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 11:37 pm
@cab: #337
“The Springboks should be about excellence,…”
Nobody dispute this. The question is, can we marry our quest for excellence while transforming the game at the same time? How do we do it?
@cab: #344
No Cab. My point is that these players should have been given a chance to compete for a place in the WP team. Obviously against the white players who then played for WP in that positions. They were not.
I don’t understand where this notion that coloured/black players want freebies come from. It’s simply not true. They just want an opportunity to prove themselves, just like the white players.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
@cab: 349. cab… I think that you forgot where this conversation start… S14 coaches see it as their duty to influence bok selections… The reason why Habana is going to WP is because the Volk need to him to make way for a certain Mr Van Der Heever who will never make the Bulls S14 team with Habana still there… Habana and his family will sell their souls. Fighting racism does not fit into their business plan.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
@nama1:
no i dont think one can social engineer anything based on skin colour, despite the best intentions it gets marred by personal agendas. The only criteria at teh national level should be merit, tho its true we will be at the whims of the 3-man selection panel, but they should not have transformation ideals in mind imo – i may be wrong – but that is how i see the fairest way to proceed.
if transformation is to be carried out do so with quotas at teh lowest level, but leave the national coach unfettered, pick a black man to do the job but with no provisos or poltiical agenda – his sole criteria is to win test matches.
@Langenhoven:
But you still see it as a fight, perhaps ppl just want to get on living in fair systems and insitutuons with one another? Why has Habana sold his soul. Here is one player who is a total role model for all. The best in the world in his position.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
anyway okes, i’m going to hit the sack, good night.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
@nama1: Nama.. I think that we must stop seeing transformation as a trade off against excellence… Its about broadening the talent pool and increasing competition… SA rugby and Apartheid has always being stifling competition … and therewith progress.. The loss on Saturday is indicative of how rugby legacy constrained performance.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
@cab: has riaan viljoen played s14 cab? Alistair hargreaves, if they have, did they sat the pitch on fire? Nick Koster, didn’t he jump from obscurity to the run-on stormers side in the s14? Were you as perturbed by all these selections as you seem to be by raubenheimer, chili & maku?
Come on now, you’re entitled to your opinions but be consistent, that’s how you will earn respect. Is francois hougaard the epitome of scrumming excellence in this country? Was jaco vd westhuizen ever close to any form of excellence in the green & gold jersey? How about meyer bosman?
When the likes of pedrie wannenburg and wynand olivier (before this year’s season) wore the bok jersey and you shut up about it, weren’t you being a little hypocritical?
November 30th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
@cab: Cheers mate.. its always good chatting to you … tonight might have been fierce.. but with you it will never be personal… Long Live
November 30th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Cheers gents… I need to be at the French consulate early tomorrow… Getting a Shengen Visa in London is an unbelievable rip off and scam.
Long Live
November 30th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
There’s no soul to sell
Habana is a rich coloured kid who had all the opportunity much like Gibbs or Jantjes did. They came through the white system and excelled.
There is far too much inherent anxiety and hurt still festering in and amongst social imbalances throughout the system whether it be through Craven week or onto provincial or franchise setups and filtering all the way up to national levels.
Excellence should be the only yardstick for national selection nothing else. But it is also true to some extent that at provincial and lower tier levels prejudice and inadequate opportunity is still rampant. It has to get addressed at some point. If provincial management and coaching is not doing it lower down then national coach might have to bite the national excellence bullet and over rule the system and compromise the quality for sake of equality in opportunity.
Its not ideal but then nothing is in imperfect societies.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
@cab: #353
“no i dont think one can social engineer anything based on skin colour,”
If only you were there to tell the Nats that 50 years ago, we probably would not have this discussion now.(smilie)
And I repeat, everybody will agree with you that merit should be the only criteria for selection at national level. The responsibility for developing black players who can compete with their white brothers for a place in the Bok side should rest with the provincial coaches. At the moment, they are not doing it. This leaves the Bok coach in the unfortunate situation where he has to select some players who may or may not be good enough or ready yet to play for the Boks.
The whole country is transforming. Rugby cant be left to carry on as usual.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
@Transformation:
i was actually none of them imo deserved to be there, i was even concerned with THs like WP Nel who we had not seen at S14 level – but the tour was crying out for development in this position so he should have been taken.
hargreaves was an even worse selection than raubenheimer, since he is white and we have a glut of no 5 locks, but no no4s esp for a hard NH EOY tour.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:00 am
They (SAB) must give the Mark Keohane the papsak award.
