Boks fitness fiasco
29 May 2006
Following another round of fitness tests in Bloemfontein on Monday, it seems the Springboks conditioning is lagging behind the rest of the world.
It is a situation that simply cannot continue if the Boks hope to really challenge for the World Cup next year.
Springbok head of conditioning, Dr Derick Coetzee, feels that the squad has now fallen behind the rest of the top-tier nations with regard to conditioning, in the wake of the intensive fitness tests done on the players on Monday.
“We are well behind the top-playing nations such as New Zealand, Australia and England… we simply do not have the same luxury as they do with regard to resting players,” Coetzee told Sapa.
“Most importantly the strength and speed components are not up to scratch and from the test results they did not increase at all in those regards.”
Dr Coetzee blamed the Super 14 and the stress the extended matches has put on the players as the main reason for the negative showing of the fitness reports.
These fitness reports don’t indicate that the players are unfit in the colloquial term but rather that their bodies have just not had the time to recover from the natural erosion of first class rugby these days.
The Springbok’s schedule next year is so ludicrious it would be hilarious were it not for the serious nature of the task at hand. The week after the Super 14 final 2007 the Boks face England, then they clash with them again the following week, followed again seven days later with a match against the hard Samoans, and then a week later they take on New Zealand and then Australia. Then comes the World Cup in September.
This is an almost impossible task for Jake White and company to overcome and unless a core of players are rested, not just at Currie Cup and Super 14 level but also at national level, then the Boks in France at the World Cup may be made up out of youngsters, totally fresh-faced in the nitty-gritty of Test rugby.
Based on these fitness tests and the ones held last week, if this situation is carried over to next year then the crisis in South African rugby will not only be huge, it will be insurmountable.
The two team’s that contested the 2003 World Cup final in Australia, England and the Wallabies, also had the most Test caps of any nation at the tournament, a glowing testament of the need for experience and continuity to take the global showpiece.
“There is just not enough time given to the players, time must be given,” said Dr Coetzee, almost pleading with the powers-that-be. The hierarchy look to have given White the green light to handle the players better, now they must live up to that.
26 Comments
29 May 2006, 20:06 pm
The dragons play too much rugby and drink too little beer!
29 May 2006, 20:08 pm
all ready making excuses??
29 May 2006, 20:09 pm
What does he mean we dont have the depth to rest players. Jake is ignoring very capable players and sticking to his chosen group. Maybe he should try some of the other guys like watson, ndugane twins, brits, roets. Only then will we know about depth.
29 May 2006, 20:10 pm
But SARU accepted an extented S14 and TriNations…What are we missing here???????
What is so strange bout this problem??? DID we NOT expect an injury problem with 2 more S!4 games and 2 more trinations games?????
It was predicted yet SARU proceeded..
Come on KEO get of yer lazy arze and do some REAL journalism – go corner SARU and get some answers on why they accepted the schedule!!!
29 May 2006, 20:14 pm
we must then try to adopt the same systems used in new zealand and OZ, if it means making the currie cup smaller etc then do it and then stop complaining bout fitness problems
29 May 2006, 20:15 pm
The journalism on keo appears to be getting as lame, lazy, unmotivated, flaccid and out of condition as the players.
Was it a rough weekend boys?
29 May 2006, 20:17 pm
rockspider, you are so totally out of fashion!! Please grow up, this irritating dragon thing is old news. But then, all one read on this site is copy and paste news so I suppose the site will get what it deserves?
29 May 2006, 20:48 pm
The top English players are being flogged by a 30 game season in the Premiership. The only rest they get from club rugby is before the Autumn (Spring) tests and the 6N so I can’t see the reasoning there. The Aussie players on the udder hand don’t actually have a top class provincial tournament to speak of so after the S14 the can all relax and recuperate for the warmup tests against totally shot NH oppo then ramp up the intensity for the 3N. The AB’s have a forward-thinking union who have actually take steps to ensure that the top players don’t participate in the NPC at all and thereby they get the rest their bodies deserve and the No. 1 ranking their union craves. Is it so much rocket-science? Can you seriously tell me that there is so much more talent in NZ than in SA? They simply manage the situation a lot better.
