Boks must play brain game
15 Jul 2009
South Africa will not win the 2009 Tri-Nations if they adopt the high-risk approach that saw them self-destruct in 2008, writes Gavin Rich in SA Rugby magazine.
The standing of the Tri-Nations as the world’s premier international rugby competition, and the challenges faced by the competing teams, was neatly summed up in an interview that former British & Irish Lions great Gareth Edwards did with a London newspaper.
Edwards, rated the greatest rugby player of last century, travelled to Cape Town for a Tri-Nations game in 2005 – and the brutality of it left him feeling quite stunned.
‘After the bashing the Lions received in 2005 I travelled together with the Cardiff chief executive Bob Norster to watch the All Blacks take on the Springboks,’ recalled Edwards. ‘We had left New Zealand after the Lions tour thinking that the All Blacks were the greatest team on Earth and we wondered who was ever going to beat them. Well, in Cape Town that day the Springboks knocked lumps off them. To say the Boks lacked skill would be an injustice, but the Boks really walloped them. Tana Umaga was knocked off his feet, Dan Carter did not know what day it was. To be there in the flesh was almost frightening. I can’t see a British team doing that too often.’
In relating his experience of that Newlands match, Edwards was also pointing to the one element of Springbok rugby that has remained such a key to their challenge throughout the 88 years of fierce rivalry between these powerful rugby nations. In a word: physicality.
To say it was missing from the games between the Boks and the All Blacks in last year’s Tri-Nations would not be accurate. At stages of the tournament the Boks were as physical as ever, and they scored a historic win in Dunedin playing a structured, aggressive game that could have been right out of Jake White’s playbook.
However, those were the days when new coach Peter de Villiers was giving a lot of air to his love of the expansive game. The net result was that, as they did many times during the course of the year, the Boks flitted between playing styles – and they didn’t play to their core strength. Yes, they were physical in all their games against the All Blacks, but they weren’t nearly as direct as they needed to be when the two sides clashed in Cape Town.
For reasons only known to themselves, or to their coach, the Boks took onto the field that day a strategy that could only be described as suicide. Instead of setting play up through the forwards and creating a platform by hitting the advantage line, the Boks ran the ball down the back – and their run-from-everywhere approach copped them an embarrassing 19-0 defeat.
That was the lowlight of the season, but the malaise had set in during the previous match in Perth. Just a week after their epic win in Dunedin, the Boks started as favourites against a Wallabies team playing for the first time in a Tri-Nations match under new coach Robbie Deans.
Instead of taking the good from Dunedin into this game, the Boks abandoned the template. De Villiers telegraphed his intentions to run more by bringing back Conrad Jantjes for Percy Montgomery, who had been steadiness personified at Carisbrook.
Instead of playing the structured rugby that had earned them their first win over the All Blacks on New Zealand soil since 1998, the Boks embarked on the policy that ran them into a blind corner at Newlands. The Wallabies had started tentatively, but the Boks allowed them off the hook by playing away from the South African traditional strengths.
‘To me the big disappointment of last year was not so much that we finished last on the Tri-Nations log, but that we finished the New Zealand leg with one win each, and yet we did not build on that platform,’ admits Bok assistant coach Gary Gold.
One former Bok who watched the world champions getting handed a rugby lesson during their penultimate Tri-Nations match in Durban was Mark Andrews. That was the day when the Boks were booed from the field afterwards, and were booed again by patrons in the King’s Park parking area as their bus left the stadium.
‘When I spoke to some of the people involved, such as [assistant coach] Dick Muir, it was stressed that it wasn’t supposed to be as disorganised as it appeared, the players did go onto the field with structure in mind,’ says Andrews. ‘But it was evident to me that if there was a structure, the players didn’t understand that structure and were battling to get to grips with it. You could make that out when someone like [lock] Andries Bekker ended up taking three balls at flyhalf. The players simply didn’t appear to know where the play was going.’
