Boks badly exposed
South Africa played like world chumps in Europe, writes Keo in his weekly Business Day column.
Let’s skip all the emotional claptrap, the political correctness and new found South African way of justifying that our teams don’t lose, the other teams just score more points. Let’s get real and call Saturday’s Springbok Test defeat and the five-match tour of Europe exactly what it was: an absolute disaster and a disgrace.
I love John Robbie on talkback radio. He is the best because he calls it like it is, but when he is explaining losses to France and Ireland as nothing more than fatigue I get worried about those ultra positive contracts one has to sign to be allowed onto SuperSport.
The Boks lost to a half decent French team, a Leicester team missing 12 of their regulars, a Saracens SA XV that would not end in the top six of the Currie Cup, made Italy look like Six Nations contenders and should have been put away by 20 points by Ireland, who in the last year have been the most consistent international team of the year. That the Boks were named IRB Team of the Year after taking a beating from the Irish was as close as it comes to an Irish joke, and it wasn’t a particularly funny one.
Australia losing to Scotland put some perspective to the Tri-Nations campaign. New Zealand’s changing of coaching roles and reversal to a more conservative approach orchestrated by the world’s best flyhalf Dan Carter, who incidentally did not play in the two defeats against the Boks in South Africa, adds more reality to the quality of the Tri-Nations win and the All Blacks fitness in Marseilles ended any arguments that the Boks lost because they were simply too tired. The All Blacks, in club and provincial games, played just as much rugby as the Boks and the Test side have played even more matches this year than the Springboks.
The Boks lost because a French team physically roughed them up and exposed the fragile Bok front row with John Smit as a tighthead. The Bok scrum only resembled a quality unit when BJ Botha was at tighthead against Ireland and Smit was at hooker. The moment Smit moved to tighthead the only area of dominance that belonged to the Boks disappeared.
The lineout, the strength of the Boks since the 2007 World Cup, was a shambles and the fact that the man who coached the lineout between 2004 and 2007 was not even mentioned in the post-match TV analysis was as diabolical as the justification for the defeats.
Gert Smal’s true value to the Boks was illustrated in Dublin on Saturday. The Bok lineout did not struggle because Smit’s lineout throwing was poor. Smit is the best lineout thrower in world rugby. The Bok lineout was reduced to rubble because the new coaching staff have not changed anything since 2007. The calls are still the same and this was a case of the master (Smal, now with Ireland) upstaging the student (Victor Matfield). I have never seen a Test where Matfield has been so innocuous and lacked such presence. Smal, more than anything else, beat the Boks and it showed how little this team has actually advanced.
The senior players have run the team since Peter de Villiers took over, but there comes a point when a team needs a coach who coaches and not a coach who takes them to the ground in the comfort also known as a team bus.
Should De Villiers get fired? No. But he needs help and the most qualified person to help him, in the role of national director of coaching, is the man who masterminded South Africa’s 2007 World Cup win. Jake White is the soundboard that could turn De Villiers into a coach and not the players’ mate who allows them to do as they please.
The fatigued South African players are hanging around for a match against the All Blacks. Could someone at the South African Rugby Union explain that one to me? No because there isn’t anyone there with the rugby acumen to give me that answer.
Think of this tour and the chaos and lies. Let’s start with the lie about transformation. Black players selected in the squad were sent home and white players not in the original squad ended up playing in the Tests when De Villiers hit the first of many panic buttons.
De Villiers said Smit’s future was at tighthead, so why did he draft in BJ Botha? Why was Bandise Maku not put on the bench against Italy instead of Adriaan Strausss, who was not even in the original tour squad? Window dressing at its most crass. The same applies to the selection of Davon Raubenheimer and Ashley Johnson when Jean Deysel also went straight from the beach to the Test squad. I believe the selections of Deysel and Strauss should have been made originally, but the squad chosen was a transformation con that insulted any decent black rugby player in this country.
