a half decent coach.
Together with his consistently ridiculous press conference offerings, his rugby contribution has failed to improve. That first Test in Durban was so nearly lost thanks to some mindless substitutions in the final quarter, and in the second and third Tests, the patent lack of player discipline served to highlight his lack of control.
The Boks are getting worse, not better. Maybe it’s taken Saturday’s defeat for more people to realise that.
Most of these Bok players have been together for five years and a number boast over 50 caps. When you see a player like Victor Matfield, a veteran and vice-captain of the Boks, involved in off-the-ball fighting, you have to wonder. There’s aggression and then there’s senseless pushing and shoving that ultimately ends in a penalty against your own team. The experienced players just don’t do that.
Indiscipline is not limited to foul play. It was written off as rust in the first Test, but the Bok decision-making has been shocking across all three games. The Boks were robbed of a kickable penalty in the final stages of the second Test because Bismarck du Plessis took a quick tap. Where was the common sense?
Sure, players need to be held accountable for their own poor decisions, but when they occur so frequently you have to question the coaching philosophy that continues to tolerate perpetual failure in this regard.
Some would say John Smit should shoulder some of the blame for not taking more control on the park. Smit is already under enough pressure trying to play a position that’s not his best, and play it for 80 minutes since the Bok management haven’t bothered to include another specialist tighthead on the bench. No, Smit’s done an admirable job in this series despite the coaching staff, not because of them.
The balance of the 22 has been suspect across the series, the substitutions in the first Test highlighting the point. The decision to field a team boasting 10 changes in the third Test was also flawed given the Boks were so shaky in the first two games. The results failed to hide the fact that they were off the pace.
De Villiers is now talking about building for the Tri-Nations, as if defeat to the Lions’ second-stringers in Johannesburg has afforded him some great insight. Another win for the Bok first side would not have served as a precursor to Tri-Nations glory, but it would have afforded the Boks a further opportunity to attain the synergy that was so obviously lacking in Durban and Pretoria.
The Boks head into the Tri-Nations a group of individuals when they should head into this tournament a hardened and well-drilled team. They have the Lions series win to show for their efforts, but their sub-standard performances in all three games tell a truer story.
This side is stacked with individual talent, but without the necessary management, the team is on a downward spiral. Ian McGeechan came to South Africa with a limited team and managed to record a relatively commendable 2-1 result. De Villiers went into a home series with a world champion team, scraped two wins and then proceeded to field an unbalanced group of youngsters to lose at the fortress Ellis Park. Who should be celebrated and who should be condemned?
The Boks have beaten the Lions and South Africa should celebrate the result, and after that, South Africa should move on. In moving on, South Africa should acknowledge why their world champion team is not performing to world champion standards.
The bottom line is that as a top rugby nation, we deserve more than a second-rate coach.
By Jon Cardinelli, in Johannesburg
July 5th, 2009 at 6:14 am
gouging dragons!..schalkie I hope you are reading this
July 5th, 2009 at 6:28 am
how can we get rid of snor without sounding rascist
cause if we want him fired the anc will play the old race
card the ace of spades
its sad to know that the anc will keep pushing black
coaches untilk they get it right sa will never have another
white coach and iam not saying white is right
but this is how it will go and its not
fair on us the supporters or the players
the players need to protest or bok rugby is over as we know it
we all know meyer should have got the job
July 5th, 2009 at 6:30 am
maube we jsut stop going to rugby games that the boks are playing and stop watching a total black out
as we know pdv said talk is cheap and money buys the whiskey
July 5th, 2009 at 6:40 am
SARFU must refund the Bok supporters for fielding a B team.
When we bought the tickets we thought it was the Bok team.
Its a bloody disgrace
July 5th, 2009 at 6:52 am
Nice article jc, much better than the recent rubbish spurted out.
July 5th, 2009 at 6:54 am
Just imagine we had a worldclass foreign coach who wouldn’t care about quotas and race wouldn’t matter
July 5th, 2009 at 7:30 am
Jaque Fourie said it all… they changed the game-plan for this test… away from Bok strengths to the bumbling fool’s…
July 5th, 2009 at 7:34 am
#2 klippies101:
It’s only sport… the problem lies in the same principle being applied in ‘more serious’ sectors…
Any wonder the once world dominating South African gold and mining sector is the current laughing stock of the world and beyond the point of no return?
A N C!
July 5th, 2009 at 7:41 am
ja well said money man man i hear sa mining is in real kak
July 5th, 2009 at 8:04 am
#8 money_man: #9 klippies101:
Platinum mines are battling because of the global motor trade taking a knock.