This makes sense, for De Villiers used to talk the heads-up approach, with the Bok mantra being ‘we’ll play what‘s in front of us’. There have been some high-ranking coaches down the years who have believed in this policy, but can you tally those who have been consistently successful, and more particularly, won trophies? I thought not.
‘You don’t want to be too rigid in your structure, but in my years as a Bok we always seemed to struggle when we had coaches who took on board a philosophy that moved away from structure. I am thinking parts of the Harry Viljoen era, and Carel du Plessis,’ recalls Andrews. ‘In the successful years, such as in 1995 when we won the World Cup and in 1998 when we won the Tri-Nations, we built our success around the physicality and dominance of our forwards. We took on strategies that would ensure that our bigger forwards would always be on the front foot, and we would set up our play through the pack.
‘Last year, in those early Tri-Nations games, we looked like we were trying to set up play through our backs, from behind the advantage line, something that has never worked for the Boks. When we feed the backs we need to be at the gainline or across it. We need to have the opposing defences back on their heels, and bring the forwards in behind, with the ball in front of them.’
For Andrews, as well as another former Bok in Brendan Venter, the selection of the squad will be the key to the chances of South African success in this year’s Tri-Nations.
‘You have to have the players that will suit the game, and vice versa,’ says Andrews.
Venter explains what is needed by holding out one hand and then letting his second fall into place on top of it, all the fingers interlinking.
‘You can’t go out and play a certain type of game if you don’t have the players to do it, or the skill levels required, or if the players are just not used to it,’ says Venter. ‘Everything has to fit together. The combinations have to fit one another, the game plan has to suit the combinations you have and the individual players you have. There are reasons why South African teams tend to be more successful when they adopt a more direct approach, but we keep making the mistake of moving away from this.’
Last year there were some oddities in selection. And even when the right selection was made, there were times when the game plan didn’t appear to suit the player selected.
An excellent example of this was the aforementioned Newlands match. When Fourie du Preez was recalled ahead of Ricky Januarie at scrumhalf it was assumed that the Boks would use his gifted kicking boot to play the territory game. As one official said on the eve of that game, ‘When you pick a guy who can kick from his team’s own 22 to the opposition 22 and he is a scrumhalf, it would be idiotic not to use him to do that.’
Yet the Boks hardly kicked in that game. They ran from everywhere, were repeatedly caught in their own half, and although the player could hardly be blamed, as by then the Boks were forced into playing catch-up, the try that the New Zealanders scored when Jean de Villiers passed to one of them near the Bok line summed up the match.
Du Preez did not look comfortable playing that game, and the Boks, particularly Butch James, were far more effective when they returned to traditional strengths against the Wallabies in the final match. Unfortunately, by then all the pretty birds had flown, and the Boks were playing only for pride.
‘I was encouraged by the fact that after the Durban game against Australia we did seem to return to proper Test rugby, so maybe the penny dropped. I certainly hope so,’ says Andrews. ‘The three matches on the end-of-year tour were encouraging, so hopefully we will stick to that. If we don’t, we could be in as much trouble in this Tri-Nations as we were last year. The one big potential problem that is easy to pinpoint is goal kicking. Like it or not, Test rugby is about kicking your goals, and we don’t have an 80% kicker like we did when we had Percy [Montgomery] playing.
‘I would also like to see the Boks make greater use of the drop goal as a source of keeping the scoreboard ticking. On our home grounds the firm surfaces encourage drop kicking. For a forward who has been throwing everything into defending, there is nothing more demoralising than the opposition sticking over a drop. I have a good recollection of the England faces when Jannie de Beer did it to them in the 1999 World Cup.’
Even if the Boks do bring the structure and levelness to their game that was missing last season, they may find themselves up against better opposition than they encountered in 2008. The Wallabies have lost lock Dan Vickerman, flank Rocky Elsom and Mark Gerrard since last year’s Tri-Nations, but this will be their second year with Deans as coach.
