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, 10:38 am
#63 XhosaKid: #65 WP Till I Die: salute comrades, i see pdv has the establishment @ their wit’s end! It seems like “mission destroy the springbok” will have the desired effect!
Can you imagine if we play the world cup with only the proteas emblem? And pdv deliberately employs his infamous “helter skelter” gameplan, the boks will definitely implode & that will be the end of the bokke! First it was the nil in newlands, them first loss in 10 yrs to the aussies, them a record loss to the b&i lions, comrade pdv is truly racking up these unpleasant records. Now if he can engineer a first round exit from the world cup then he’ll be a genius & surely stand to recieve an order of mapungubwe from pres. Zuma!
Can u imagine how depressed some of these people that andy marinos said have an “emotional” attachment to the bokke will be?
Viva to the spirit of asijiki, viva! Viva to umzabalazo wokwenyelisa izitsiba-bokhwe viva!
15 Jul 2009, 10:39 am
#98 the_rugby_guru: The whole Sapr thing? Tell me. how long did it take you and Keo to come up with that rubbish? Did you sit up late and night to make up that story?
And when you are sellectively cherry picking stats to support your lies, does it take time, or do you just pull them out Jake’s arse willy nilly since you reside there?
15 Jul 2009, 10:39 am
#83 Optimus Prime: Hey, I do not hate him
I just expect better from him or any other coach with the 700 caps and talent at their disposal
15 Jul 2009, 10:39 am
Raait STP,
Ek issie die vinnigste ou hie oppie saaitie ma ek verstaan dam die argument dat die huidige Bokke die most experienced Bokspan mag wees.
Ma kan jy asb vi my hierie ‘most talented team in our history’ statement van jou verduidelik. Watter method gebruik jy ommie verskeie talente orie jare op te weeg en wie weeg jy op teen wie?
Ek **** graag..
15 Jul 2009, 10:39 am
#99 Dawn:
Pietman must be Dr Evil
GBS his No.2
And Sheriff, Mini Me in a cute, little Safari Suit
15 Jul 2009, 10:42 am
#80 WP Till I Die:
Ek sien hy het onlangs 7′s gespel in Zambia, twee driee gedruk.
Dis hoekom sy naam by my opgekom het.
15 Jul 2009, 10:42 am
#104 Saffa_Guy: President Of The PdV Supporters Club:
Line ‘em up against the wall, pump-action shotgun them into oblivion!
Jeez. I’m normally such an even-tempered person.
15 Jul 2009, 10:42 am
#99 Dawn: Very unlady like talk, are you a lady?
15 Jul 2009, 10:45 am
#103 JL1: All I’m saying is JL. These journo’s spit their hate and rubbish freely daily, for everyone to read. We have caught them out now a few times with misquotes, when we get the full transcripts. And lies, when the Springbok captain is interviewed.
If they think, that they can use media to freely lie about people, then I can publicly flog them for it. If you can dich it up, “dan moet jy dit kan vreet”.
15 Jul 2009, 10:45 am
#107 JL1:
Oh yes.
15 Jul 2009, 10:47 am
#108 JL1: Yes she is!
15 Jul 2009, 10:48 am
JL1 – Dawns a lady in waiting…
15 Jul 2009, 10:49 am
#95 PissAnt:
pedantic….
no carter,hayman,woodcock,jery collins,umangu,chris jack,aaron mauger
not even nearly the same calibre and well you know it.
#87 XhosaKid:
no, the point is that I love Springbok wins by DeVilliers or otherwise.
i just feel that given our current crop….there should be a hell of a lot more of them.
3 home losses in under 2 seasons…with still 2 against the kiwis and 1 against the ozzies to come is the damaging statistic. Not the win in Dunedin.
You have very selective memory in this regard. When Jake’s boks lost against France at Newlands in 2006 after leading by 12 points at one stage…it was almost curtains for him. That was followed by the 49-0 and the home lost at loftus to the Kiwis. In that game we where also in it until a minute before half time when we conceded 10 points quick. Jake was all but gone at that stage but the Boks had a good win at Rustenburg against a pretty full strengh kiwi side given that we had so many changes and injuries.
2007 he was given leeway after a home loss to the kiwis, also a game we looked to have wrapped up comfortably with 10 minutes to go.2007 was all about the World Cup, which he delivered.Who cares who we beat to get it?
15 Jul 2009, 10:49 am
#109 Dawn: It would seem that you do not act like one when you make comments like those
#108 Optimus Prime: Not many people backed old Jake against the journos who had it in for him. Remember the one at the Newscafe and the so called assault on a journo from Die Son?
