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, 09:47 am
#39 PissAnt:
fck dude.
Wins against Wales and Scotland are gimmes.
And quite frankly, after having smashed England 5 times on the bounce…they should be as well.
The win in Dunedin was super but that does not make it ok to go and lose to NZ at home 19-0(the first time we where ever nilled?) and Austraia….the first time since 2000?
that is regression in anyones books.
which initself is amazing because NZ have regressed the most.
but somehow they still manage to win?
15 Jul 2009, 09:50 am
#46 XhosaKid:
ex-ac-it-ly
but hey
wasnt that the helter skelter game keo and his clowns refered to last year?
the one where “we didnt kick once when in our own 22″?
hmmm, see keo and gavin is indeed on the same page … or should i say up the same ***?
15 Jul 2009, 09:51 am
#40 St.Petersburgbok: You must bhe taking schrooms dude. Go ahead say your **** about Pdv and critisize, but if you think that your back up for your argument is Rich and Keohane, I feel sorry for you. Both of them have proven to us how dishonest they are. How many times have we not read articles with quotes, only to later read the whole transcript and discover that the story has been bent to suit their agenda. These guys report what they want, and not the truth.
15 Jul 2009, 09:52 am
#52 ashley: They are up the same *** and whomever’s *** that is, must be LARGE to fit so much **** in it.
15 Jul 2009, 09:53 am
#48 PissAnt: Well it does not make the coach bullet proof against critisizm. He knew that when he took the job
Surely he should be evaluted in terms of going better than the previous coach. I believe that so far he has fared about the same as the previous coach
Kitch and Mallet had done well, Mallet up to a point and then he also lost his marbles with selections
Bring back the selection panel of 7 and the let the coaches coach
15 Jul 2009, 09:53 am
#51 St.Petersburgbok:
No, not the first time we were nilled.
The illustrious Jake White was nilled 49-0 in Brisbane in 2006…do you have selective memory?
15 Jul 2009, 09:54 am
#52 ashley:
I still want to know what “structure” is.
Hehehe.
15 Jul 2009, 09:54 am
#51 St.Petersburgbok:
Go tell Australia wins against Wales is gimme’s.
It is never okay to lose, whether by one point or by 50, whether by scoring 30 and still losing or scoring zero.
And if NZ regressed so badly why did they still win the Super rugby competition in 2008 – two teams in the play-off’s (SA and AUS only 1 each), (3 teams in the play-off’s in 2009)? The Bledisloe and Tri-Nations titles, and completed a clean sweep of the NH as-well?
15 Jul 2009, 09:55 am
#56 WP Till I Die:
now he’s gonna counter with “at home”
15 Jul 2009, 09:56 am
#57 WP Till I Die:
me too
but i’ve made peace with the fact that even they (who wrote this kak by the way) dont know!
15 Jul 2009, 09:56 am
#55 JL1:
Not at all, but like you said – perspective.
15 Jul 2009, 09:56 am
#52 ashley: I love the way these guys have “open secrets” and make up “sources” when none exist.
Then they want to turn around and say what respectable sports journo’s they are. It makes one want to cry with laughter.
15 Jul 2009, 09:59 am
#52 ashley: For Gavin Rich to lie about what is happening behind the scene is one thing but to lie about a game I was watching is another!!
“”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.”"
If I were to lie like this in my line of work, I would be fired. The boks ( FDP and Butch) made 6 kicking mistakes in 8 minutes, FFS!!
#51 St.Petersburgbok: If wins against Scotland, Wales and England are gimmes, then surely wins against Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, USA, Argentina and England are also gimmes
15 Jul 2009, 10:00 am
#56 WP Till I Die: #58 PissAnt: Thank you Gentleman for the FACTS. I’d like to add that Wales in 2008 where the 6 nations champs. It’s nice to see that when all the FACTS, are out there the 73% winning margin makes sense.
But like Rich and keo and Petersburg here, you can conveniently forget the FACTS, when you are trying smear a man.
15 Jul 2009, 10:01 am
#63 XhosaKid:
Your logic is infallible, comrade!
15 Jul 2009, 10:03 am
#64 Optimus Prime:
St. Petersburgbok is not a bad bloke – he knows his rugby pretty well – he’s just a 100%, true blue, Bulls man. As such he will never, ever forgive SA Rugby for appointing Peter de Villiers and not Heyneke Meyer.
15 Jul 2009, 10:04 am
#62 Optimus Prime:
hehehehe
jaaaaaaa, bru
funny thing though is that so many readrs seem to be believing every word they write
without
thinking things through for themselves
forget for a moment about the fact that 2 “senior players” matfield and smit came out in defense of pdv
why dont people ask question like “if pdv were that k@k, why would percy, who played under both jw and pdv, even want to assosiate him with this k@k coach and assistants” etc etc
so many things there that contradictory to what these clowns write
15 Jul 2009, 10:08 am
#64 Optimus Prime: So should we become like that and now attack Keo/Rich
We know that they are journos and we know that they have papers to sell or hits to accrue
PDV will do well to shut them up by getting the Boks to perform and win some games. A lot of those players need to stop riding on their reputations and start backing their coach by performing on the pitch
I do not think that a 69% win ratio for the RWC Champs or 2nd ranked team in the world is quite good enough, what do you think?