The big question mark over the All Blacks centres on Dan Carter. The ace flyhalf – such a key player in that Cape Town victory last year and the crucial element in New Zealand’s switch to more pragmatic rugby halfway through last season – is unlikely to play.
While the bulk of last year’s players will be back, and there hasn’t been quite the same loss of personnel to the north as there was immediately after the World Cup, Carter was, with skipper Richie McCaw, one of the few really special players in the All Blacks’ line-up. Without him they might lose a bit more of the aura that they appeared to be missing before the Boks and Wallabies let them off the hook at the start of the last Tri-Nations.
The Boks will have to hit the tournament running this year, as the home leg comes first. They will require a minimum of two wins from their matches in Bloemfontein, Durban and Cape Town if they are to be competitive when the show moves to Australasia, where Perth, Brisbane and Hamilton are their ports of call.
– This article first appeared in the July issue of SA Rugby magazine.
596 Comments
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15 Jul 2009, 22:47 pm
#540 SodaJoe:
Cheers Soda.
15 Jul 2009, 22:48 pm
#543 Jinx:
lol, thank you jinx. Simplicity is the way too go.
So what are your feelings on Bob Dylan?
Overrated or the Musical Poet of our time.
lol, no ou doos knows who he is, he coigned the phrase, can you not remember it… something along of those F&%^* dinosaurs are playing ‘ou doos’ rugby again…ring any bells?
15 Jul 2009, 22:49 pm
#545 Jinx: Hey Jinxie, I’ve got to go hurt a mattress…
Cheers boetie, Gooooooooooooooi Hooooooooooooooooops
Go Bulls !
15 Jul 2009, 22:50 pm
#540 SodaJoe:
later Joe and Jinx. another time.
15 Jul 2009, 22:51 pm
#547 cab:
Now that you mention it. (Scratching my head with my left hand and gazing heavenwards with a wry smile)
15 Jul 2009, 22:53 pm
#547 cab:
He is/was huge. I have most of his CD’s.
15 Jul 2009, 22:55 pm
I’m also going to make like Levi’s and fade…
Goodnight all. Keep the faith…
15 Jul 2009, 23:16 pm
Am I too late??
15 Jul 2009, 23:21 pm
#522 Jinx: Hi Jinx, I hit the house just too late…
Hey it was my Birthday today and the lovely Keolings sent me wishes, e cards and Keo wishes, very cool….
I have been wined and dined today too…Looks like it is time for bed tho!
#548 grootblousmile: Cute text broer ***
#537 grant10: You were right a classic, and I missed it! xx
15 Jul 2009, 23:28 pm
#554 carol:
Carol, my 6th sense said go back to Keo even its just to say happy birthday to a wonderful Cancerian queen. I hope you had a beautiful day and received the all the love and joy you deserve from like minded folk. Funny that I said, “Is Carol in the house?” …
15 Jul 2009, 23:32 pm
#554 carol:
I’m blown away by your Afrikaans. You must have been on the frontier in SA in another lifetime.
Grootblou missed his real vocation. An onderwyser…a teacher. Jou taal is goed. You language is good. Bless ya!
15 Jul 2009, 23:33 pm
Bob Dylan is and was the American Revolution.
Michael Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley, Frank Zappa, BB King, John Foggerty, Bruce Springsteen, who are they in comparison … only lighties,
Bob Dylan is/was Crazy Horse n Geronimo rolled into one.
15 Jul 2009, 23:33 pm
you = your
15 Jul 2009, 23:34 pm
whens yr birthday Carol.. today?
15 Jul 2009, 23:38 pm
Happy Birthday lady C.M.
15 Jul 2009, 23:43 pm
#557 skopskiet:
crunt
crazy horse
was with
neil young
15 Jul 2009, 23:44 pm
#555 Jinx: Opps Jinx, I have been having a quick You tube Nickleback – ‘You Remind Me’ moment…. thanks for your greetings,very kind.Jy is baaie oulik !!
