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, 15:31 pm
#342 poppa69: #343 grant10: #344 grant10:
Yes, thanks, that’s the one code.
There are two more, you are allowed three pools, London keolings (Carol &co) have another one.
15 Jul 2009, 15:32 pm
#345 Pietman:
dankie ouboeta
15 Jul 2009, 15:32 pm
#338 Pietman: Griqua looks a solid team but I must the Griqua Country Districts suck big time lol
15 Jul 2009, 15:33 pm
Can’t wait for the 3N! Good squad of 23, my only concern is I would have picked Guthro instead of Chilli. Brings more to the party.
15 Jul 2009, 15:34 pm
#342 dr dre: Here’s what I find amazing. I posted an article by Steven Friedman an educated man, and director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy, an initiative of Rhodes University and the University of Johannesburg.
I asked for views on his article.
You turn around and attack me. So your views on the article is to attack me, and say I have chips on my shoulders. Me.
Seems to me that Friedman’s words are hitting a little too close to home for you. I understand that you are feeling uncomfortable. But can I kindly request that you direct your comments to the piece. I did not write it, but feel it relevant.
15 Jul 2009, 15:34 pm
#350 ashley:
Sal hom n mail gooi, weet nie waar loop hy in die wildtuin rond nie.
Hang vas.
15 Jul 2009, 15:35 pm
#347 Grape White: Thanks for the update. Next game should be exciting. I think I am going to head to 7/11 for a Taiwan Beer.
15 Jul 2009, 15:36 pm
So where are the people disputing PDV now. His selections are good. Where is ‘Gives Tight Head’ now?
15 Jul 2009, 15:37 pm
#351 Grape White:
Griqua Districts is a Kalahari developing team, from Upington, mostly !Xung bushmen in there, used to passing ostrich eggs.
Give them another 100 years or so….
15 Jul 2009, 15:37 pm
#353 Optimus Prime: It’s a rugby blog for crying in a bucket!
15 Jul 2009, 15:38 pm
#329 Optimus Prime: oh dear, i forgot that you like rattling cages…
15 Jul 2009, 15:38 pm
#358 bok_bal: So where is the rugby banter?
15 Jul 2009, 15:40 pm
#357 Pietman: 100? nah they just regular competition and their game will lift. At least they beat Namibia lol
15 Jul 2009, 15:41 pm
#361 Grape White: they just need*
15 Jul 2009, 15:41 pm
#359 bok_bal: It’s a rugby related article and more specifically it’s very relevant to some bloggers on this site. Have a read. What are your views.
15 Jul 2009, 15:42 pm
#360 Morne Steyn is under-rated: People post articles here on rasism. It’s not the place for it.
15 Jul 2009, 15:43 pm
#360 Transformation: They don’t want to touch it it seems. So far I’m being attacked for letting the “cat out the bag” so to speak.
15 Jul 2009, 15:43 pm
#362 Grape White: I told you I think it’s a load of shite. Go post on News 24 or somewhere
15 Jul 2009, 15:44 pm
wow what a conversion! Wp 10 Lions 0
15 Jul 2009, 15:44 pm
#353 Optimus Prime: Hey Opti, I think the article may be true in the instance of PDV, but I don’t like the fact that it may provide people in public positions a shelter to hide behind, ie Malema.
15 Jul 2009, 15:47 pm
#368 Morne Steyn is under-rated:
Maybe Primus Stove should just post us something on Steven Spielberg next time.
Anything from Rhoses is kuk.
That is no university, same as Turfloop and Fort Hare.
Not recognised ouside of the Transkei.
15 Jul 2009, 15:47 pm
#356 Morne Steyn is under-rated:
funny thing i’ve over the last few weeks or so … whenever i walked into a discussion of rugby, i kept getting the same kind of thing: “pdv is using jake whites team etc etc etc”. after a while i started countering it with “if you were the new coach, wouldnt you have done the same?”
normally with most guys i’ve found that except for one or two other players, the squad pdv have selected wouldve stayed the same.
now, unfortunately you also get those guys that dont want to be convinced … arguing that pdv shouldve started anew in an effort to put his seal on the team … saw the same guys after the last bi test, and guess what?
the first response i got from those guys was .. “how the heck can he make 10 changes to a winning team?”
well
i just laughed and walked away!!
15 Jul 2009, 15:48 pm
#367 Grape White: Sorry, my previous reply was meant for someone else. WP is on fire. Try or no try?
15 Jul 2009, 15:48 pm
#369 Pietman:
Rhodes, I meant…sorry Earl.
15 Jul 2009, 15:49 pm
#363 Optimus Prime:
i dont agree
the only reference to rugby are
…
30 men
and
an odd shaped ball
15 Jul 2009, 15:49 pm
#363 Optimus Prime: I told you I think it’s a load of shite. Go post on News 24 or somewhere
15 Jul 2009, 15:49 pm
#370 ashley:
Ek het die boy gemail vir die codes.
Hy sal nou weer in die seingebied wees, dan laat ek jou weet.
15 Jul 2009, 15:50 pm
#365 Optimus Prime: Also for the article to be really good it should take into account the opposite argument, the fact that Malema believes he is in hot water because he is black would be a good example. So its pretty one-sided, yes in some instances it is correct and I guess sometimes we need reminding, but it is dangerous not to convey the opposite view or else it really becomes an article of racism in itself.