If Smit is going to the World Cup at tighthead then they had to persist with him through all the struggles. If Morne Steyn is going to kick South Africa that World Cup-winning penalty then you play him through the shocker he had in Dublin and write it off to an experience that will make him stronger. When Juan de Jongh is the find of the midweek side and Adi Jacobs gets injured you don’t draft a 50-Test cap Springbok based in Munster into the Test squad and get him to sit on the bench for 63 minutes. You either start with Jean de Villiers, who is the best inside centre in the game, or you say to the newcomer De Jongh this is your chance to take that step up. If South Africa had lost with the next generation of player there would be no issue, but to have got beaten so convincingly with the best team available, outside of Bakkies Botha and Frans Steyn, then the selectors need to ask themselves why they haven’t resigned.
The tour objective was to develop players and win. Neither objective was achieved. More careers were broken than made and the denial within the team simply intensified.
The rugby the Boks played was poor. The substitutions were not tactical they were terrible, and they have been all year. The All Blacks played stupid rugby against South Africa in South Africa and paid the price. The Boks fed off their mistakes and never had to play risk rugby.
In Hamilton, the Boks were a cross kick from defeat, in Pretoria they were saved by a last minute 53m penalty and in Johannesburg they were pulverized by the British & Irish Lions. In Toulouse, Leicester, Wembley and Croke Park they looked like world chumps and not world champs.
Whoever let Smal go should be fired, yet that won’t happen because no one will remember him ever asking to make a further contribution to the Springboks. There is no explanation why a guy who won South Africa the World Cup won’t be used to improve the chances of them retaining the Cup.
Excellence is punished; mediocrity gets the equivalent of a knighthood.
This tour did not ask questions, it provided every answer and someone at South African rugby has to have he balls to bring together the best rugby brains, facilitate the uber egos and clean the wound instead of adding an elastoplasts by claiming the Boks are the IRB Team of the Year.
Now is the time for honesty because the best team in the world does not get smashed in Brisbane, Leicester, Wembley, Toulouse, Dublin, Johannesburg and sneak two three-point wins in Pretoria and Hamilton.
The Boks are not as tired as we think and they are not as good as we think. But they could be the best if every agenda was put to one side and decisions were made that benefit the Springboks and confront issues instead of blaming referees, fatigue and glorifying five-point losses.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
@RugbyRulz:
27
November 30th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
SA was clearly the best team, goddamn it, they blew the aussies away in perth in the first 20 mins like no other team could remotely do, they did the same to the BIL, if the boks were;nt such lazy ******** and played flat out to the full potnetial, could;ve been 50-zip that one….they just coast at times tho.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
All BJ Bothas fault i tell you….Boks didnt have a clue what to do with all that quality ball from the most dominant Bok scrum i have seen in years…..they got such a shock not being in turbo reverse all afternoon they almost kakked themselves….
That dominant scrum is a terrible dilemma….can it…lets go back to Smit at 3….quickly….we all know the Boks dont want the ball….Sat on the front foot they chose to kick it away anyway….so screw the scrums i tell you….
Smit, the great captain that has to play a full 80 minutes…..even though we lose to ireland and france anyway, back to tighthead i tell you….none of this positive scrum domination…ever again please.
Far better we go tp WC 2011 with a soft front row….
November 30th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
@skopskiet: “Smit must retire. Matfield better up his game or write some overrated memoirs himself too, and Fdp better catch a gdam wake up behind the scrum”
You are the anti-keo. Stirring up trouble where there is none. Smit is awesome, so is Big Vic and FdP has had a great season. Our main problem was the old war-horses should have been left at home. Also I like how you leave out Schalk from your tirade on senior boks. He above anyone else you have mentioned has played terribly all season, yet you like him. Is that because he is the only province senior player?
November 30th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
@grant10:
ah there you are….what happened with that dominant scrum and all?
we won the scrums and lost the test…now what?
November 30th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
@cab:
Dont get me wrong the Bokke have had a fantastic year and deserve the praise they have received, but I saw a weak AB side still in the game with 10 to go in SA and a nail biter in Hamilton, if this is the all conquering Bokke side at its peak then they are there for the taking because as you saw from last Saturday we have go a lot better.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
@PissAnt: Really! At the tender age of 26 he contemplated retiring? I do not normally agree with Keo but after you quoting FDP… I’d have to say the lad is a wee bit precious.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
@cab: back to smit at 3….please…matter of urgency…
November 30th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
@grant10:
no no … come on … what are the reasons … there was a specialist fetcher to win the breakdown fetching and a specialist scummer to win the scrumming … so come now…please enlighten us?
