Noakes: Burnout will sink Boks
23 May 2006
Professor Tim Noakes says the top Springboks must be rested for two months or Jake White’s team will pay the price at the 2007 World Cup.
Noakes told Die Burger that he is not surprised about the Boks growing injury list.
“Some of our top players have been playing rugby continuously for nearly three years,” he explained to Herbert Pretorius. “No player’s body can take so much punishment week in and week out.
“It’s no surprise that Bakkies Botha and Bryan Habana were injured in the Super 14 semi-final. They are two of the players who have been totally over-utilised the past three seasons.
“It is inevitable that they would be injured at some time or other. These were not freak injuries. Your brain tells you to continue, but your body will rebel at some stage.
“My advice is that key players like Matfield and Burger must forget about rugby for two months. They must not go near a rugby field, because it’s just as important that they get a mental break.”
Using the Sharks performance this season as an example, Noakes said: “After last year’s Currie Cup the players were given a month’s holiday [for the first time ever to his knowledge]. It’s no coincidence that these players were so sharp this year.”
Noakes said South Africa’s rugby bosses cannot hold White responsible for defeats if he does not have rested players to pick from.
“SA Rugby must take the blame for the consequences of their decision if they deny Jake’s request. If this will happen is another story, because usually the coach must face the firing squad.”
77 Comments
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23 May 2006, 13:11 pm
keep all the key boks out of the tri nations and currie cup next year.that should give them enough time to recover before the worldcup
23 May 2006, 13:12 pm
kevin,
maybe you are right. Rugby is a sissies game. surely it cant take a toll on the players. they should organize mid week games for the S14 too. and maybe to make it interesting they should be allowed to use clubs and bats in the loose.
i think they should play every second day.
you guys are ridiculous.
23 May 2006, 13:27 pm
Kevin – why are you banging on about Chris Jack, as though comparing one player with one other player proves anything at all. If you try to do what you are doing, everything else must be equal.
Why don’t you pull out the stats on how many tackles both players have made, their training details, their relaxation details and while you are at it, their genetic predisposition to suffer injury (or not) after long periods of exercise.
23 May 2006, 13:29 pm
In my humble opinion Jake made one mistake. He should have used the end of year tour in 2005 to blood a few more youngsters. That would have alleviated the strain on his first pick 15. I think it`s too late now.
BUT I will back Jake until or if he`s proven wrong.
23 May 2006, 13:37 pm
Too much rugby???
What exactly constitutes too much rugby?Is there a scientific study to answer this and if so what do the experts,like Dr Noakes,say should be the max?There is the question of money and this one fears has become a central focus of players and coaches alike.It pays to play and conversely for the Unions you don’t want to pay for no play.A coaches job hangs on the thread of results and as a result coaches are reluctant to rest their stars,even when carrying niggling injuries (a’la Bakkies Botha last weekend).It seems there are only conflicting standpoints and at the end of the day the paying fan will now suffer.Some argue a world cup is worth a CC and S14 without the big names,other feel cheated by having to watch teams without the big names.I for one would dearly like to see a CC with the big names present,yet would also like to see the bokke sweep all before them.Somewhere in the middle lies a solution and some comprise by all could help us find this middleground.The competition structures are currently all wrong and have been chopped and changed ad nauseum.It is now time for SA rugby to decide once and for all where we are going.A strength vs strength Currie Cup is imperative and the timing of this is the key issue.If we are ever to win the Super 14 then we need to make this our primary focus and for the 5 teams (either entrenched or qualified in some manner) this will be what they plan their year around.We know well in advance what the years Test schedule is going to look like and the 3N is set in stone,it really can’t be that hard to plan around.The Super 14 (despite our poor results and feeble excuses) is a great competition and I feel should be embraced as the Southern Hemispheres premier league with national competitions(like the CC) as the second tier.This means key international players will prove themselves in the S14 and can then be managed in the CC as necessary.The Currie Cup then becomes the S14 feeder and though it won’t feature all the big guns all the time it would still be a major event.This type of thinking would sound the death knell for the Vodacom Cup, but surely we can use the framework of the VC to establish a major Club competition.There is an embarrassing lack of interest in the VC anyway.
Perhaps then the key is a massive shift in emphasis from the CC to the Super 14.The VC Club Champs (or whatever title it gets) would run in parrallel with the S14 and allow non S14 squad members a chance to stay sharp,young club hopefuls get to rub shoulders with quality seniors and club rugby gets a huge boost.The Currie Cup then runs later in the year in whatever form it takes and the non-essential internationals stay sharp in this competition, while the Boks are freed up to focus on their international commitments.I as Joe Soap on the street cannot see why some solution can’t be found.Contracts for S14 could be handled at National level and this in turn makes the drafting of players a far simpler exercise and allows the National Body to manage the top 140 odd players in all comps.Any player who hasn’t managed to secure an “A” grade contract is then contracted to the Union and managed at this level.National contracts can be reviewed annually and players will know they have to perform or their contract may suffer.Essentially what is needed is the creation of an elite league of players controlled by one body a’la New Zealand.Then have the Unions as the second tier and clubs as the entry level feeder system. Wether any of my ramblings are sensible I am not sure,but what I do know is it is high time all of this got sorted out on a long-term basis.Come on Mr Hoskins here is your chance to leave a healthy rugby structure as your legacy!!
23 May 2006, 13:40 pm
Rastafox – to create a paragraph, hit the enter button twice. It’s the big one on the right of your keyboard, marked ‘enter’.