He writes like someone who is “dik gesyp”
December 1st, 2009 at 12:01 am
I think I just posted the 1st post for the month of Dec 2009 here on keo.
Always 1st, like the Bokke!
December 1st, 2009 at 12:02 am
@nama1:
i am not that old, but i guarentee you i was far more outspoken against the racist national party then the current lot who are doing pretty well all things considered. But i;m not really going to get inot that since it means nothing, we are living in the present, the question is whether the same mistakes are repeated and whether more social engineering is continued.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:04 am
it’s crazy that everyone says that pdv must develop depth from scratch, yet the DOR’s of the stormers & sharks go & get the matt to’omua’s & hernandez of this world to play in the business end of out currie cup, then i the case of to’omua he jumps straight off a plain from cape town into one bound for europe because robbie deans thinks he is a future talent….
December 1st, 2009 at 12:09 am
@Langenhoven:
cheers
December 1st, 2009 at 12:21 am
@cab: so do you see the riaan viljoen, hougaard & hargreaves selections as some sort of “shouting up” of “white conciousness” that is screaming to be reinforced or propped up? How were the players they were picked ahead of meant to feel?
December 1st, 2009 at 12:25 am
@cab:
That was jokingly said. Not taking a stab at you there at all.
You’re right. We should be even more vigilant now knowing where we come from. Looking at the attacks on Mbeki now regarding his AIDS policy, one can see how easy it is for the public to be fooled by the powers that be. As a collective SA society, we have failed ourselves in this regard. Your average white person will however see it as a “black” thing and not in the context of SA as a whole.
Whether you like it or not, transformation in rugby is a given. It is the manner in which it is done that should be discussed. Obviously most of us have a problem with how it takes place right now. But the people who have the power to provide an alternative in transforming rugby, are not doing their bit,
December 1st, 2009 at 2:48 am
The boks are not as bad as we think, but I agree that this tour was EXCEPTIONALLY BADLY MANAGED.
Did you see how Henry brought only a few new players along and substituted them into an established, experienced side for the easier games? That is how you do it – not replace 8 of the team with newbies. That is what I said pre-tour.
The senior Bok players and leaders are reverting to type (kicking) under pressure and forgetting the cardinal rule of not being predictable. for all their experience, they are not adapting to cicumstances and changing their game plan. If linouts are not working, keep ball in hand FFS.
December 1st, 2009 at 8:11 am
EXCELLENT article Keo – I agree wholeheartedly.
The Boks (including the coaching staff) are not as good as we thought…
Besides, when have we ever thought our rugby teams have had any semblance of intelligence or astuteness (other than under Jake White)?…
To think, Matfield was shocked when he found out the Irish had learned to count in Afrikaans! Who would have thought, rocket science is probably easier to master! Dumb fool.
December 1st, 2009 at 8:27 am
Keo,
You got to go back to the basics of Rugby in SA
It’s not soccer, it’s a Public Schools’ game and only followed by certain classes of the society, in the UK, Argentina, France and Australia.
In SA and NZ it’s different, for the white portion of the population it’s the Number One sport at high schools and then further groomed at Varsity level.
The Pro era changed perceptions but still, the less players play it at selected schools the less quality players will come thru the ranks.
Anybody who lives in a denial to understand the SA rugby’s supply chain will not understand why Steenkamp and Chiliboy were put on the first plane back after the Leicester’s game, or why BJ, CJ, Strauss, Wiam and JdV were called up in a hurry.
I understood it and got a handsome reward from my bookie, getting correctly BOTH the results and the spreads of 4 out of five EOYT matches!
December 1st, 2009 at 8:36 am
@Hondo:
you predicted that Chille would get injured?
well, nothing new about that.
Hell, Chilli wasn’t fit enough just 6 days earlier for a CC final…..why would anyone think that he would make it through the entire tour and yet alone 1 game.
oh, I get it.
union coaches are all racist or something like that?
December 1st, 2009 at 8:46 am
Keo – I have to say that most of this is an outrageous article. The All Blacks are the benchmark – we meat then three times this year. There were marginal wins but so what – we beat the Lions and won the tri- nations. It seems thay are dammed if they do and dammed if they don’t. The Boks were two kicks away from beating the Irish. Such is life in test rugby – it turns on the smallest of incident. I do agree that managment has a part toplay. I recall Mallet’s 17 in a row side which was one of the best trained and drilled sides I had seen in a long time. They had a few dimensions to their game and had the ability to close off games with relative ease. You can point the finger at managment but not at the players who are there to play not manage.