July 5th, 2009 at 8:08 am
Ag JC give it a rest. The scuffle yesterday was handbags and it came about because 1) Phillips was provoking it and 2) the Boks were frustrated at losing. It happens, move on!
July 5th, 2009 at 8:11 am
#6 Oxy moron: Who would like to coach SA with all the restrictions on the teams representative regulations.
And witch SA coach would we pick, hard times ahead.
July 5th, 2009 at 8:17 am
You know, I happen to agree with a lot of what you have said JC but is now the time to be asking these questions? The Boks have just completed a series win against the Lions, it’s time to celebrate and be happy isn’t it? Where are the positives?
Just for a bit of fun, here’s my combined team of the series:
1. Beast
2. Bismarck
3. Adam Jones
4. Bakkies
5. Matfield
6. Brussouw
7. Juan Smith
8. Heaslip (it was close but his performance yesterday was above anything Spies did over the 3 tests)
9. FdP
10. Stephen Jones
11. Habana
12. Roberts
13. BOD
14. Tommy Bowe
15. Kearney (best Lions player by a mile)
July 5th, 2009 at 8:22 am
Bench: Jenkins, Rees, Shaw, Croft, Phillips, Frans Steyn, Shane Williams
July 5th, 2009 at 8:27 am
Only in South Africa do we want fire a coach that has won in New Zealand, a cleansweep in Europe and has won a LIONS series.
July 5th, 2009 at 8:30 am
#13 jonnymain: Nice team.
Let’s make them play together under Snor and see how long it takes him to mess it up
July 5th, 2009 at 8:31 am
#15 RugbyStudent: He won ONE game in NZ. He hasn’t done much since and when he does take ‘control’ we end up with the trainwrecks like yesterday.
He isn’t a coaches backside.
July 5th, 2009 at 8:33 am
#15 RugbyStudent: Be fair, only in South Africa do we fire a World Cup winning coach…
July 5th, 2009 at 8:34 am
#18 goyougoodthing2: Only in SA do they advertise the head coaches job during the RWC!
July 5th, 2009 at 8:35 am
Pieter Div beteken niks vir SA rugby.Van wanneer af bou jy i span waarvan die meerderheid al meer as 5 jaar saam as.i Reeks wen teenoor die leeus is al wt hy kon bereik en dit is ng steeds toe die wêreld kampioene as individuals gespeel.Die SA span is nr.1 werd nix minder nie…
July 5th, 2009 at 8:36 am
#13 jonnymain: Who is the coach of that team?
July 5th, 2009 at 8:36 am
Jeez some of you guys are a bunch of idiots. The mining industry is suffering because of the global recession!! Fools! Why does everything need to be blamed on government? Maybe if the past administation that kept this country in a viscious racist chokehold didn’t import foreign goods, we’d be at a point where we make our own cars and process our own metal.
Jon, to me you’re not a rugby writer. You like one of those American commentators..Couch coaches!
July 5th, 2009 at 8:37 am
#21 JL1: Warren Gatland
July 5th, 2009 at 8:38 am
#19 jonnymain: We are a joke aren’t we down here? Bit sad really.
The arm bands? Children trying to be men, all respect and honour is gone. Rugby in the provinces and S14 may be all worth watching.
I will NEVER pay another cent to watch the Boks.
July 5th, 2009 at 8:41 am
#23 jonnymain: He is a bit of a whinger of late but should be OK.
Time to get a foreign coach, but none of them will take SA on because of the selection criteria and politics
July 5th, 2009 at 8:42 am
#24 goyougoodthing2: A bit harsh mate. I happen to think “good on them” for taking a stand instead of just meekly accepting it like usual. It was never worth a citing or a ban, as yesterday I saw at least 2 clean-outs that were equally as “bad” as the one Bakkies was banned for. Bakkies was banned on his reputation not for what he did on the rugby field and that is wrong and unfair.
July 5th, 2009 at 8:44 am
Exactly, we are so quick to fire coaches. It took Heyneke Meyer 7 years to build a winning Bulls team. Last year Pote Human took over a winning Bulls team and they looked like laughing stocks.
I didn’t see Jon-never-played-the-game-Cardenelli write in protest that hiring a second rate coach for the Bulls smacks of buddy buddy mentorship. What’s the Div?
July 5th, 2009 at 8:44 am
#22 RugbyStudent: ? Doubt it mate. Stop blaming the past and analyse the very sad present.