#556 Jinx: Mooie man, ek is nou moeg, ek gaan nou inkrup. GBS, Afrikaans broer helps me to geniet dit!!
15 Jul 2009, 23:46 pm
#559 skopskiet: Hi Skop, yes I have decided to be 35 today!!I have had a ‘lekker dag’ too!!
15 Jul 2009, 23:47 pm
#557 skopskiet: Robzim did try to help me appreciate Dylan, I decided his lyrics were poetry but his voice was like nails down a black board to me!!
Back to Nickleback!!
15 Jul 2009, 23:48 pm
#561 Porra the Fat Speedster:
I
have
a
crazy
horse
not
called
Neil
tho!
15 Jul 2009, 23:54 pm
#562 carol:
Carol, I’m back…yeah, I’m Nickelback
I’m sure you like this one you Dark Horse
Nickelback
If Today Was Your Last Day
My best friend gave me the best advice
He said each day’s a gift and not a given right
Leave no stone unturned, leave your fears behind
And try to take the path less travelled by
That first step you take is the longest stride
If today was your last day and tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday?
Would you live each moment like your last
Leave old pictures in the past?
Donate every dime you had, if today was your last day?
What if, what if, if today was your last day?
Against the grain should be a way of life
What’s worth the price is always worth the fight
Every second counts ’cause there’s no second try
So live like you’re never living twice
Don’t take the free ride in your own life
If today was your last day and tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday?
Would you live each moment like your last?
Leave old pictures in the past?
Donate every dime you had?
And would you call those friends you never see?
Reminisce old memories?
Would you forgive your enemies?
And would you find that one you’re dreaming of?
Swear up and down to God above
That you’d finally fall in love if today was your last day?
If today was your last day
Would you make your mark by mending a broken heart?
You know it’s never too late to shoot for the stars
Regardless of who you are
So do whatever it takes
‘Cause you can’t rewind a moment in this life
Let nothing stand in your way
‘Cause the hands of time are never on your side
If today was your last day and tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday?
Would you live each moment like your last?
Leave old pictures in the past?
Donate every dime you had?
And would you call those friends you never see?
Reminisce old memories?
Would you forgive your enemies?
And would you find that one you’re dreaming of
Swear up and down to God above
That you’d finally fall in love if today was your last day?
15 Jul 2009, 23:55 pm
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…I’m gone!
15 Jul 2009, 23:57 pm
#565 carol:
i’m too
old
and too
fat
to get on
a crazy horse
nowadays
those were
the days
get
the album
rust
never sleeps
by
neil young
and
crazy horse
best
folk rock
album
ever
16 Jul 2009, 00:00 am
Evening all.
Jis, just now getting over my rugby hangover from the Lions. Seeing the sharks handed a spanking didn’t help.
So, it’s Tri-Nations time again. Damn, how time flies…
I reckon the Bok team looks good, not too many “???” selections.
16 Jul 2009, 00:15 am
#566 Jinx: Now THAT is a song….have had a listen too!! Thanks for that one!
#568 Porra the Fat Speedster: Hey another new one to try, cheers.
As for the horse, an outmoded form of transport anyway!!
I really am out now too….. Mwahhhhhh Boys ***
16 Jul 2009, 00:44 am
#29 Optimus Prime: Actually No, John did not directly say that he was not coaching the team. The only clear statement that he did make was that PdV was worse than Jake technically, but better at other stuff. He did not elaborate on what other stuff- perhaps at the down-downs after the game? Perhaps at being a great shoulder to cry on when they get nilled at Newlands? To ba fair to Pdv, man management is a big part of the game, and perhaps he is really good at that. That means he will be very useful when our players are feeling depressed and kind of lonely after having been outplayed at home by Australia by superior technical coaching…
16 Jul 2009, 00:52 am
#505 SodaJoe: pretty cool sodajoe, have you ever been to the South-West?
16 Jul 2009, 01:27 am
#480 Big Hit:
you talk complete complete and utter sh*t.
