Mighty Moerat: Why Rassie & Dobbo pick him as captain
To quote so many of you Springboks supporters on social media, if Salmaan Moerat is so KAK to be the captain of the Springboks then the coach who made him captain must be really KAK. NOT QUITE, writes Mark Keohane.
Those of you who so liberally throw out the plaudits to the most revered man to coach the Springboks should maybe trust his judgement over yours in who he makes captain of the Springboks.
I can produce a thousand comments a day on ‘Rassie for President’.
I can produce a thousand comments on Rassie being lauded for not seeing colour, in terms of his selection, but seeing game minutes, opportunity and creating an environment for players to succeed.
I can produce a thousand comments on all of you agreeing with my article that Rassie should be appointed Springboks coach until thew 2035 World Cup final. And then we only revisit on his terms.
KEO: APPOINT RASSIE UNTIL THE 2035 RWC
‘RASSIE … RASSIE … RASSIE … HE’S IN YOUR HEAD …’
So calling his choice of Salmaan Moerat as starting No 4 lock and ‘KAK’ is in fact calling Rassie KAK.
I don’t think so.
Why would the coach who has transformed the Springboks into the most celebrated sporting team in South Africa, the most must-cultural, the back-to-back World Cup winners and No 1 in the world, feel the need to pick a player based on politics, on colour and on religion?
Where is his gain? Where is his necessity?
‘In Rassie we trust’ is the most regular response I hear to any statement about the Springboks.
So why the attack on Moerat, a Springbok captain, picked by Rassie and asked to captain the Springboks by Rassie?
Would you not trust Rassie’s judgement over yours in terms of who he makes his captain?
Would you not be embarrassed to tell Rassie that his choice of captain is KAK, which makes him a KAK selector? Just asking because no one on social media could do that because no one knows Moerat the Test player like Erasmus does. No one knows him like Stormers coach John Dobson.
Should the comments not be, could Dobbo and Rassie educate us mere rugby watching mortals, whose only exposure to the Boks is when they play 80 minutes on a Saturday, why they rate a player and why they rate him so highly to make him the Stormers and Springboks captain?
Is that not a logical question or statement of intent?
Instead, when chatting to Zels on the Keo & Zels show, and I applauded Moerat for leading the Boks to a 45-0 blank of Italy, these were some of the responses, just on YouTube. I don’t even want to share what was on the other social media channels.
Here is a sample after a Springboks 45-0 win.
‘Salmaan Moerat, more like Salamander Mud. Show the metrics and stats compared to other locks that make him the supposed better choice.
you guys must be smoking good stuff…he is not even a top 8 lock
URC TITLE WINNING STORMERS COACH Dobbo does:
‘As a captain. There is a book called ‘The Captain’s Class’. It is a book about the great sporting teams in the world, regardless of codes, who has had a captain who leads by example and is an unsung hero. In rugby terms, Salmaan Moerat is ‘Captain’s Class’.
‘A captain does not lead by speeches. He leads by example. It is what you do with your body on the field of play and what you leave behind on the field of play. He is a captain who has always led by example. He nudges the shape of the group. He looks after people.
‘He understands captaincy and his players.
‘I speak from a Stormers perspective, that intensity that he brings and a disregard for his body on the field, raises everybody’s effort. He leads by example.
‘He is a player who hit a career record for us at 43 ruck arrivals and 16 lock tackles, which eight were dominant. And any professional coach will tell you have special that is to have such a conversion rate on dominant tackles.
‘We have a saying within the Stormers: DON’T FUCK WITH SALMAAN MOERAT
RASSIE ERASMUS ON MAKING SALMAAN MOERAT HIS SPRINGBOKS CAPTAIN
NEWS 24: WHY RASSIE BACKS MOERAT AS A BOK CAPTAIN
Rassie to me on the rugby supporter’s disdain for Moerat: ‘Keo, he has it. Why would I make him captain of back to back World Cup winners if he did not have it?’
For those who make big statements but don’t quite know his history, Moerat captained the most successful Paarl Boys High team in SA Schools Rugby, captained SA Schools, SA under 18, SA under 20s, the Springboks, and in his 11 Tests played has been not he winning side nine times out of 11.
To call him KAK, as so many supposedly die-hard Springboks supporters have done on social media, is disgusting and speaks more to an embarrassing rugby ignorance than it does to Moerat’s rugby pedigree.
@kingcorn1999