November 30th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
@grant10: G10, below the surface I think you are fuming at the halfback performance and to crown it all BJ is substituted for our scrum to battle once more.
I do believe there is merit in managing the player workloads especially with our gameplan asking of players to make more than double the tackles of the opposition. Then again I wonder if this is not a convenient excuse when so many avail themselves for the Barbarians when they should be putting their feet up.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
@cab:
Are you on the sauce Cab, you beat the BIL with an injury time 55 metre penalty.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
The scary think for bok supporters would be what I heard when I saw Smit interview after the game, he commented that the reason behind the loss was that “our game plan of kicking, forcing mistakes and then kicking the penalties didn’t work today” God this is South Africa the land that produced the great backs of Gerber, Andre Joubert ,James Small and recently Habana its a sad day when boks neglect there backs to play one game plan of kicking penalties.
There were a lot of old heads on the field why were they not able to change a game plan is it because players are like robots now and cant think for themselves on the filed? SA scored easily out wide in the first half and the couple of times they got it out that way there were big holes in the defence but for some reason they didn’t utilise this at all and just kicked it to Kearney all day. Surely after 5 or so kicks that he took easily someone could say hey this is not working??
What ever the coaches and media do to bluff over the results with the fatigue factor it is a big issue. You cant make a habit of losing to these teams that you have continually bet in the past, they start to believe they can beat the boks whenever and who knows what might happen if you draw one of the teams in a quarter of a world cup. Look 15-20 years ago I bet the Irish, and scots in there minds never thought they would beat the boks and the game was usually over before the players took the field, now Ireland have won 3 times in a row and you bet they are confident every time they play the boks of winning. New Zealand may have a poor WC record but they make it a point to never to lose to these team and in doing so they have a big physiological advantage I have seen Ireland 10 points up with 15 mins left against the ABs but they fold because they don’t have the belief because they never have beaten them!
Look this century the boks have played 23 autumn international and lost 11 as opposed to say NZ who have played 27 and lost 2. The bok coaches need to address this issue and not try and sweep it under the carpet.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
or you another who is also going to blame the senior boks who;ve won everything there is to win for country and club over the last few years?
November 30th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
@grant10: As I remember it that front-row dominated the BI Lions and held up very nicely against the All Blacks. Should we drop Big Vic, because he had such a shocker on the weekend. Surely his lineout domination has come to an end. No. We will bounce back stronger for this.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
@NZINCHINA:
lol, what a load of ****, the BIL were blown away, they came, they saw and got beat, and in fact drew one to our B-string emerging boks. the 3rd test was deader than the dodo.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
@cab: Bekker aint no Bakkies he is a clone of Matfield and Rousow (spelling) was pedestrian. What was going on with the selections?
I really do not think Victor was a happy camper, would have rather been downing a pint.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
@cab:
You are on the sauce, the 05′ Lions were blown away mate not the 09’s.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
@cab: yeah….drop Brussow and BJ…Smit to 3 and Schalk to 6…
Thats the solution….
Cmon Cab….we lost the game because our half backs had a nightmare….and , if Boks knew that the scrum was that damn good they should habe had a real 8 th man….Dewalt or Kanko…..who could of exploired the wonderful quality ball…..
@Shakes:
The substitution of BJ showed such insanity that i cannot describe it….the 1 weapon we had was our scrum…and it was negated by moving the great skipper to 3…..ffs…
Dont mention the 9 and 10…blood pressure struggles!
November 30th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
@RugbyRulz:
i agree, and bekker actually played alot better than i expected, we have a guy called steven sykes whose played in several sharks sides who;ve got to teh S14 playoffs as well as being in the emerging bok side who drew to the Lions – but in fact the opowers that be decided to selected a reservence bench player at the sharks, hargreaves, over a veteran who was perfectly suited for such a tour, still young too.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
@grant10: Your solution is to drop our Captain and halfbacks? Geez good one. Brussow was the best loosie out there.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
@cab: Yes I’ve seen Sykes play during the S14 season; definitely got mongrel.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Keep raising the 3 nil over kiwis …the B Lions…beat them chests…..
