Smit, Percy still in Bok picture
8 Nov 2007
John Smit will continue to lead the Springboks given the presidents’ council’s decision to accommodate overseas-based players.
The council met on Thursday to discuss various issues, the primary one being that of overseas-based Springboks. They have since overturned an earlier decision, meaning the likes of Smit, Percy Mongomery, Victor Matfield, Butch James as well as several others are still eligible for national selection.
The topic of Bok coach was also discussed and following final interviews on 3 and 4 December the council will meet to appoint Jake White’s successor. White will see out his contract by leading the Boks on the two-match UK tour.
Sharks coach Dick Muir’s late application was rejected because of process, with a SARU statement saying the next Bok coach would come from Heyneke Meyer, Allister Coetzee, Peter de Villiers and Chester Williams.
1,033 Comments
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10 Nov 2007, 12:59 pm
skopskiet
We will the WC in 2011.
And I hope to see more of our black stars out there then.
Things are looking up with the government’s financial bid in rugby now.
There is big money in coaching in nthe townships soon, so you had better get ready!
10 Nov 2007, 13:01 pm
999 fortuitous post, arrivaderci heres to a thousand boring blogs, chuus.
10 Nov 2007, 13:02 pm
OK boys, talk later.
I posted for # 1000, but this *** guy from the Bulls got in ahead of me!!!
10 Nov 2007, 13:03 pm
I’m looking forward to all that grass roots development happening and coming forward Piet and to win the 2011 WC with all those new shining faces beaming, with some of our current hero’s as veterans then like Steyn Pienaar Habana et al.
Sien jou weer.
10 Nov 2007, 13:05 pm
Skop, i wont go into that JW debate with you again because we agree on many of the other things. Just pleased to be World Champs and staring at a bright future. I do believe that we need a new age progressive leadership team and I hope Pieter De Villiers is part of that. Not head coach because (1) I don’t really believe he’s quite there yet but (2) he would be under too much pressure to perform. His colour counts against him on this front and he’ll be heavily critisized for any loss. Even a baby one. And we all know you cannot win all the time. Meyer can handle a loss or two(or three) because he’s been there before, done the time, worn the shirt and most importantly survived and succeeded. People have thin memories.
10 Nov 2007, 13:06 pm
Skoppie
Maak so.
Cheers.
10 Nov 2007, 13:08 pm
Just to make your day…..Cheeky Watson (Daniel, father of Luke (great player) and activist), has been appointed to the Presidents Council of SA Rugby. Co-opted on Thursday, he will remain there until Feb, when his position will be reviewed. He’s in charge of the whole EP Union fiasco task team. I for one think this is MARVELLOUS news…..
Anyone else feel the same?????
10 Nov 2007, 13:10 pm
ya well Skop procrastination is the thief of time as you well know.
suppose a lunch time jog down the Liesbeeck river is better than no jog at all.
cheers manne
10 Nov 2007, 13:11 pm
Back at you Pietman
I’m off to the Viaduct to catch some eye candy and have a few.
10 Nov 2007, 13:17 pm
Ag nee kak. Vir wat wil hulle nou daai ou op die Raad he?
10 Nov 2007, 13:18 pm
You know me ruck, “up the revolution”
bye for now.
10 Nov 2007, 13:35 pm
# 991
Pietman, ek is geinteresseerd: hoeveel ouens in die WP span/groep kom van buite Kaapstad, d.w.s. van Boland, Paarl, Stellenbosch en omgewing ?
Jy het vergeet van ouens soos Roets en Spies wat ook van affies kom
10 Nov 2007, 13:44 pm
Ruck
It looks like Mike Stofile is building his team in anticipation of ousting Oregan in February. It’s a damn shrewd move though.
10 Nov 2007, 15:07 pm
alf
Paarl, Kaapstad, Stellenbosch, Wellington, Strand/S-Wes is een plek, kleiner as Tshwane Metro vanaf Cullinan tot Pelindaba.
Die Boland/WP grens is arbitrer, weens Matie rugby.
Ek meen, Paarl is WP en Wellington is Boland (10 km van mekaar)!
Dit is soos om te se Centurion is Tvl en Sunnyside is NTvl.
10 Nov 2007, 15:09 pm
alf
Ja, jammer, Spies en Roets.
Nou het julle darem 4 gebore Pretorianers in die span!
10 Nov 2007, 15:36 pm
# 1014
Skuus Pietman,
Ek het gedink Paarl/Wellington/Stellenbosch is so 40 na 50 km’s vanaf Kaapstad, nie geweet dis is net so 10 km van mekaar nie ?