Woodcock is renown for his scrummaging. Andrew Blades talked him down prior to the Bledisloe last year. Woodcock completely nailed his opposite and was completely destructive throughout the TriN.
#482 cab:
Bakkies the Christian ? yeah, George Bush is a christian too.
Hypocrites the both of em.
#492 Jinx:
find yourself some coverage of the 1976 tour one day. You’d be embarrassed to ever use the word ‘cheat’ again.
#495 cab:
Norling was not a shocker. 1stly, he was neutral, which was more than anything the Blacks had in SA. 2ndly, he played 7mins of injury time after Hewies penalty kick. Something that seems to escape this persecution complex of yours. Boks simply werent good enough to use that time to score. Fact, I was there.
#525 Jinx:
You dont know me. I was never given a Visa to tour your country….
#541 Jinx:
Hey, love Little Feat. Saw him in NYC, 1996.
16 Jul 2009, 01:30 am
#573 WakaNathan: let’s see how he destroys Smit in the 3N then shall we
16 Jul 2009, 01:35 am
#574 Big Hit:
Who said anything about Woody ‘destroying’ Smit ? Notwithstanding that, to mark someone recognised as 1 of if not the best in his position is to see whether youre up to it.
Youre just completely biased, so credibility is zero.
16 Jul 2009, 01:52 am
#575 WakaNathan: he’s not no.1 in anyone’s eye (note the singular) except NZers. Roncero, Sheridan, Jenkins, Beast are all equally as good if not better players. As I said, if he’s that great a scrummager he should be able to get the better of Smit, a relative test novice at 3, now let’s see if he does.
16 Jul 2009, 02:11 am
#198 Transformation: Nope that is pretty standard talk for any SA coach. Same same for jake. IF PdV wins the next series he can stay otherwise off with his head. Luckily Jake managed to stay winning enough or losing by close enough margins to keep his 4 year plan intact. But it was touch and go for a while. Pdv losing last year was not acceptable regardless of his colour. Bok coaches losing never are. However, goodwill was given for him being a new coach.
Losing this year’s 3N will not be acceptable unless there is a reasoning behind rebuilding/keeping players out for RWC, etc. There are no reasons now. If he loses I will be calling for his head like I was calling for Jakes whead when he lost the 3N in 2006 by shameful margins. Because nothing causes a Bok coach to regain his mental senses in sharp contrast than when everybody is calling for his head.
Jake got overconfident with his first two year’s success, and started pushing for cash and guarantees from SARU, without putting money where his mouth was. One 2004 3N does not a successful Bok coach make. He did not take into account what his brinkmanship would do to his players mentality, and when they showed him with the 49-0 loss, and we all wanted him gone, it sat him back on his *** quickly…
NO MAN is bigger than the game (UNLESS HE IS WINNING!).
Ditto to PdV.
16 Jul 2009, 04:28 am
I have a question that is completely off topic, since this is the most popular recent article this place is as good as any to ask it; and I am trying to win a bet, so anything goes
In the mid-1990′s a South African TV Rugby commentator got into a fair bit of trouble for using the term “coconut tackle” to describe a particularly heavy, and possibly high, tackle executed by a player of Pacific Island origin. He was tagged as a racist, but offered the excuse that he was referring to a “coconut” as in “a coconut shy at a fairground”
This is what I believe:
Commentator: Andy Capostagno
Match: Natal v Western Samoa in the Super 10, 1994
Tackler: Brian Lima (a.k.a. The Chiropractor)
Is any or all of this correct?
Who was the Natal player (maybe a Fullback with long hair??)
I have tried Googling this, but the only result I could find was a post I made myself on a Samoan Rugby Blog, and the accuracy of that post has been challenged by a friend of mine.