December 1st, 2009 at 8:51 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl:
I don’t play suppositions
I predicted he is gonna be totalled after 20 minutes if he was lucky
But Keo here talks about Boks management and structure, right?
I assumed they have doctors and Physio on the team to assess the guy’s fitness before pencilled him in?
December 1st, 2009 at 8:54 am
@kesbok:
What’s your point then?
I put the French and Ireland to win at a 3-7 points spread, am I a prophet? NO
I see the reality
December 1st, 2009 at 8:58 am
@Transformation: Mmm….probably a bit like how Derick Kuun felt watching the 3rd choice hooker at his union playing for the Boks?
December 1st, 2009 at 9:10 am
@Valkyrie: i have no gripe with you
was in agreement of what you were saying
@Transformation:
Jake’s joker 6, 7 and 8 cards
See the thing with Keo is …all was forgiven after JW won the world cup..that doesnt take away from alot of the **** that happenned be4 tht
its strange to think how flexible and un-stubborn PdV is as compared to White
imagine having such a stubborn DOR
JW will never change
kudos to him for winning the world cup but keo needs to step down as chairman of JW fan club, his journalistic integrity depends on it
was even impressed to see ol Gary Boshoff of News24 having a dig at PdV
December 1st, 2009 at 9:15 am
@kesbok:
It was an excellent article, as a previous blogger has said. Good incisive insightful journalism. Some points were overblown, yes, as a win is a win at test level. Some points he went soft on like omitting Brisbane from the list of losses.
My analysis earlier this year was that the 3N side was very good except for the front row turned out right.
But at least the world game is in good shape.
And I dont think mediocrity in the Bok management will continue to be rewarded, or is that a vain hope?
December 1st, 2009 at 9:23 am
@wooden spoon: You must be a member of the Jake White fan club too.
December 1st, 2009 at 9:26 am
@Sheriff: Hahahahahahaha. Too true.
December 1st, 2009 at 9:27 am
@Hondo: #371
“for the white portion of the population it’s the Number One sport at high schools”
Apparently the younger generation of the white population in NZ don’t want to play rugby against the big boys from the Pacific Islands any more.
December 1st, 2009 at 9:37 am
@nama1:
I know, I read about it in the NZ Herald few times
What the Kiwis did in their wisdom was to restructure the under 18 leagues by WEIGHT and SIZE, no idea how successful that worked.
The NZ Herald said that around Aukland and Hamilton 90% of the young players are now P. Islanders, not even Maori so soon the ABs will be a Samoa or Tonga in disguised
But that’s the Kiwis problem, we have ours to worry about
December 1st, 2009 at 9:52 am
@Hondo: To be fair, does not Auckland have a very large Samoan population? Come on guys Australia is a mixed cauldron of all sorts, we deal with it and do the best with what we have.
December 1st, 2009 at 9:54 am
@rossoneri: No, not really. JW wasn’t all honey and sweet smelling roses.
BUT he was streets ahead of Streauli, Viljoen, Du Plessis, Markgraaf, etc…
That 36-0 dismantling of England at the RWC 2007 was brilliant, a lot of planning and strategy (um, 4 years of it) went into that one game because we all knew it would give us an easier route to the final (kind of the opposite of what happened when we lost to Eng in the pool stage in RWC 2003). The guy deserves some credit.
IMO the bitter criticism of the guy is waaaay overboard.
December 1st, 2009 at 10:00 am
@wooden spoon: Your opinion. But you’re missing who the bloggers are having a go at. Not Jake, but Keo.
December 1st, 2009 at 10:04 am
@rossoneri: No, not really. My post and reference to JW was independent of the aforegoing discussion. 2 separate issues.
Oh, of course Keo loves JW these days… Haven’t you noticed the “JWWW” link at the top of the page?
December 1st, 2009 at 10:12 am
Potty-Mouth
Cant you write posts without sinking to your homely gutter?
How about leaving all your personal vindictive out of it and try write English.
Are this brave face to face, or is your keyboard some sort of ’superman creating’ delusional enhancer?
December 1st, 2009 at 10:43 am
@RugbyRulz:
OK
So why now the growing numbers of PI kids in NZ young rugby teams?