Die volgende ouens het almal deur Pta ranks gekom (wat ek kan onthou), daarmee bedoel ek hul het in Pta skool gegaan:
Roets
Delport
JL Potgieter
Wynand
FDP
Spies
van Heerden
Fondse
Milton
Steenkamp
Gary Botha
Verder is daar ‘n klomp wat opgeraap is deur ander provinsies, o.a. John Smit, Skipper Badenhorst, Eduard Coetzee, om ‘n paar te noem.
Noem asb al die WP spelers wat ‘gebore’ is in Kaapstad in jul span ?
Ag, hierdie gesprek is in elkgeval irrelevant, dit is ‘n professionele era, en daarom speel die ouens deesdae volgens die beste provinsie … en daarom loop julle dalk so leeg …
10 Nov 2007, 15:41 pm
Deric Kuun en Chiliboy kom ook van Pta af
10 Nov 2007, 19:22 pm
Hey
Has Nick Mallet been reading this blog?
Check out the latest article on IOL regarding Afrikaner genetics dominating SA rugby. Mallet even uses my boxing weight category comparison in it.
Now for the peanut gallery on here to also start facing the facts.
10 Nov 2007, 19:36 pm
Rugby is about the only thing they can dominate…
10 Nov 2007, 21:01 pm
sooooo….
it’s a slugfest between snorr city and slaapstad as to which is gayer than the other?
10 Nov 2007, 21:13 pm
Slaapstad? Um excuse me? Snorcity is not a City its a hole… Cape Town on the other hand, has more vibe than any other City and had the hottest girls by miles.
10 Nov 2007, 22:42 pm
Bob Skinstad is a legend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
10 Nov 2007, 23:00 pm
Tacitus, don’t start with your “Afrikaans is beste”, kak again. What about NZ, Australia, England, heck, every other rugby nation, all thanks to Dutch ancestry in your opinion?
Your argument is tedious, I don’t know why I bother, I support any player, irrespective of language or color. Try it sometime, it’s fantastic.
11 Nov 2007, 00:32 am
See Butch JAMES got man of the match in his first game for Bath scoring a try and making a second try.
Big lose to SA rugby. He has come on in leaps and bounds and is now a mature player – thanks Eddie and Jake
11 Nov 2007, 01:23 am
Butch is yesturdays man already
lets move on..Steyn at 10, Pienaar at 15
11 Nov 2007, 01:33 am
darn, I had intended to watch that game but had things to do.
Apparently Butch did 2 sidesteps and shrugged off two tacklers to score. Good debut.
11 Nov 2007, 01:35 am
One should Andre Jouberts’s opinion on where he thinks Steyn and Pienaar should play.
11 Nov 2007, 01:45 am
Mallett on SA rugby administrators
Gavin Rich
November 10 2007 at 01:56PM
Nick Mallett left for Italy this week, but before he did so he delivered a parting shot to his enemies in the South African rugby administration that should amply illustrate why the two most successful living Springbok coaches could soon be facing off against each other in the Six Nations.
While Mallett, who boasted a 71 percent success rate at the Boks, heads for Rome and a new life with Italy, incumbent Springbok coach Jake White is negotiating with England after coming to the same conclusion that Mallett did – it is impossible to work with a governing body that is continually divided, is self-serving and does not have the development of the sport at heart.
“The problems that Jake has faced and which have forced him out of the game here are very similar to the ones that I faced and it appears that, like me, he has decided it is impossible to coach in South Africa while the game is being administered as it is,” said Mallett.
“It is just impossible to work as a top coach for any length of time in the South African rugby environment. Jake did a great job with the Boks and one of the things that I admired about him was his willingness to take what was thrown at him. But in the end it obviously became too much.”
It is Mallett’s firm conviction that South African rugby success has come “despite the administration, and not because of it”. And he has no doubt that it was a power struggle behind the scenes that eventually put paid to White’s career here.
“When a coach wins the World Cup, you should make every effort to keep that coach. At least that is if you care about the game. Quite obviously that is not the case here. Jake’s situation did not come about because of a knee jerk after the World Cup, it was something that was building up over the past year.
“There is a strong clique within the board of SA Rugby, pushed by Mike Stofile, that appears to be very anti-Jake and which was determined to see the back of him. It is not difficult to figure out where it all started – Stofile is close to Andre Markgraaff.