16 Jul 2009, 04:36 am
#456 sparticus: They way I see it, is that the boks need to have structure, and we need to hurt them in the contact phases of the game. When we have softened them up and the game starts opening up we must then put them away, by playing total attacking rugby(driving maul, running, etc). We have always been content with defending our lead and allowing the opposition to get back into the game. You can’t however start with the PDV style game plan. It will be suicide. Maybe we can finish with it, when we happen to be in the lead at the end of the game.
16 Jul 2009, 04:42 am
#578 cooky:
I believe the Natal player was Cabous van der Westhuizen, wing.
Lima also almost took off another Van der Westhuizen’s (Joost) in the WC ’95, an the term ‘coconut tackle’ was used frequenly then as well.
Don’t know the origin though, possibly because they grow coconuts on the islands high up in the trees, and a high tackle was therefore called a ‘coconut tackle’.
I didn’t at that time regard it as a racial slur (and still don’t know if it is.)
Is it ok use that terminology, in your opinion?
16 Jul 2009, 04:56 am
Cabous van der Westhuizen. He played on the left wing didn’t he? Did he have long shoulder length hair?
OK so you think I have the commentator, the match and the player right?
16 Jul 2009, 05:42 am
#581 cooky: Cabous yes, for sure, left wing, shoulder length blondish hair. check YouTube, you might find hin still, or google his name.
commentator, I am not sure, I think Andy came on air after WC 1995.
One will have to check some 1995 WC games, eg. ManuSamoa vs Springboks, to see if he was there.
I will try.
16 Jul 2009, 06:00 am
#581 cooky: #582 Pietman:
I checked 1995 WC commentators, no Andy.
only Gavin Cowley, hugh bladen and John Robbie, as far as can make out from their voices.
So, I doubt if Andy was there in ’94 already.
He started commentating round about ’97, thereabouts, my guess.
16 Jul 2009, 08:29 am
#576 Big Hit:
zero
16 Jul 2009, 08:40 am
#576 Big Hit: Got to disagree – Woodcock is undoubtedly the best No1 , not only in scrummaging but also in his loose play …. I think in recent games the AB front row has suffered because of the loss of Carl Hayman at tight head , but Woodcock would be an asset to any team
16 Jul 2009, 09:59 am
this is so worth the read and i do pray that PdV does stick to our strengths
16 Jul 2009, 10:01 am
#585 stew:
trading in Hayman for Tialata is like leaving a Ferrari in the garage and taking the Massey Ferguson out instead.
Woodcock has had a quiet S14 year but suffered various injuries incl being hospitalised for an ear-infection that went crazy.
#576 Big Hit:
perhaps you’d like to flick back a few Keo pages…… Keo (amongst others) listed his 2008 World XV with Woodcock at LH prop. There didnt seem to be any protests from the Safas who know a good prop when they see one.
zero !
16 Jul 2009, 10:08 am
#589 WakaNathan: its 2009.
gametime.
16 Jul 2009, 10:23 am
#588 rangerman:
I agree. Props tend to get better with age tho and Woody is only 28. Prime time.
for interest and comparisons sake, here was Keos World XV 2008. Some hefty changes there already. The Bogan at no9 ? youd be hard pressed to find even 1 Kiwi who agreed with that.
Keo’s 2008 form World XV: Mils Miliaina (NZ), JP Pietersen (SA), Stirling Mortlock (Aus), Jean de Villiers (SA), Shane Williams (Wales), Matt Giteau (Aus), Jimmy Cowan (NZ), Andy Powell (Wales), Richie McCaw (NZ), Schalk Burger (SA), Ali Williams (NZ), Bakkies Botha (SA), Phil Vickery (Eng), Andrew Hore (NZ) and Tony Woodcock (NZ).
16 Jul 2009, 10:35 am
#573 WakaNathan:
neutral my arse, someone had offered him a farm full of sheep in auckland.
#576 Big Hit:
Quite correct.
16 Jul 2009, 12:49 pm
#353 Optimus Prime: You, are a proper prick with a dark chip on your shoulder.
Keep it strictly to rugby you twat.
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