They were not restricted before, so why that sudden majority among the under 18 players?
I don’t know myself
December 1st, 2009 at 10:48 am
@wooden spoon: jake is an astute rugby genius! Which is why no other country in the world wants him to coach their side, declan kidney, o’sullivan, gatland etc all have international coaching jobs but our jake has no job, he is going around as a consultant to help other coaches program their “robots”
December 1st, 2009 at 11:11 am
@Hondo: #382
I can guarantee you if we in SA take the same approach and play our under 18 league by WEIGHT and SIZE, these traditional powerhouse white rugby schools will get beaten to bits by traditionally black/coloured schools, especially in the WC and EC.
It already is happening despite the weight advantage these white schools have in their packs.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:06 pm
You have to remember that New Zealand oonly has a population of 4 million so we’re not doing too bad at this game called rugby…
December 1st, 2009 at 12:55 pm
This is a very good acticle, which askes allot of very pertinent questions.
If the Boks had beaten France and Ireland, there would be no questions asked and we would be hailed as the best team in the World. But because we lost we cannot consider ourselves to be the most dominent team in world rugby.
The All Blacks have played just as much rugby as us but they don’t loose. Even though we are currently World Champions, we are not the most dominant rugby team in world rugby and I think it is such a shame.
If we got our house in order as it is suggested in this article I firmly believe we could become the all powerful team we wish to be.
I an also extremely worried about our future as a powerful rugby nation. We are not developing our strongest youth or exposing them on tour like the one we’ve just you.
SARU get your act together before everything falls apart!
December 1st, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Keo, I agree with what you’ve written and find your tones exactly right, except:
1) It is important to keep the focus on the uneven playing fields in the Super 14 and Tri-Nations which do contribute to added physical, mental and emotional pressure on the SA players, which you have negated; and
2) What do you mean by “facilitate the uber egos”? Egos cannot be facilitated. They have to be disbanded or there will always be negative resistances to positive ideas and progress.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:52 pm
@Langenhoven: Bollocks out of the top drawer.
December 1st, 2009 at 2:33 pm
After reading all this racist bullshit i hope they just fire Pieter de Villiers so you can all get your way and pick a white coach and drop all the ‘quota players’.Then i can go back to supporting the all blacks and be happy winning you doose every year as usual
December 1st, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Keo: I thought about this article and I need to say that this writing is quite critical of a group of people who do not control the politcal situation they are in thus are forced to have a coach selected largely on the colour of his skin and rugby officals that are selected largely on the colour of their skin, thus is creates team selections that are based largely on the players skin colour. This situation is crazy.
But regardless of all this the boks still won the Lions series and the Tri-nations, they beat the AB three times in a row. We should be applauding the boks for being able to play winning rugby in this polotical environment.
I also want you to remember the bias that comes for the officiating body that is IRB with their substandard NH reffing programs and international staff.
But still we win the games that matter. While YOU on on like they did not win the tri-nations or the lions series.
You have your points but I feel your comments are to critical against a team that has done us proud this year through tremendous adversity.
December 1st, 2009 at 7:00 pm
@Transformation: Brilliant post Transie! Eloquent, to the point and entirely true
December 1st, 2009 at 7:14 pm
haha Keo, u sound like such a tosser!!!!
Tri Nations Champions, British and Irish Lions champions, that chip on your shoulder seems to be getting bigger with every season!!!
Well Done Boks, Thanks for a great year!!
December 1st, 2009 at 8:49 pm
The ABs will never be a Tonga or Samoa in disguise [as Hondo says].It is true that kids with pacific island heritage,dominate,kids and schools rugby in NZ,but this is mainly because they get bigger far earlier than the white kids.It definitely tails off into the early 20s,when the white kids catch up in size and come into there own,the current ABs,and Canterbury squads being good examples….personally I love the mix of heritages in NZ rugby …long let it reign
December 1st, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Anyone mention the word fickle? This is a very different tune that Keo is singing. He was more than happy to roll out the thesaurus looking for superlatives when the Boks were winning.
He doesn’t care if the boks play well only if they win. Well Keo, let me introduce you to your chickens which have come home to roost.
You told the Boks they were the best. Best at tactical kicking, best at chasing & best forward pack all through the tri nations & Lions series.
If you have helped with the recepie, don’t spit it out, swallow it like a big boy.