And see where that gets us….
Winds of change ladies…winds of change.
Watch this space…
Outta here
Cheers
November 30th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
@grant10:
yeah yeah yeah…remember what i said about remembering the conversatin we had.
won the scrums and lost teh test…not so simple is it.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
am driving, can’t blog now. Chat u later P.man karoolander.
Will say this much while I do my multi task bit.
Div made some telling mistakes in settling for a conservative Sa if it aint broke don’t fix it mentality. He’s allowed his true principle of playing total rugby to get swamped by up n under kick n chase play without the ball **** that we were using at 2007 Wc because the darling f.ng senior status players were basically too chicken to adapt and preferred to revert and rest in ou tydse comfort zones. I knew it as Pdv himself should have known that this kak that fluked us a Bil’s tour and a 3N, the only game where we truly excelled being Perth in 2009. All the others fluked by long range penalty kicks and kick n chase tactics, was going to reach its ceiling and come a cropper.
We have made some blinded poor decisions along the way. One of them was reverting to a Butch James Fdp half back pairing in 2008. Another is not introducing a fetching open side flank like Brussow in 2008. Playing Kanko in the Nh. Relying solely on a one dimensional pivot with no width in our game plan whatsoever and expecting 3 point penalties and drop goals to get us out of jail every time.
The reality is that the game Ab’s played against France on Sat night it the way we should be targeting our evolution, not regressing all the way back to the dom f.k kak that JW was implementing through 2006 and 07 which is precisely why IRB introduced Elv’s initially to get away from such dismal boring trash. Now we doing it all over again, reverting to rubbish skop en trek kak too bang chicken to bust through and embrace total rugby like Ab’s and Wallabies are busy doing.
Pdv sold out on his principles to play attack mode total rugby in order to keep his status quo senior vanguard intact. Now he better have the balls to read the riot act and get his vision back on track or go down clutching these ou doos ou tydse rubbish tactics which will sink him fast.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
@Ratel Brussow (MSIUR): Don’t think dropping players is the solution. I’d go with trying different combinations with the old guard firing from the bench. George Smith, Ritchie McCaw, etc. play well from the bench
It develops depth.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
@grant10:
f’ck me if your guys winds of change and rubicon happen – we back in strauli era with more caps being handed out like smarties and ppl scratching the heads why we lose to saracens B.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
@Ratel Brussow (MSIUR): where did i say drop the captain?
Where?
Smit to 2 ….now more than ever as the proof was 20 min vs italy and 48 min vs ireland….both without Bakkies scrumming…..
Smit needs to keep Bissy and the other 2 s at bay…..
3 is wrapped up by a real tighthead….and what a player he is…
Now i am late …
Cheers
PS Where did i say drop the 9 and 10?
Hell Ratel, you 1 strange oke??
November 30th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
@cab: imaginw we went back at a rate of knots….??
November 30th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
@skopskiet: Don’t sell PDV short (pun intended). The guy may be playing the PC game better than most. If the players are running the show and Div’s hands are tied… they will sink or swim. The latest tours looks as though they sunk! Div may now have all the latitude he needs.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
@grant10:
imagine we;d won the test match.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
@NZINCHINA: What a great perspective you have today, like some of the other kiwi posters on here today why arent you off on silverfern enjoying your teams victory ? There has been nothing but praise for ABs victory over France from sa posters !
What a small person you must be to revel in others loss. This is a SA rugby web site so it will be one eyed towards SA, big surprise – go get a life.
November 30th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
@grant10: You posted on another thread you thought it was time for John to go. Also “Dont mention the 9 and 10…blood pressure struggles!”
November 30th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
@bananas:
Mate you’ve gone bananas, Cab is always up for some banter he gives plenty but is happy to take it, so why don’t you go fark yourself.
P.s I’ve never been on silver fern not enough Saffa’s to wind up.
November 30th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Schalk was one of the first I would have dropped long ago. I would have played Watson ahead of Schalk as far back as 2006 already so MSIR you got your reasoning all caceyed back to front again.