15 Jul 2009, 10:08 am
#67 ashley:
Ash, it’s merely a microcosm of what we see in South African society.
South Africans have such a highly developed sense of paranoia and naiveté that they’ll believe any rumour being circulated with sufficient passion.
A baseless rumour stated as “open secret” around the braaivleis fire suddenly becomes entrenched as established fact and circulated as such.
Such is our society.
15 Jul 2009, 10:09 am
#67 ashley: Perspective again, many people work for crappy bosses but would also back them to ensure payday remains payday
15 Jul 2009, 10:12 am
#68 JL1:
“PDV will do well to shut them up by getting the Boks to perform and win some games”
uhm, maybe i’m gerook, but isnt that what is indeed happening?
15 Jul 2009, 10:13 am
#50 WP Till I Die:
Wanneer het hy gespeel vir die WP, kan jy onthou?
Ek worstel nou al met daai vraag sedert die donker oggendure!
15 Jul 2009, 10:14 am
#70 JL1:
i can understand that … its not backing the **** boss … its fear of the unknown thats keeping them there … a heck of a lot of difference!!
15 Jul 2009, 10:14 am
#8 sparticus: “Get real yourself , the ABS may have the upper hand a few times but when it matters most they were outmuscled every time – SA 2005 , France 99 , Australia 2003 , France 2007 , SA 2011……………….”
huh? Ok, if you say A please say B.
“ABS may have the upper hand a few times” – that’s rich. If 9 to 5 wins in SA alone is “a few times” I can only wonder how “many” were 5 to 9 wins.
If SA 2005 “mattered the most”, so did 2006, 2007, 2008. Who were outmuscled then?
As for SA 2011 win, it’s a bit premature, don’t you think? If Boks will meet Frogs, I am not so sure they’ll win, as recent head-to-head record is woeful. As for meeting them NZ, well, once in a decade win there has already happened.
15 Jul 2009, 10:15 am
#71 ashley:
Nou op CNN hier, oom Blatter is moerig vir die stakers.
Lyk my daar is groot marakkas met die konstruksie van die stadions wat nou al 9 dae agter skedule is.
Ai toggie…..
15 Jul 2009, 10:18 am
#71 ashley: 19-0, First loss against Aussies in 7 years, record equalling loss against the BIL do not help in conveying a message of success
Strange bench replacements or not starting with certain form players also do not help
15 Jul 2009, 10:21 am
#75 Pietman: Sekerlik sal Afrika nie weer die sokker wereld beker sien nie.
15 Jul 2009, 10:21 am
#68 JL1: I think it is, considering the games we have lost and the games we won to become RWC Champs, I’m just being practical and putting things into perspective
15 Jul 2009, 10:22 am
#63 XhosaKid:
but when did I say that Fiji,Tonga,etc where not gimmes?
If that comment is ment as some sort of riposte aimed at our world cup win, well then I am speechless.
Who ever said the Boks should not have won the WC having faced those sides? At a worldcup, you can only beat the sides put infront of you. Nz and Oz should be asking themselves how they managed to lose to sides that we expect to beat?
#61 PissAnt:
Please please don’t be pedantic. You and I both know that the current kiwi crop comes nowhere close to the Class of 2005 and 2006.
#64 Optimus Prime:
The fact is that this is the most experienced and talented Springbok side in our rugby’s history.
Compare it with the side that took the field first test vs Ireland in 2004.170 odd test caps…of which most belonged to Os and Percy.
And you seem content to celebrate a 69% win record because it compares with some other coaches records. Other coach’s that could not field over 700 test caps or get away with spouting some of the pish we hear? Other coaches that actually had to roll up their sleaves and get down to business when it came to coaching.And if you make reference to Smit and Matfield….I think I will puke.What would you expect them to say.” DeVilliers is a terrible coach we want a new one?”
That they actually have to come out in support of the coach tells it’s own story.It’s akin to the board giving the coach their support when things are going wrong.
15 Jul 2009, 10:23 am
#72 Pietman:
Zahier Ryland se “breakout” was gedurende die 2005 Curriebeker. Hy’t toe ook in 2006 gespeel vir WP, ek dink in 2007 ook. Nie seker waar hy nou is nie.
15 Jul 2009, 10:26 am
I love how optimus prime thinks he knows anything about rugby.
you so funny.
OPTIMUS PRIME
HAHAHA
15 Jul 2009, 10:27 am
#79 St.Petersburgbok:
So how would have been appropriate World Cup winners?
