Get inside Big Vic’s head
29 Sep 2009
Victor Matfield is the undisputed lineout king, but what gives him the edge over his opponents?
Click here to subscribe (12 issues for R199)
In the latest issue of SA Rugby magazine, on sale this week, Eddie Jones and Gary Gold provide unique insight into Matfield’s ‘sixth sense’ at the lineout, while the player himself explains exactly what he does when the ball’s about to be thrown in.
Matfield also talks openly about his insatiable hunger for success, why playing 100 Tests for the Boks would mean so much to him, fears that the Boks are peaking too soon before the 2011 World Cup and his coaching ambitions.
Also in the new issue of SA Rugby magazine:
– The key to the Springboks’ Tri-Nations triumph
– Big Debate: Should John Smit be playing tighthead prop for the Boks? Robbie Kempson says yes, Ollie le Roux says no …
– Why Juan Smith is irreplaceable
– The departure of Frans Steyn has left Peter de Villiers with a selection headache at fullback. Percy Montgomery and André Joubert rate the leading candidates for the position
– South African club rugby continues to be plagued by violent incidents involving players, coaches and spectators. One man, though, believes his relaunched initiative will effectively tackle the problem
– How Dawie Theron has reignited the belief at Griquas
– Sharks centre Waylon Murray on his injury nightmare, getting back into the Springbok set-up, and his future plans
– When Harlequins were caught faking a blood injury during a European Cup match last season, it resulted in a record £259 000 fine for the club, a three-year ban for their director of rugby, and a four-month ban for the player involved. SA Rugby magazine finds out exactly what happened and what the implications of ‘Bloodgate’ are for the game in England
– It’s as though he’s never been away. Never shattered that Achilles tendon. Never had to fight his way back through six months of hard slog just to run up and down a rugby field again. it’s the latest remarkable feat in the career of Dan Carter
– Once the most hated rugby player in South Africa, Clyde Rathbone recently quit the game after a long injury battle. He explains his decision, reflects on the highs and lows of his career, and rates the current Springboks
PLUS: Six of the best match-altering tackles (and all of them legal)
212 Comments
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29 Sep 2009, 16:05 pm
retire rather
29 Sep 2009, 16:06 pm
in essence, skopskiet, you’re myopic. Be far-sighted…
29 Sep 2009, 16:19 pm
In other words Skop’s opinion is a heap of beattles dung.
The guy has no idea what development is. He thinks a coach creates a team in a week – like his comments about Eddie Jones winning teh world cup for us.
Eddie might have had valuable input but he didn’t change the way the Boks played. Jake groomed them to play WC winning rugbya nd thats what they did.
Eddies contribution I’m sure was valuable but a coach doesn’t build or make a WC winning team in the space of a month or so.
Really to even utter that is stupidity.
It took year to build the team to have the composure, defense, experience to win a WC. Jake knew that and thats what he set out from the start to achieve and he achieved it.
We are all proud of our current team. Give JAke his dues in this success. It really is astounding that people can;t do that. It’s pure stubborness and lack of ability to know what it takes to develop a winning team.
PDV deserves his dues as well. As a black coach in a sport loved like a religion my the majority of white people he must feel the heat. He has stood tall and delivered and good on him. He has made teh right decision in selection and come round to the right decisions in tactics. Respect.
29 Sep 2009, 16:48 pm
let’s see if he can answer without flinging f’ckadilly f’ckwit or ingrained ignorant bigots into the broth….or 49-0 for that matter…
29 Sep 2009, 20:40 pm
You people are deluded. We talking about why was Watson ostrisized as a follow on from who is the best Bok captaincy candidate after Smit.
Your delusion stretches to the fact that White didn’t select a fetching flank throughout his tenure and got whipped by the biggest hiding a bok coach could as a result of some of that very blindness. Now you trying to tell me he built a WC winning team after losing poorly through 06 and 07 in the 3N.
You also deluding yourselves to convincing your minds that by beating 7th ranked England and 6th ranked Argentina to win a world cup competition made in heaven was tantamount to eradicating all that poor strategy and hopeless losing through the two years before as somewhat redeeming this coaches credibility in your eyes.
Pdv is streaks ahead of White in terms of winning capacity unless you still unable to realize this.
Also its a totally false premise to believe the core of Whites team was of his own design or making. He made as many if not far more stupid decisions and selections than Pdv, one example being he was unable to recognize the need for a to the ball open side flank as highlighted already on this thread picking big slow ball carriers instead. Selecting poor fly halves like Vd Westhuizen poor wings like Pretorius and some others. He did not create the team that won the world cup he coordinated it together with Eddy Jones who he needed desperately as another internationally experienced sounding board because he was emphatically floundering right out of his depth, otherwise he would not have solicited his input. The only players introduced to that team during his tenure were Fdp, Steyn, Habana, Pienaar, Bismark and Jpp. All the rest incl J. Smit, V. Matfield, B. Botha, Steenkamp, Cj, Os, van Niekerk, Smith, Burger, van Heerden, Jdv, Percy etc were Springbok’s before he took charge. His two better years 2004 and 2005 were in fact when he had taken the previous team almost intact with Barry and Joubert still in centre field. After that his strategic and tactical lack actually got severely exposed hence the more than poor showings through 06 and 07.
No if anyone is short sighted and fooled by deluded oblivion round here its certainly not me but all you that still reckon White is or was anywhere near a rugby coach as Pdv is.
29 Sep 2009, 22:18 pm
Awesome! I now have something to read under my desk at school again!
30 Sep 2009, 17:37 pm
On the captaincy issue, i doubt Watson is the best captain at all, for the simple reason that he is percieved as being ‘divisive’. He is also not being selected by the present coach PdV, so its a non-issue.
On the JW issue, the RWC might have been a helluva lucky draw, but we succeeded where other teams failed in beating Argentina and England who put pay to the Frogs four times.
imo that Bok side would have beaten all and sundry, as the present side is showing it can do.
On who is best between PdV and JW, i think they are both excellent, and probably we were very lucky to get these two exactly when we did. I am not sure PdV would have been as consistent as JW was in terms of sticking to the core, even when losing, and I am not sure JW would have taken the team on as PDV has done with such a magnicent set of results including two away wins in NZ, a 5-1 3N demolition and a Lions series.
30 Sep 2009, 17:48 pm
Skop seems locked on to JW’s feud with Watson, was it really that big a deal? lots of coaches have issues with players, Woodward ended Cockerill’s international career over a disagreement. Sometimes personalities clash.
7 Oct 2009, 20:16 pm
I would have liked to see the cover split in 3 ways showing the Springboks’ success over the last 2 years. What a cover it would’ve made. Where’s the creative design guys?
7 Oct 2009, 20:19 pm
#208 Big Hit: they literally hated each other BH…thats a fact!!!
7 Oct 2009, 20:37 pm
#210 grant10: my point is that players are ignored all the time by sports coaches around the world based on a personality clash, it just happens sometimes
7 Oct 2009, 20:48 pm
#211 Big Hit: i agree…but this was fuelled by politics….the past history…powerful politics….and , no matter what anyone tells you BH, an intense dislike for each other….
One day when you visit SA we have a beer….my blonde was at J C E with Jake….i met and chatted to Luke in 2007 ….told him to stop the kak….also met Jake with the blonde….it was a goddamn soap opera.
No prizes for who you think i backed!!
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