Indiscipline endemic to anarchy
5 Jul 2009
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
452 Comments
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5 Jul 2009, 17:30 pm
#346 ZA1: It isn’t as bad as you make it out to be. We didn’t play at our best, so what, at least we won.
We’ve got bigger fish to fry, the Tri-Nations is where we can put all this bulls**t to rests.
“Hope the British are watching because this is what real competition looks like”
5 Jul 2009, 17:32 pm
#345 Brentie1: I wouldn’t place too much faith in rankings, they don’t tell the true story. Also the Lions is about taking the best players from the 4 nations, so they’re clearly a level or two above the home nations on their own (except maybe England).
A rugby writer in NZ today said these Lions would’ve hammered the 2009 ABs so take from that what you will.
5 Jul 2009, 17:33 pm
#348 Thucydides: or Clinton with two separate cigars lol
really feel for Frans… hopefully now he will realise that FB is his natural position (not sure he knows himself to be honest).. but he is going to play in the NH isnt he?
5 Jul 2009, 17:34 pm
#352 Big Hit: nah, INCLUDING england
5 Jul 2009, 17:40 pm
Lets all reserve judgement till after the Tri Nations shall we? We’ve won the series, lets give him a chance and see if he’s the real deal, or riding on the core of World Cup players….i prefer to be optimistic and feel he can do it!!
5 Jul 2009, 17:45 pm
#355 Atreides: Agreed. Why are they not allowing him a chance?
5 Jul 2009, 17:46 pm
Congrats to the Lions
5 Jul 2009, 17:52 pm
#356 Ezee-23: Dunno…strange….SA is a weird counry sometimes….so much to be positive about, but also the “frog in the bucket” mentality is quite pervasive. I thought it was a great series and we came out on top….yesterday’s game meant little to the boks, and on top of that, I think the Lions dodn’t deserve a whitewash. What happens when 3 weeks into the Tri Nations we lose Bakkies, Smit, Habana and Steyn to injury, and no-one is there to take their places? We need to blood new players, this has been an age-old argument….I don’t remember many playes who shone in their debuts, most guys struggle, it’s an enormous overwhelming occasion. I read somewhere that most guys remember very little of that first game, so why write them off if they’re overshadowed by the moment?
5 Jul 2009, 17:54 pm
#357 chch: For what?
5 Jul 2009, 17:57 pm
#358 Atreides:
The margin should have meant something.
5 Jul 2009, 17:58 pm
#359 Ezee-23:
Did you see the game?
The Lions won
5 Jul 2009, 17:59 pm
#360 chch: Im sure thy weren’t proud of the performance, but their focus has shifted to the 3N I think, and with the series win it would be really hard to get as motivated for the dead rubber…whereas the Lions had it all to play for?
5 Jul 2009, 18:02 pm
#360 chch: if it was against our first team yes maybe
5 Jul 2009, 18:03 pm
#362 Atreides:
Strange. When they played the ABs the focus was to win all three. It was a Lions tour after all
5 Jul 2009, 18:05 pm
#363 byoboy: We didn’t play their A team either.
5 Jul 2009, 18:05 pm
#363 byoboy:
Sounds like something Graham Henry would do
5 Jul 2009, 18:06 pm
#364 chch: I agree. We did the Lions tour & history a disservice – and the exclusion of Boks from other games also devalued a fine tradition.
But you know that for us it’s all practice for the All Blacks.
5 Jul 2009, 18:07 pm
#358 Atreides: Too right. No matter what PdV does he’s always gonna get a negative reaction even though he won the series and also managed to save our players from exhaustion by not allowing them to play for their Super 14 teams.
Imagine what the reaction would have been like if we had as many injuries as the Lions. Here’s a few:
“PdV SETS BOKS BACK 5 YEARS”
“PdV TACTICS QUESTIONABLE”
“SPRINGBOKS EXHAUSTED FROM LONG LIONS SERIES”
“INJURED HABANA TO MISS TRI-NATIONS”
Now replace Habana’s name with Victor Matfield, Beast, Juan Smith, John Smit, Bakkies and any other senior player.
5 Jul 2009, 18:07 pm
#366 chch: You are the Skopskiet of New Zealand.
5 Jul 2009, 18:07 pm
#364 chch: FAct is our squad has a core of players who have ‘done it all’ and I think many of them will start moving on, we HAVE to get news guy coming through who can step up to the plate…the only way to do that is give them game time, so what better chance than in a dead ruber match? Your coaches and management have often been lambasted for the same thing, the re-building phases every team goes throug from time to time…I admire Div for taking htis step early, rather than a s a knee-jerk reaction to injury
5 Jul 2009, 18:08 pm
#368 Ezee-23: I think I may have read those headlines already.
5 Jul 2009, 18:08 pm
#365 SodaJoe: I was just making a point about the margin difference, all in all I’m just super stoked that we won the series, especially after all their fkn winging and wining.
5 Jul 2009, 18:09 pm
#367 SodaJoe:
Apparently we gave up on the trophy against the French because it was better preparation for the tri-nations. Killing rugby
5 Jul 2009, 18:11 pm
#366 chch: I think we won the series so the focus turned to 3N.
5 Jul 2009, 18:11 pm
#370 Atreides: Boet he has hardly made the step at all.
We have a lot of work (opportunity) for 3N building to RWC 2011.
Smit is not a TH ar$e.
Muller, Kanko, Nokwe are not good enough to be Boks. Need cover (and have cover for those positions).