29 May 2006, 20:49 pm
I have to ask, how many more matches do our players play over the Poms, New Zealanders and Aussies? Can we have stats for this?
29 May 2006, 21:29 pm
We play no more or no less than any of the top New Zealand players.
Jake has failed in his rotation of players. New Zealand’s top players were played into the ground in Super 14.
Example: Collins, So’ialo (one match ban excepted), Nonu, Toeva, Weepu, Eaton, Hore etc played in every Hurricanes match.
McCaw was rested for two matches out of 15 … Macdonald missed 40 minutes out of 15 … Carter was rested for 40 minutes out of 15 …
Jack was rested for two matches out of 15 etc etc
The Chiefs and Blues played their All Blacks whenever fit … Mealamu played every game …
Jack last year played 33 matches and Smit was our player with the most at 33 … the All Blacks and Bok squads averaged 28 matches each.
29 May 2006, 21:37 pm
these SA players must stop drinking milk,they should drink beer!
29 May 2006, 21:54 pm
Smit played all that matches because of Jake he couldnt take the chance of being exposed by truing Gary Botha. And all this comparing of stats , do you realy think the All Blacks will give JW the true numbers. No instead they put him on this wild goose chase and catch him with a softened Springbok team wrapped in cotton.
The guys shouting foul is just as guilty of overusage of players , nr 1 is John Smith , wilst there is another Jake favourite in Shimange available , a star player in Gary Botha and his other fav Danie Coetzee. If Jake can explain this to us. Dont come with the captaincy excuse , that he could have also addressed by some rotatation , but no he cant leave the team doing anything without his spy , and blue eye boy there to tell him of any decent. No never.
Every one at the top is so blind eyed about JW destruction of SA rugby , but the majority of us sees trough him , look at the polls. Jake is gambling with our rugby
29 May 2006, 23:44 pm
superBul I get the feeling you think Gary Botha should be the 1st choice hooker ahead of the captain? Maak die Bulle almal Bokke?
30 May 2006, 00:34 am
Mark, it is important to compare apples with apples. Our players are on-the-road, across far time zones much longer than the NZ and Australian players. This is a significant stresser on the bodies and minds of our players, which should not be overlooked.
I agree with you about rotation of players. However, a backbone of regular players needs to be established first before they can be rotated. This backbone has only recently been achieveed. Now the rotation can begin.
30 May 2006, 00:35 am
Hopefully we are heading towards a “right decision” to give the players four months of off-time each year. This is essential. The whispers turned to shouts long ago! Next come the screams, i.e. virtually no front-ranking players for the test matches.
30 May 2006, 05:09 am
If the players are burning out so fast, and a lot of them don’t seem deserved of being there to begin with, why not follow the NZ route, and choose two teams equally capable ?
Or will someone tell me that after Jake has chosen his lame ducks, there will not be another capable team left in SA !!!
Methinks that after Jake has chosen his favourites, one can easily pick TWO other squads to match his…
I have no doubt that he is stumbling in the dark, just like last year, when the Ozzies hammered his team in the first game, forcing him to make numerous changes to his ‘untouchables’ and with luck it paid off – kinda…it is time he gets asked a few hard questions…
30 May 2006, 06:26 am
Jim Blair should be sent to SA to train the boks, he would seriously get them into top fitness in no time.
30 May 2006, 06:39 am
Wll thank you, now we know why the south african sides in S14 have been bad.