On saturdays performance, Smit Matfield, Fdp and M. Steyn were the chef proponents of our loss. They the ones that coughed the game up. Schalk at least was trying, can’t say same for the other overrated quartet who sank us with their inability to adapt. How come Smit didn’t stop the up n under tirade which clearly wasn’t working, I wonder if his mind weren’t already back in Ballito Bay soaking up his memoirs and watching the cash roll in? Or was he also on the betting syndicates take?
November 30th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
@cab: are you actually saying that our dominant scrum was a negative….really cab?
Cmon ….you not stupid my man?
Would you seriously have Smit back at 3???
Crazy and insane…in fact…thats the last for me on the subject….i simply find it silly to discuss what is so patently obvious….
Cheers
November 30th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
@bananas: WOW Bananas, aren’t you a ray of sunshine. First post and its attacking somebody else. We haven’t even heard your comments about this weekends test match or your thoughts on the tour as a whole.
November 30th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
what the hell did Burger do wrong, apart from score our only trying and tackle like a trojan the hwole night?
November 30th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
@NZINCHINA:
It’s good to have you back, mate. Congratulations on one of the most complete displays of rugby pulled off by the All Blacks I’ve seen this year.
November 30th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
@Ratel Brussow (MSIUR): the 9 and 10 were poor…i wouldnt drop them….yet.
Smit may still retire….i dont buy into we lose if he doesent play ****….we lost with him ….twice…in last 3 weeks!
Now really late
Cheers!
November 30th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
@WP Till I Die: LOL@WP Are you being sarcatic? That should read “Congratulations on the ONLY display of complete rugby pulled off by the All Blacks I’ve seen this year”
Bad year for the men in black. They were a due a good one
November 30th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
@cab: Burger should have taken the panalties
November 30th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
I dont agree with Keo at all about being World Chumps -they are definitely still world champs, they have proved it and had an excellent year. I think he is being far to harsh & critical!!! I tend to agree with Tim Noakes about the need to rest the players, so before they even went on this tour i thought it was one thing too many. It is never nive to lose, but i think all things considered i am ok with it and looking forward to next year!!
November 30th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
@skopskiet:
It’s usually not one of the front row deciding what the backline does.
November 30th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
@Richie_7:
haha…sounds like it.
November 30th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
@fish out of water:
Hahaha
When did we EVER consistently beat the likes of AUS, NZ and France??
We haven’t beaten France away since 1997 so to say the Boks are overrated is just plain ridiculous.
When we won the Tri Nations in 1998 we won all our matches but we basically just scraped through!!
Jake White’s record against France, NZ, Ireland and AUS is pretty much inferior to PDV!!
November 30th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
O M G !
I want proof.
send me certified copies of his Passport.
I want DNA samples, birth certificates, utility bills and drivers licences.
I want verification of his 1st born, I want closer scrutiny of ballot-box voting history.
Keo – Im on to you, Youre no Safa !!!
this ‘author’ is, surely, a ghost-writer.
Far too much truth. Bucketloads of reality. And what appears to be TWO functioning EYES !
Im simply not falling for that trick. No way.
November 30th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
@WP Till I Die:
Ha ha couldn’t show my face around here mid year for obvious reasons, cheers was a good game, that doesn’t change the fact that the Bokke were the champion side this year and played winning rugby very impressive.
November 30th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
@Richie_7: Not quite chap I only logged on this morning and have posted on other threads and congratulated Ireland on out thinking and out muscling the Boks. Congrats to the ABs as well.
However I do take exception to NZChina Tackler and poppa69 gloating over a Bok loss. I dont think you will find the saffas doing that on silverfern web site after an AB loss.If its a Bok/AB game then great but when its against another nation it comes off cheap.
The Bok tour was a mess,not time to slit the wrists but some major reassesment of our coaching staff needs to be done as well as player selection.
November 30th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
@NZINCHINA: Clever reposte there NZ ! As the better man I take back my harsh words of earlier, maybe too prickly today.
However I will go fark mayself!
November 30th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
@NZINCHINA:
Now we just need BlackPanther back, and things will be back to normal!