15 Jul 2009, 15:50 pm
no try but given anyway. I mean any idiot could see the boy was not in control but hey 15 – 0.
15 Jul 2009, 15:50 pm
#369 Morne Steyn is under-rated: Thank you for a well articulated view. It’s refreshing to see you deal with the article and not load a shot gun for me.
15 Jul 2009, 15:53 pm
#373 ashley:
Ok, hy se clamjoke is die een vir keo Tri.
Die ander twee is private.
15 Jul 2009, 15:53 pm
#375 Pietman:
thanks pieta
15 Jul 2009, 15:53 pm
#375 bok_bal: If that is your view. Fine. I’m goimg nowhere however much you would like me to. New SA. Sorry. You do not get to bundle people off to jail.
15 Jul 2009, 15:54 pm
#370 ashley: Yup its the old contradict yourself argument. You just can’t win against that kind of logic. The old ‘super elite springbok side’ that always loses to Aus and NZ, now expected to conquer everything cause we have a new coach! Very odd.
15 Jul 2009, 15:54 pm
#16 Pietman: Pietman , Thats Zahier Rylands u talking about ?? Played for WP 2006 last I think , still a youngster though. Small and very very fast and slippery , plays for my local club.
15 Jul 2009, 15:55 pm
#374 ashley: Ah. but Ashley don;t you think it addresses some of the comments about Pdv being nothing but a AA appointment and being undeserving despite his results? Those comments are made here all the time.
15 Jul 2009, 15:57 pm
#369 Pietman:
I beg to differ! Rhodes is one of the leading universities when it comes to A-level researchers.
They have some very, very competent and well-known alumni; it is also the leading university when it comes to studying journalism or drama.
15 Jul 2009, 15:58 pm
#382 Morne Steyn is under-rated:
hehehehe
part of life bru
the only thing you can do is being patient
oh, and keep on motivating the points you try to make
see it like that … if you can convince one person that his facts may just not be correct,
that person in turn will convince someone else etc etc
so the difference you make in the end is not as insignificant as you might believe!
15 Jul 2009, 15:58 pm
#386 WP Till I Die: Then I guess Keo and Rich didn’t study there.
15 Jul 2009, 15:58 pm
Wp 18 Lions 0. Lions looking ragged
15 Jul 2009, 16:00 pm
oh now Lions lost one player for 10 minutes for a stupid shoulder charge lol
15 Jul 2009, 16:02 pm
#384 Optimus Prime: Just like your article you referenced, I would like to see a bit more of the converse argument when addressing PDV. Surely if PDV is only doing well because of the players at his disposal, surely its logical to say Ludeke and Meyer were actually not responsible for a Super 14 victory, for surely any ‘******’ could win a regional tournament with 10 super-elites. In fact what took these coaches so long to win? Similarly Plum should be fired for failing to make the Finals.
15 Jul 2009, 16:02 pm
#369 Pietman:
In fact, according to a study that looks at the number of citations of articles from institutions in international scientific and trade literature, the top universities in South Africa are as follows:
1. University of Cape Town
2. Rhodes University
3. University of Pretoria
4. Stellenbosch University
5. University of the Witwatersrand
6. University of the Western Cape
7. University of South Africa
8. University of Kwazulu-Natal
15 Jul 2009, 16:03 pm
#374 bok_bal: #382 Morne Steyn is under-rated:
You go try find a job anywhere in the first world with a Rhodes qualification.
They will laugh at you.
I know.
I sit on those recoprocity committees abroad, they laugh at us.
That’s my job….or one of them, I should say.
SA educational standards are nowhere near to what we used to have, hell, even Sean Langenhven might qualify for a B.Soc.LlB in Grahamstown soon without even having matric, just because English isn’t his first language.
Why do you think Zuma used Kemp J Kemp at R100,000 per day and not some black lawyer from the EC?
Why do you think Dr Manto used a white surgeon for a liver transplant?
Go figure.
Friedberg, Rhodes?
Pffffff……
15 Jul 2009, 16:03 pm
#387 Optimus Prime:
Why do you bother.
Like knocking your head against a brick wall.
We know it, that’s all that counts.
15 Jul 2009, 16:04 pm
#374 bok_bal: substantiate Bok_Mal, hoe kom?
#369 Pietman:everything from rhodes is k@k? Really? Since when? Lmao…you must be going senile ;D
15 Jul 2009, 16:04 pm
Oh no I have upset Keo! You can’t use the B word!
15 Jul 2009, 16:05 pm
#390 WP Till I Die:
What study?
Don’t quote me anything from the ‘SA Liberal Student’s Movement’, please.
Give me the latest from the HSRC.
Then we can talk.
15 Jul 2009, 16:06 pm
#391 Pietman:
You sit on committees, besides sitting in the bar all day?
Where DO you find the time.
Friedman must have caught your attention somewhere in that synaptically-challenged brain of yours otherwise you wouldn’t go out of your way to insult him.
15 Jul 2009, 16:07 pm
#391 Pietman:
And PS: Where is the first world?
There where you are?
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