30 May 2006, 06:40 am
well know we know why we have been playing bad rugga
30 May 2006, 06:58 am
These articles are both boring and disingenious. The French, English and Kiwi national players all play as much if not more rugby than the Boks so the notion that our players play more rugby than anyone else is ridiculous. Perhaps the SA players should approach the game more professionally and spend more time in the gym getting in better shape. When you compare the French, English and Kiwi players it’s apparent that they are in better physical shape than the SA players. As said by other comments, Jake White has the opportunity to build a large squad and rotate his players. he chooses not too as we saw last December and I’m sure we’ll see this coming international season. England are resting plent of players for their tour down under and Henry has already built a true rotational squad of 35 or so. If jake White persists in playing the same team week after week then he only has himself to blame. we need to rest players as well as build depth in every position. the only way to do that is give younger players experience at international level and have a mixture of youth and experience on the field. Time for JW to walk the walk instead of talking the talk.
30 May 2006, 08:17 am
There are far more idiots on this site than I thought. Who wants to sacrafice winning for giving a youngster Test experience.. Jake has a preformance clause which means he can’t afford to lose to many games & do you really want to change coaches this close to the world cup?
Its been said so many times that regional coaches should help JW to rest players & share data, yet nobody listens…
Jake White is doing what he can to make the best out of this international season & of the World Cup.
Finally, South African players do play more games than NZ & Aus!
30 May 2006, 09:09 am
Not according to the stats they don’t !!
Or what are the stats then ?
If Jake initially – 2 years ago – made the right choices, why has he been forced into numerous changes already since then deviating from his so called untouchables ?
Simply because he has quite often made a hash of those initial selections, but sadly he is not willing to just say so !!
Now he is forced to carry all this deadwood with him, at the same time keeping better players out of the team !!
This is a high price to pay for ego, and has been the downfall of all the last 4 Bok coaches…their brittle little egos, to go with their equally brittle selections and game plans, all which led to SA Rugby going nowhere fast…
As far as Jake is concerned, he has already showed his hand, what he did was basically damage control, mind you SA rugby could hardly have gotten worse than it was 2 years ago, so he has had a free ride for the last two years, but now the heat is on, and he has to produce, and he simply doesn’t have the troops to go into the trenches, because he is simply too stubborn to say so !!
Just admit your dead wood, cut them out, and get the worthy players on asap !!
Otherwise the worldcup is lost ALREADY !!!
30 May 2006, 09:26 am
I think Coetzee may have a valid point.
jonny
Yes the english do play alot of rugby , but there is an agreement between the clubs and the english ru that that there will always be i think it may be 3 consecutive months per year of no rugby which would allow for conditioning and rest not sure of the exact no but its either 2 or 3 months , also the new zealanders rest their top players from the npc and they arent as cash hungry as our guys most years they only play 1-2 games on their eoyt and the majority of the time against smaller northern sides like italy and argentina allowing the coach to rest his top players. The one eoyt tour 2 years ago was not even an all black tour but rather a NZ A tour which takes the pressure off the coach to select his best players. And the ozzies have the s14 as their only high intensity rugby competition , other than that they just play a bit of club rugby and even so they dont tour every year with as many games or as often as we do which shows that they do allow conditioning and rest.
30 May 2006, 10:40 am
in fairness to the pommerainens they seem to have done the right thing by sending a B squad down to oz, they’re probably going to get hammered in any case and if these artciles are correct about resting players, perhaps we should do the same at the end of our season, i.e. when we go on the NH tour choose a B team with forward power.
30 May 2006, 12:40 pm
The injuries are partly due to the extended season and the amount of rugby, but I believe very much also because of the TYPE of rugby we play – bash, bash, bash – Duh! – of course we’re going to have more injuries.
Heyneke is a fantastic coach and good record, but his (typical SA coach) response after the Stromers beat the Crusaders , was that the Bulls were going to be even more physical than the Stormers! – we all know what happened when the Crusaders simply focussed on the ball….
30 May 2006, 13:08 pm
To all the guys complaining about Keo’s site: If you don’t like it why don’t go surf somewhere else. I might not always agree with Keo but I enjoy his site very much and like reading the different opinions of the muppits.It’s free after all, so don’t look a gift horse in the mouth!
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