15 Jul 2009, 10:49 am
#107 Dawn: Oh pleeeze. I’ve kicked men in the nuts before. It’s perfectly ladylike.
15 Jul 2009, 10:50 am
#66 WP Till I Die: Not a bad Bloke!!
He is probably the most one eyed Bulls prat on the site.
HIs posts are not objective and most annoying. I quickly skip over his posts.
15 Jul 2009, 10:51 am
to my dear friend optimus prime
what the hell have you got against jake white?
for f#*ks sakes man. pieter deviliers is using the bulk of his team. that JAKE built up. and please dont tell me jake inherited this team …. he didnt . he moulded it.
you CANNOT , at least NOT YET , look at stats of pdiv . the truth is he is using jakeys players.
look what happened when he chose his second stringers.
annihilated.
another point.
the emerging boks, coached by muir (and considered lets say the “3rd” side after the team that played the lions in the final test)
held an almost identical lions team at bay that pdivs team (the stronger one) got thrashed to.
he might be a great guy.
but his not a great coach.
just average with an amazing team.
i think he should’ve been an assistant.
now go round up the autobots.
we are all entitled to our opinions. wheter im right or wrong
15 Jul 2009, 10:52 am
#103 bloukie:
possibly a better statement would be “the most talented group of 30 odd players south africa has produced at any one time”?
Particularly in the proffessional era?
15 Jul 2009, 10:52 am
#112 St.Petersburgbok: He had a ver unlucky run in 2006 with injuries all around, that has helped the Boks to build some depth
15 Jul 2009, 10:52 am
#114 JL1: I’m sorry JL. But do some of us who are NOT defending Pdv per se, but are simply calling out the journo’s as dishonest appear to be in the majority to you?
Read the blog. The Bulk of the posts are sold on the Pdv hate machine.
15 Jul 2009, 10:54 am
#115 dr dre:
feel free to f-off now as well.
15 Jul 2009, 10:55 am
#111 Slappes:
Lol!
Was quite funny that, Sheriff and dawn, had a good laufg there.
Ou Dawn is nogal n bok vir sports soms, gelukkig n sin vir humor ook.
15 Jul 2009, 10:55 am
#105 Pietman:
Nee kyk, hy was baie, baie rats en lekker vinnig. Maar op die ou einde ongelukkig net nie groot genoeg vir toetsrugby nie.
Ons het ‘n klomp sulke outjies in die Kaap, moerse vinnig maar nie genoeg vleis nie.
15 Jul 2009, 10:55 am
#101 Optimus Prime:
Yes, it’s amazing how they get these stories, no lets call it fables, about piet and spar and the black lady being attack at rugby matches and so on. Keep to the facts i say.
#110 Optimus Prime:
You should know she is a lady, since you said she work the streets.
15 Jul 2009, 10:56 am
#117 the_rugby_guru: Hey Gavin. I will read your post just after I fetch some salt and then reply.
But I’ll just give you some food for thought:
1. Would it have made sense for Pdv to ignor all the current boks and start a fresh with brand new players in 2008?
15 Jul 2009, 10:56 am
Should Helium Snor produce a poor tri nations and the South African rugby public begin baying for his blood the sensitive transformation souls will begin their nauseating beating of the racism drum.
They will fail to see that since the beginnings of the Bok coaches have been hammered for poor performance.
I say we will come last in the Tri Nations under the Helium.
I will also be the first here to apologise and acknowledge should we win the damn thing.
15 Jul 2009, 10:56 am
#122 WP Till I Die:
Klink my hy speel vir n Japanse klub, Mosa of soiets.
Sal weer die berig probeer opspoor.
15 Jul 2009, 10:57 am
#116 the_rugby_guru:
Uhhh…I thought keo reported that the team was being coached by **** Muir and Gary Gold, that Peter de Villiers was off watching rugby?
15 Jul 2009, 10:57 am
2. Some of Pdv’s sellections in 2008 and 2009, ie Adi Jacobs, Heindrich Brusso have paid off
3. The Lions series is won and even today there is an article about Pdv’s concern for depth. He needed to blood those guys asap.
15 Jul 2009, 10:58 am
LOL, the lead-in to this piece is ridiculous, when was the last time SA won a 3N and how did we do it?
15 Jul 2009, 11:00 am
#124 Snoek: Hoe gives a fark what you have to say. Times have moved on, but i see you are ticked off cos i said nasty things about Jake White’s tow boyfriends, GAVIN RICH AND MARK KEOHANE.
Dude, do not be so prejudiced against same *** relationships. Talk rugby and see the wood for the trees. We have been lied to by these journo’s and they should know that we know that they are stinking liars.