Broadcasters going down the tube, with government funding, national airline carrier the same. One of the winners of best run city in the world 10 years ago (durban) a stinking mess that lost it’s Blue Flag Status. Hospitals with no doctors and the doctors they do have they fire. No police. No Metro Police. No bus service in Durban. A Gautrain no one wants.
9 new stadia no one wants or can afford. Mining, once the back bone of SA on it’s bum.
Get real. Oh of course, Springboks now the Proteas Girls U12 Touch Rugby Academy
July 5th, 2009 at 8:46 am
#26 jonnymain: Yes it’s unfair and so is life.
Whining is not the way to get things done. Take it like a man. It’s just not the way we used to do things in SA.
July 5th, 2009 at 8:48 am
#25 JL1: You are right there. I hate to say it but PDV wouldn’t get to coach any other tier 1 rugby nation in the world – he’s just not good enough and nobody outside of SA (and most inside) respects him. If you look at the calibre of the head coaches of the major rugby nations:
Martin Johnson – OK a bit of a gamble but he has respect and a reputation
Graham Henry – Loads of trophies at provincial level, good record with Wales before he took the ABs job
Robbie Deans – Second to none in pedigree, the best coach in the world IMO
Marc Lievremont – the exception! He’s a bit of a joker
Declan Kidney – Masterminded Munsters 1st Heineken Cup win, won the Slam this year against expectations
Warren Gatland – Honours with Waikato, brought respectibility back to Irish rugby before O’Sullivan took over. Won the Slam with Wales in his 1st season
Andy Robinson – RWC winner with Clive Woodward. Respected all over as a great coach if not a great man manager. Time will tell what influence he has on Scotland.
What has PDV won at senior or provincial level?
July 5th, 2009 at 8:51 am
#26 jonnymain: Absolutely right. It’s about time that some of the IRB pink-gin brigade appointed former rugby greats (people such as Morne du Plessis, Zinzan Brooke, John Eales etc.) to be on the citing panels that sit in judgment on today’s players. Instead they have a mish mash of people (administrators, legal counsel etc.) whose actual rugby expertise probably never rose above a social game on their university campus.
July 5th, 2009 at 8:51 am
#22 RugbyStudent: look im not into all this blame snorre or the governement , but please dont speak bullshit and try convince yourself we are making cars and steel because of the anc government
are you that f*&*&ing dumb??
\
Whites in this country made those things before you were even born
So take you racist idiotic bullshit elsewhere
Now on A RUGBY note you mostly talk sense lets leave it at that…
Yes Pdv made a judment error or 2 over this series , he admitted as much
I dont believe he should be fired , and i believe the boks will do well in the tri nations…
July 5th, 2009 at 8:54 am
#30 jonnymain: I missed out the Argy coach because I don’t know enough about their rugby team! And I’m aware that Scotland are not a tier 1 nation anymore
July 5th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Gouyougoodthing
Dude, its very easy to forget what was done in the past but the fact of the matter is this, we are still trying to incorporate those that suffered in the past to the present.
Actually if you know anything about SA history and the kinda ppl u and ur fathers looked up to, you’d realise that the current government is actually being nice to u.
Where else in the world did a government have torture on blacks as a legal method for negotiation?
Yesterday I was at Ellis Park and heard 3 guys, “this biltong tastes k@k, this is k@ffer biltong”!!!
July 5th, 2009 at 8:58 am
#30 jonnymain: Hold on
Martin Johson has won nothing and has no coaching badge to speak of/ or any technical knowledge
Gatland was an assistant at the Chiefs-Kiwis did not want him
Declan Kennedy hahad Gert Smal that has shaped his forwards into a unit of measure and he inherited another mans team
Andy Robinson is a plonker anyone can get a coaching job in Scotland
July 5th, 2009 at 8:58 am
#31 cambok: That’s a good idea but would they be willing to do it? I doubt it myself. Once you retire the last thing you’d want to do would be to sit in judgement and condemn your fellow rugby players!
July 5th, 2009 at 9:02 am
#35 JL1: Agree with you on Johnson, but his playing reputation does count for a lot.
Gatland was head coach of Waikato when they won the NPC a few years back I believe??
Kidney won the 6N and he won the HC. Those are facts. Gert Smal is the forwards coach and a very good one but you can’t deny the influence of Declan Kidney.
We’ll agree to disagree on Robinson. I think he’s got a great rugby brain personally. His time with England was tainted by politics (yes it happens elsewhere!) and an ageing team.