23 May 2006, 13:41 pm
Thanks *****,didn’t think about paragraphs at all!!
23 May 2006, 14:00 pm
I agree rastafox. SA needs a director of rugby, Mallet, to oversee the massive shift. I think the s14 is a great idea however the extended tri-nations is bollox. It is the most selfish competition in the world. they need to bring in the pumas and the island warrior team and everybody plays each other once. Plus the bledisloe cup and the mandela cup.
23 May 2006, 14:02 pm
The ozzies have a great break between tri-nations and end of year tour, coz they have no internal provincial competition. That means the players can really put their all into the S14 and Tri-nations, coz they know they have a break.
23 May 2006, 14:11 pm
Director of Rugby yes, but please not Mallet he’s done nothing , zero, zip for the Strompies
23 May 2006, 14:16 pm
I for one am rather bored by the Tri-nations and now we have to endure a coffer-filling extension. I would love to see an exciting competition featuring the Islanders and Argentinians.Not being sure of club commitments abroad would the Argies be able to field a full strength team at this time?
23 May 2006, 14:44 pm
WWW’s comments (No. 15) are really interesting and worth looking at.
The Pacific Islanders and Argentina have been knifed in the back by the goons who injected a 3-each Tri-Nation this year; and we (the rugby public world-wise) have been deprived of much more interesting rugby. Just despicable.
John Cowper – Detroit
23 May 2006, 14:45 pm
Capebull – why don’t you swallow your prejudices and acknowledge that Nick Mallett has achieved at the highest level of rugby.
And maybe you need to wipe the bullshit out of your eyes and realise that the Stormers will once again rise to the top when the right structures are in place. Or do you think that the Bulls are going to be top of the pile forever. Oh sorry, why did I ask. That is probably exactly what you think.
23 May 2006, 15:10 pm
Dr Tim Noakes is one of UCT’s 21 A-rated scientists (a global rating), which means that he is WIDELY published, with the expertise to supervise and interpet a wide area of research in human biology/exercise science.
According to an abbreviated CV, as of 2004 he had authored or co-authored 350 scientific papers and was on the editorial boards of 13 international scientific publications.
http://www.assa.org.za/default.asp?id=1000000120
23 May 2006, 15:30 pm
ref posting #34 – Vinnie stop talking ****. Also comment #46 makes it sound as though you need a few lessons in physiology. The “koppestamp: mentality you seem so proud of is going to be SA rugby’s downfall.
23 May 2006, 15:30 pm
Pussycat,
I make comments about Mallet , maybe beacuse I have inside info in the WP rugby matters, maybe because I know some things from his Boland days, what do you base your info on.
23 May 2006, 16:12 pm
55 – For once Rastafox I agree totally!
23 May 2006, 16:19 pm
Capebull, I also have ‘inside information’ into WP and SA rugby – through about 5 different sources. Cape Town is a very small place and if you listen to one person, you must listen to every other one. For every one point of view, there are another ten. This from ‘people in the know’. The ‘people in the know’ more often than not are emotional, because they are involved in a political quagmire and petty squabbles.
I base my comments on ability, experience, achievements and logic.
Sounds as if Mallett made mincemeat out of you somewhere down the line. Maybe Boland? Toughen up, is my advice.
23 May 2006, 16:33 pm
Pussycat , you are way off the truth, lets leave it at that,
I still maintaine Mallet is no good and just talk.
You say he’s not, then please enlighten me, what has he done for WP the last 2 years, and why if he has done anything, he keeps it such a big secret.
From what I see the WP has become wp and Stromers has become strompies, and please do not blame it on lack of players. Ask why Hougaard refussed to come to WP , and there are many more examples.
23 May 2006, 16:44 pm
rastafaox rules,his remarks are spot on:-D
23 May 2006, 19:09 pm
I think a lot of the reaosns for the gigh injury rates is also the way we play the game in SA.
We try to bully the opposition and dont, for example like the ozzies, try to beat a team on skill.
The rush defense employed by JW is designed to get in your opponents faces and encourages a physical game.
Your opponents also get sore but the next week they move on and play a team not employing such a gameplana nd get a rest whereas we do it week in week out.
23 May 2006, 20:34 pm
Make that three months minimum, four months would be closer to optimal.
Vinnie, I agree with your point.
24 May 2006, 00:12 am
You cannot STOP the S14 or 3N in a RWC year simply because you have a signed contract to play all these matches and with full-strength teams. It is these competitions alone that make the money to allow top players to earn a living doing nothing but play rugby. That’s the unions’ income stream. The cash the SANZAR unions earn from RWC once every 4 years is chicken-feed. It’s adequate income for the minnow amateur unions such as Namibia or Uruguay, but small change for big pro unions such as SANZAR and Six Nations.
And if you breach the terms of your signed contract, the sponsors will simply sue you and bankrupt your union.
What’s hard to understand about that?
24 May 2006, 01:06 am
Tackler, we’re all speculating. A proper quantative analysis of the various options for SA rugby might assist decision-making. However, I suspect that a stakeholder analysis will, at the outset, stall any meaningful attempt at restructuring.
24 May 2006, 09:45 am
John Cowper
Thanks bud, at least someone is listening…
24 May 2006, 14:34 pm
WWW -
I’ve passed your ideas onto others – very good stuff which explains why our monstrous forwards (Eddie not counted) are not dominating like they could and should.
In the your opinion does Eddie take the ‘balance’ out of the front row and therefore the entire pack?
John Cowper – Detroit
10 Nov 2006, 19:13 pm
Hey guys – how are you?
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