15 Jul 2009, 11:00 am
anyways optimus. ill concede. i think you do have a point that the journos twist ****.
ill never forget how keo was bashing jake at the end of 2006 and rallying for mallet to take over.
we all know what happened in 2007.
so i guess u right.
ps . im certainly not gavin rich.
im just of the opinion that pieter de villiers is not the best man for the job. at least not yet.
15 Jul 2009, 11:00 am
#125 dr dre:
mmm, that was a good post.
I concur.
you do not have to f-off just yet.
maybe a little later the situation might change.
15 Jul 2009, 11:01 am
#128 WP Till I Die: But don;t you know. Rich and Keo get lost sometimes in their lies. Can’t keep track.
15 Jul 2009, 11:01 am
#123 Snoek:
That ‘black lady of Ellis park’ quickly changed her story, when some journo’s cornered her at her daughter’s kindergarten.
Remember the hoo-haa she caused, Bokke wearing ‘no to racism’ armbands and all that *****?
She is probably toyi-toyi-ing at some soccer stadium with construction workers right now.
15 Jul 2009, 11:02 am
#132 the_rugby_guru: Fair enough. You are allowed an opinion. Nothing wrong with that. But make it based on facts, not what these blokes have to say, cos they are not being straight with us.
15 Jul 2009, 11:02 am
#129 cab:
CAB I have saluted your belief in the Boks as well as your steadfast dedication to coach and country but even you must allow space in your argument for current circumstances? When last did we enter a 3N as RWc champs, S14 champs and with a win over the B Lions under our belts? For that matter when has a coach had a team with over 700 odd caps to choose from? ….and has there ever been as much upheval in the ranks of our bitter rivals than this year…? Objectivity cuts both ways
15 Jul 2009, 11:03 am
#130 Optimus Prime:
Have you told any teenage girls lately to go suck D@#k?
15 Jul 2009, 11:03 am
#135 Pietman: You sound like Julius Malema and his comments about rape victims. Is that you Julius?
15 Jul 2009, 11:03 am
#129 cab:
Cant’ even remember the last time!
Was in Jake’s first year as coach, 2005 not?
15 Jul 2009, 11:04 am
#138 Snoek: Have you done iot yourself that you are so interested?
15 Jul 2009, 11:04 am
#128 Optimus Prime: Brussow was not his selection-he got selected on the eoyt and if it was not for 2 injuries Brussouw would never have featured
#119 Optimus Prime: No Bok coach needs defending, they must deliver and that is all I care about
15 Jul 2009, 11:04 am
#112 St.Petersburgbok: I hear you about Jake and I have no problem with that.
What I want you to be held accountable for, is logic, you cannot say wins against Scotland, England and Wales are gimmes and then not say wins against Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, USA, Argentina and England are gimmes.
Just be consistant
15 Jul 2009, 11:04 am
#132 St.Petersburgbok: hehe.
I was commenting on your years of anti WP hate speech.
Nothing else. Doesnt seem your objective in that sense. At all!
I share your Helium sentiments completely.
Lets see end of the Tri Nations…
15 Jul 2009, 11:05 am
#137 Snoek:
Eina!!!!
I wonder how she is going to teach her children one day with such a ‘vuil bek’?
15 Jul 2009, 11:06 am
the funniest thing about this site is all the sanctimonious losers on it.
the “I are more mightier than thou” apartheid activists.
If you are sooo morally correct?
Why continue to visit the site?
It is an open secret that Keo and his gang are hated by You?
the Skops and Langiels,etal..
Why not stick to your principals?
Stay away from the site?
By visiting it you openly support it?
how frikken weird?
It’s loser mentality in my opinion.
norman not mates sort of stuff.
15 Jul 2009, 11:06 am
Okay I’m off. Chat again later.
15 Jul 2009, 11:07 am
#132 St.Petersburgbok: bwhahahaha!
I almost smashed my keyboard from laughing
15 Jul 2009, 11:09 am
hahaha Ah Gavin’s on the rich gravy train again lappin up the exposure and delivering the sound bites as he’s the man in demand for an opinion on PDV. Good luck Gavin, enjoy the gravy keep riding PDV’s ******* for fame lol, WGAF?
15 Jul 2009, 11:10 am
to xhosakid.
whhat you fail to see , like all the other retards out there, is that the teams we faced BEAT those other teams.
meaning.. that based on the FORM AT THE TIME those teams we faced WERE the top teams….
please u racist fool.
go joing ur brethen in the strikes.
oh oh wait.
they resolved them
no wonder u online.
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