A side that lost to England? A side so poor that we nailed them 36 love? 3 weeks earlier?
A side that lost to France? A France so poor that they couldn’t beat Argentina once in two attemts in Paris?
15 Jul 2009, 10:28 am
#68 JL1: Oh, but when he wins , like you want him to, ie the Lions tour, you and those ******** are not happy. When the team wins they say its senior players etc and Jake White smsing from the bushes.
Last I checked the winning ratio was 73%. Don’t get sucked in my your Pdv hate now. Give him all the percentage points due.
15 Jul 2009, 10:29 am
#81 the_rugby_guru: I love the way you think you know me? Hahahahaha You so ******* funny. Go fetch your cerebos boytjie. Gavin has more **** articles on Supersport for eat.
15 Jul 2009, 10:29 am
Die bulle gaan saterdag verloor, en wag dan vir die verskonings. Selfs die grootste pierre spies draadtrekker-van-n-supporter weet dit.
15 Jul 2009, 10:30 am
you know optimus . if you hate keo and rich so much
what are you doing on the blog?
hmmmmmmmm ?
stop being a hypocrite.
maybe WATCH some rugby.
or even better still
why dont you start your OWN blog!!!
im sure you will do a WAY better job than KEO
15 Jul 2009, 10:30 am
#84 Optimus Prime: #81 the_rugby_guru: I love the way you think you know me? Hahahahaha You so farking funny. Go fetch your cerebos boytjie. Gavin has more **** articles on Supersport for eat.
15 Jul 2009, 10:30 am
#79 St.Petersburgbok: the point here is, with the contempt you give to PDV’s victories, you are then compelled to follow your logic, which will inevitably lead you to showing the same contempt to our RWC win.It is childish and idioting not to agree with your logic
Its not PDV’s fault that we played against Scotland and Wales, just like the Australians lost to the same Welsh team, who were the 6 Nations champs.
15 Jul 2009, 10:31 am
#86 the_rugby_guru: I can blog where I want and critisize the articles like any other blogger. If you are one eyed Pdv hater, that is your problem. If you wanna eat their **** without question and join them up Jake White’s winning ways arse. Be my farking guest.
15 Jul 2009, 10:32 am
#85 the_rugby_guru:
Hi, Gavin, how’s it going?
15 Jul 2009, 10:33 am
#86 the_rugby_guru: Are you Rich perhaps?
15 Jul 2009, 10:34 am
#88 Optimus Prime:
I admire your passion, but not your methods. Tone it down a bit, you’re not winning anyone over to your cause with your abrasive approach.
15 Jul 2009, 10:34 am
#89 WP Till I Die: LOL!!!!
15 Jul 2009, 10:34 am
#90 WP Till I Die: Hahahahahaha. Now I know what pissed him off. It’s the fact that I’d love to meet him and cut his balls off and make him eats them. hahahahahaha. Loser, Liar Gavin Rich.
15 Jul 2009, 10:34 am
WPTID – Ek dink Zahier speel vir SK of Hammies, hyt ook VC verlede jaar gespeel. Weet nie hoekom hy nie meer span haal nie.
15 Jul 2009, 10:35 am
#79 St.Petersburgbok:
I am not pedantic.
Them not being as strong as we believed they were in 2005 and 2006 (strangely 2006 was Jake’s worst year out of the 4 so maybe that is why we believe this) did not make sense to me, so I went and checked.
Overall, the NZ Super rugby teams improved from a 57% winning record in 2004 to 59% in 2008.
SA on the other hand, improved 1% (38% ro 39%).
And if you were wondering, even our top teams are lagging behind NZ and Aus’ top teams in this period. That is if we cut the deadwood like the Lions, Cheetahs, Reds, Highlanders etc.
So the opinion of them not being in the same class is not only relative, it is just that, an opinion.
Results do not back this up.
15 Jul 2009, 10:35 am
#92 WP Till I Die: Are we in teams here on keo WPTID? I thougght I logged on alone? Was there somewhere I was supposed to sign up?
15 Jul 2009, 10:35 am
listen here “OPTIMUS PRIME” go watch transformers
and let the men talk about the rugby
maybe if u lucky you can catch ur idol piet in the parking lot of the spar and provide us all with some entertainment from the cctv cameras.
i dont know you
but i know when someone thinks they are an authority.
clearly you are just a bitter little boy .
now go eat your weatbix and run along to school..
15 Jul 2009, 10:37 am
#78 XhosaKid: I see your point, but I think winning the RWC has also greatly enhanced the expectations from fans. We are sitting with a team with 700 caps-so either they perform above the 80% or the coach and players should be replaced or we should be told how this will be rectified going forward
15 Jul 2009, 10:37 am
#93 Optimus Prime:
Good point.
I will in turn make Keo’s axis of evil, Sheriff Pietman GBS, cut their own balls off and eat them.
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