5 Jul 2009, 18:12 pm
#373 chch: and the super 15 is starting to kill our currie cup which is fkn annoying,
5 Jul 2009, 18:12 pm
#369 SodaJoe:
ABs in different situation from Boks. As far as I know none of the Bok players make the team because they have naked pictures of the coach
5 Jul 2009, 18:13 pm
#372 byoboy: Bud we have no excuse you know that. There’s a big difference between winning and whining. We lost big time.
Still thrilled with series win, which I think we deserved, but were quite fortunate.
Now it’s time for 3N. The toughest rugby tournament there is.
I think Piet Snor needs to replace some guys and get them ready for 2011.
5 Jul 2009, 18:14 pm
#377 chch: Please don’t tell me there are naked pictures of Grandpa Henry.
5 Jul 2009, 18:15 pm
#376 byoboy:
I thought that the new timing was what SA wanted?
Rugby in Australia struggles in Australia because of NRL. Rugby struggles in New Zealand because of the NZRU.
5 Jul 2009, 18:15 pm
#379 SodaJoe:
Ask Toeava
5 Jul 2009, 18:16 pm
#376 byoboy: We have a bunch of incompetents running rugby, and that is before political imperatives.
O’Neill showed them up for what they were.
5 Jul 2009, 18:18 pm
#367 SodaJoe: Some traditions can’t last forever. You’re right the Tr-Nations tournament is still the ultimate test.
5 Jul 2009, 18:18 pm
#368 Ezee-23: like the titles, but if you want to “make it” on keo, wheres the alliteration…
something like
Hospitalised Habana Home from Terrible Tri-nations Tourny
or
Suffering Springboks Sever Lacklustre Lions in Spiteful Series…
still waiting for that call keo…
5 Jul 2009, 18:18 pm
#381 chch: Seriously – you ARE the Skopskiet of New Zealand.
5 Jul 2009, 18:18 pm
#375 SodaJoe: Muller I tend to agree, Nokwe needs a couple more S14 seasons, harden up and bulk up a bit…Kanko I have to disagree. He always pulls in 2 or 3 defenders, very hard to bring down, once he gets his spark back he’ll be awesome….don’t judge him on the nowhere backline that played yesterday, no-one shone!
Was glad to see Div thinking about Spies at wing….the purists will howl, but I think he’s suited to it…more space to work with and a devastating runner when he has a bit of room. And tends to disappear in the close, tight stuff, would love him and Habana on our wings, best of both worlds
5 Jul 2009, 18:19 pm
#369 SodaJoe:
What does the old NZ flag look like? Maybe I have one somewhere
5 Jul 2009, 18:20 pm
#383 Ezee-23: Ezee. Fine lady. Please, the game is build on tradition and heritage. We disrespect the game when we talk like that.
I doubt that the tour would be treated with such cavalier commercial ineptitude, or administrative indifference in Australia or New Zealand.
5 Jul 2009, 18:20 pm
#378 SodaJoe: ha ha.. no man there are no excuses and i’m not giving any excuses. (i was just trying to say that if we had first choice teams from either side then the margin difference could have meant something – more – to the B&I folk, I wasn’t concerned with the margin diff coz it wasn’t our first team, just think if it had been , then we would all be crapping for 3N)
We deserved it for sure – they way we fought back in the second test was brilliant and we thoroughly deserved to win.
I can’t wait for 3N , think we got a good shot at being champs.
replace some guys, like?
5 Jul 2009, 18:21 pm
#384 poppa69: LOL
5 Jul 2009, 18:21 pm
2 sets all, Federer 4-4 final set vs Roddick, will he be the first man to 15 slam titles…
5 Jul 2009, 18:21 pm
#385 SodaJoe:
But why?
I don’t really understand Skop. He sounds anti-government and a bit anti-other-bloggers
5 Jul 2009, 18:23 pm
#388 SodaJoe:
I think that the Australians could play a good 25 adverts during a Lions test and still call it live
5 Jul 2009, 18:24 pm
#386 Atreides: Crabkowski can run sideways. End of story.
Heaslip totally embarrassed him yesterday. He alone contributed to 6 or more turnovers. In and out of the tackle. Terrible in the lineouts – created huge pressure on his scrummy. People have blamed his loss of form on the loss of Deysel, I dunno. But Vermulen streets ahead of him, as is Spies.
JPP and Habs are easily our best wings.
5 Jul 2009, 18:24 pm
#381 chch: thats why Toeava keeps getting picked… I thought he had married GH’s son … oh well, learn something new…
5 Jul 2009, 18:24 pm
#371 SodaJoe: Proves my point that PdV can never win over the majority of the fams even when he wins on the field.
If we win the Tr-Nations we will see:
“SPRINGBOKS WIN DESPITE COACHES TACTICS”
“SPRINGBOKS WIN LEAST CONTESTED TRI-NATIONS”
“TRI-NATIONS WIN DOESN’T COVER CRACKS WITHIN SQUAD”
I’ve personally never been a big fan but it’s about time he got comfortable at least for a second.
5 Jul 2009, 18:25 pm
#392 chch: You and he ride in the same dead-horse race. Yours is GH, his is JW.
5 Jul 2009, 18:25 pm
#393 chch: LOL.
5 Jul 2009, 18:27 pm
#396 Ezee-23: cmon Ezee, you still havent learnt
“Springboks slaughter sad southerners as Snor succumbs to senility”
cmon keo, alliteration like that is an art
LMFAO…
5 Jul 2009, 18:28 pm
#396 Ezee-23: As my Dad says – look at the scoreboard, what’s in the book.
he has won more than he lost, which makes a change.
On at a time. 3N next. I think this is the big test. He had his honeymoon (sort of) with the last 3N. Which was disappointing.
This time, we need to stop fkg around with fat hookers as TH props, and 8′th men as wings, and 5′th choice hookers as starters.
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