Every one of them is a better coach than PDV….. in my opinion
July 5th, 2009 at 9:06 am
#35 JL1: And you are wrong about Scotland. PDV wouldn’t get the job of national coach even there
July 5th, 2009 at 9:07 am
People on a rugby note … To me the mistake made by the coaching staff is that we experimented in a test
And not only a test against a weak nation , but against the Lions..
To me i always had a problem with 10 changes as it breaks all the working combinations the team has
Breaks all the dynamics .
Had he left Habana , JPP , Bismark , in the team i think it might have been a different story , and although i have said it before i say it again , F steyn is our best fullback
In saying that someone like Kirchner would have performed better with the security of Habana and JPP next to him
WO was not that bad but still for an experienced player ?, and one that had the season he just had ?? he didnt do well
I think also 2 props on the bench was a waste he could have had a Odwa or a Potgieter on the bench,
M Steyn also didnt play well and i hope the people can now open their eyes and see that Ruan is the allround better player , M Steyn is a damn good kicker but needs to up his game from super 14 level , again in saying that he too played behind a pack getting a smack, But his tactical kicking was not good
July 5th, 2009 at 9:07 am
Its funny that you wanna speak rugby but u easily forget the stats of PDiv. He has won a helluva lot more than his lost. I would like to know though why is PDiv blamed for the actions of players who have brain farts the whole day?
I mean what exactly has Bismarck done to attain such high esteem? What exactly has Johan Muller done? On Friday there was an article saying selecting Chilliboy was a farce and that he can’t even get picked for the Bulls side. Well please everybody go look at those comments and watch the highlights of the game.
July 5th, 2009 at 9:08 am
#34 RugbyStudent: Well that’s sad.
I’m over excuses for anyone’s behaviour mate. “Being nice to me?” Whatever, they’re not being very nice to the rest of the country are they. Bunch of Gravy-Train semi socialist fat okes with egos who are systematiccaly raping this country. Anyway, it has nothing to do with rugby.
Rugby facts are: Div doesn’t know what he’s doing, and we are playing like schoolboys. They must all grow up and stop throwing tantrums.
I want to watch rugby, not children with armbands.
July 5th, 2009 at 9:10 am
#36 jonnymain: Make it worth their while financially. I shudder to think how much has been paid to those clowns who have sat in judgment on cited players in this Lions series. What I’m suggesting is that citing panels have one former rugby great (ie one vote in three) so that there is some proper perspective and insight from someone who actually knows the game at test level.
July 5th, 2009 at 9:11 am
#40 RugbyStudent: Dude, Muller may be a ‘nice guy’ but he’s not international standard on a rugby field.
Would have been awesome to see Chilli with Bakkies packing down, but it wasn’t to be so hard to compare.
IMO Smit has Bakkies and Bismark to thank for looking good in the first test. Beast is strong but you take off Bissy in a test or Sharks game and Beast battles as the replacements are never strong enough.
Zane, go back to school, Frans Steyn is a better fb.
July 5th, 2009 at 9:15 am
#38 jonnymain: Mate i dont see why PDV should be fired???
The Boks won the series not the Lions
Nothing you say or anyone says will change that fact
Yes sometimes he says stupid stuff , makes a tactical error of playing a new game plan , and makes wholesale changes to a team whilst playing the Lions
HE STILL WITH THIS TEAM BEAT THE LIONS ETC , So get off the guys back
Boks 2 Lions 1 that will not change
July 5th, 2009 at 9:15 am
#29 goyougoodthing2:
Pull your head back in.
Rugbystudent,people who live in the past isnt helping this country.
Do any of you guys know that coal mining is booming in SA and that there is a lot of exploration going on and that there are a good few new coalmines in the pipeline?
July 5th, 2009 at 9:15 am
#22 RugbyStudent:
Pal… stick to studying rugby and leave the mining industry to us pro’s… I’ll make you look very stupid if you’re going to argue that the RSA mining industry isn’t farked beyond belief… soley due to BEE (to the fatcats)… laughable!
July 5th, 2009 at 9:15 am
#39 sharks_lover: Anyone would have struggled with the quality of ball the tight 5 were giving yesterday. Can’t judge Morne Steyn on that game. Would Pienaar have done any better you wonder?
July 5th, 2009 at 9:16 am
#46 money_man:
Ag please moneyman we are in a global recession.
July 5th, 2009 at 9:17 am
#44 sharks_lover: Honestly, do you REALLY BELIEVE Snor is any good?
Come now, don’t hide behind some luck.
July 5th, 2009 at 9:17 am
#44 sharks_lover: I haven’t said he should be fired, I will say that I don’t think he should have been given the job in the first place.
It’s hard to fire a guy who is winning!