“Markgraaff’s nose was put out of joint by Jake a couple of years ago when Jake successfully canvassed Brian van Rooyen to have him removed from his position, which amounted to a quasi director of rugby. At the time, that was a great coup on Jake’s part, but it came back to bite him later.”
Mallett believes there has been a deliberate attempt by the SA Rugby and South African Rugby Union administrations to play down White’s role in guiding the Boks to the World Cup title.
“I heard Stofile on the radio the other day running down Jake’s role. What other country would do this? It’s all about power politics. Stofile wants to unseat Oregan Hoskins as Saru president and he is trying to show a strong hand,” said Mallett.
While he believes that it is impossible for a coach to stay in a top job in the national set-up in South Africa for any length of time, Mallett does not necessarily believe that the future of the local game is bleak.
“What has impressed me in recent years is the number of really good young coaches who have come through, and for the first time South African players are benefiting from having proper coaching,” he said.
“Heyneke Meyer and **** Muir proved themselves in the recent Super 14, we all know what Rassie Erasmus is capable of, and since he left the Cheetahs, Naka Drotske has also emerged. Loffie Eloff is also a guy who knows the business, and there are others involved at different levels, such as John Plumtree, Gary Gold and Brendan Venter, who have a massive amount of knowledge.
“But I must stress again that this has nothing to do with the administration, these coaches have emerged despite the administration, who really do nothing to develop coaching. The real success story of South African rugby this year was the coaches, guys like Heyneke, Jake and ****. But how long can they operate efficiently given the incompetence of the administrators?”
To back up his view, Mallett points to the way the coaching succession issue was managed during the World Cup.
“Advertising the coaching position and drawing up a shortlist during the World Cup when the focus should be squarely on what happens on the field showed complete ineptitude on their part. They really are capable of buggering anything up, as they showed earlier this year when they allowed the Luke Watson saga to dominate in the build-up to the Super 14 final.
“Then at around the same time they refused Jake permission to visit President Thabo Mbeki. What was that all about? It really is a tragic situation, but amazingly South African rugby seems quite resilient to this incompetent management.”
11 Nov 2007, 03:04 am
Gerber
Wellington (Boland) is sowat 10 km vanaf Paarl (WP), dit is hoe ineengeweef die spul is daar.
Maar jy is reg, sowat 40 km Kaap toe vandaar.
11 Nov 2007, 03:09 am
1029# Sorry, bedoel vir Alf.
Jy is reg, ons het min Kaapgebore spelers in die WP.
Hulle is almal daar bo by julle!
11 Nov 2007, 04:55 am
More on the subject of sporting greats who grew up, or at least were born in, South Africa: Gary Anderson, seemingly destined for American football’s Hall of Fame, the scorer of the most points in the history of the NFL, was born in Parys and raised in Durban. And Steve Nash, elected an NBA All-Star in 2002, to play in a match that celebrates the biggest guns in US basketball, was born in Johannesburg.
11 Nov 2007, 08:40 am
Great interview with Butch in the Daily Telegraph today, this was my favorite bit:
Butch on Wilkinson:
“He is still the best in the world, better than Dan Carter because he blows hot and cold. Carter will have three good games followed by two bad ones but Wilkinson is far more reliable in that regard. He is a very well rounded player. He’s got all the skills. He kicks well, passes well and has good feet. He can step and that’s the main difference between us. When Wilkinson is faced with a one-on-one against a big prop, he’ll have a good chance at getting past him more often than not. With me, the chances of beating him are about 50/50.
In my eyes Wilkinson is hard to better. In 2001, when I was injured, I used to watch the great No 10s and it was Wilkinson’s control and the impact he had on his own team-mates that really impressed me. I suppose that was the first time I realised that an outside-half had to be cool and calm. He’s the one that guides the ship and the one that a lot of the guys look up to.
I admit I was surprised with his performance in the final. He had two drop-goal attempts, one off his preferred left boot which nine times out of 10 he would have nailed, yet he missed out. That doesn’t change my overall opinion, though. I’d love to be as good as he is.”
11 Nov 2007, 08:44 am
and this bit:
“I love the physicality of rugby. It’s why most of us play. The feeling you get the following day, when you are all banged up and the aches act as memory jolts for aspects of the game, is very special. It’s the way South Africans are brought up to play. In the past, that approach has been unhelpful in that we used to run at players instead of at gaps or into space. But slowly we are getting youngsters like Francois Steyn coming through who are big and strong but who also concentrate on the gaps and stepping.”
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