Calling the shots
19 Apr 2010
Victor Matfield is the most complete captain in South Africa.
In the new issue of SA Rugby magazine, we find out how Matfield’s leadership style has evolved over the years and what makes him such an outstanding captain for the Bulls today.
‘I was a real stubborn bugger when I was in my early- to mid-20s. Hard-headed and unplayable at times,’ Matfield says in an honest self-appraisal of his formative years. ‘Even though I was a youngster in the teams I represented I would still want to have an influence on important decisions and I wanted things done my way. On the surface it seemed like I had everything under control, but inside I was unsure of myself. Now I see captains like that and I cringe because they are what I was and it’s ugly.’
Matfield goes on to reveal the things that have helped him to grow as a leader and what he learnt from iconic American football coach Vince Lombardi. Heyneke Meyer and Fourie du Preez also provide unique insight into Matfield’s captaincy style.
Also in the new issue:
– Bulls backline coach Pieter Rossouw on earning his players’ respect, Fourie du Preez’s dispensibility and adapting to the new law interpretations
– The Western Province Rugby Institute was established in 2007 in order to retain the union’s young players and help them to make the transition to senior level. SA Rugby magazine finds out what progress has been made
– Why Wandile Mjekevu has the potential to become a world-class wing
– Bismarck du Plessis on the Sharks’ poor start to the Super 14, his alleged rift with John Smit, and why he wants to stay in Durban
– Conrad Smith on the Hurricanes, next year’s World Cup in New Zealand, his ideal Bok midfield and life after rugby
– Reds flyhalf Quade Cooper may be a bad boy off the field, but he’s making a good impression on it
– The new law interpretations have forced Super 14 teams to change the way they play the game. Rassie Erasmus, Gary Gold, Robbie Kempson and Balie Swart explain why
– Discarded England flyhalf Danny Cipriani hopes to resurrect his career with Melbourne’s new franchise, but it won’t be easy
– Francois Pienaar on the progress of the Varsity Cup, its future plans, Maties’ dominance and how the competition helps transformation
– Former Stormers lock Ross Skeate on his successful stint with Toulon, his enduring hope of a Springbok call-up and why the new law interpretations will never catch on up north
– Jake White explains why the maul is an important part of the game and how to counter-act it
329 Comments
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19 Apr 2010, 21:13 pm
@grant10:
by fat boy i take it you mean john smit. Smit has not only won a world cup but has guided the boks to probably one of the best runs of their history and you still wont give an ounce of credit.
and you are also hypocrite, you swing between saying he is an old warrior to be being bladdy useless, in short, you talk ****.
@GOD:
upon what do you base your idea that these ppl were all racist supremacists? are you actually going to provide any logic in your arguements or is it all just going to be emotive nonsense. You have absolutely no arguement from me regarding the boneheads of the past, but why do you think Mallett and White are racist?
19 Apr 2010, 21:15 pm
non-selection on the basis of race, wtf are you talking about?
Watson is white. If anything, the selection process is in fact biased to selected based on skin colour, but that happens to be black today. You damn right, those policies should be up for judicial review.
19 Apr 2010, 21:19 pm
ooh look, its the grant10 show.
set to run til 2011.
but a bit like “Lost” its all made up along the way.
19 Apr 2010, 21:23 pm
smit is not even a contender if based on form…..any logical coach would tell him to call it a day…..but pdv has chosen to make his bed….and we will all harvest the fruits [ or lack thereof ] come 2011.
Silly and sentmental wallys.
19 Apr 2010, 21:25 pm
if it wasnt for the fact that some fine folk like wptid and Dawnie have met both grant and skopshit at the same time, i would have said they were two ******* bouncing from branch to branch of the bonsai growing in some old nutters head down in capetown.
but i guess i would have been wrong.
it seems they breed obsessive compulsive kuk talkers down in the fairest cape.
but jake white was a magnificent bok coach
and john smit will be remembered long after little blog warriors like skorpie and grant have dripped back into the sea.
19 Apr 2010, 21:27 pm
best looseheads….Beast ….Guthro…Wickus Blaauw….Heinke vd merwe…W Du preez…..then maybe smit.
best hookers…Bissy….liebenberg….G Botha….then maybe smit
best tightheads…..BJ….CJ….BROCK…WERNER KRUGER…..the wynberg girls high u 15 tighthead…..then maybe smit.
Bloody disgrace i tell you.
Heavens ablove the oke must be a captain of note….because he cant play for toffee!!
19 Apr 2010, 21:28 pm
@cab: Mallet about Deon Kaizer.. “Not much must be read into the three tries scored by Deon, it belies his actual ability” Find the logic in dismissing a potent finisher who had proven himself game after game when given the opportunity.. Mallet about Paulse “Quota with merit???”… Even though he was arguably the best finisher in the world at the time.
JW looked to embarass Nelson Mandela and prove to the world that Black players cannot step up.. The game in 2005 he chose 9 black players for the Mandela cup game… All the players stood up and shocked the rugby world by destroying the Aussies in the first half… JW was pissed off.. so he removed the two most prolific black players in the team and replaced them with two white icons.. If you don’t remember.. Solly T and January were substituted… Schalk burger proceeded to fkup as usual and th twisted decision of JW allowed teh Aussies back in the game..
I have much evidence.. but suck on that first.
19 Apr 2010, 21:28 pm
jake white was a malicious , back stabber,small minded wally of note…..
19 Apr 2010, 21:29 pm
thank *** we dont have a cancer in the bok squad at least.
luke will probably end up running for prime minister of the uk.
he is getting too long in the toth for the boks now with all the talent coming through and i wish him all the best.
but he wont cross my mind for a nanosecond when i watch smitty lead our troops onto the kiwi turf next year.
gooooooooooooooooo Smitty!!!!!!!!!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
19 Apr 2010, 21:30 pm
matfield to lead boks in 2011.
Get rid of the deadwood….once and for all
19 Apr 2010, 21:31 pm
pointless conversation anyways
smitty is the most succesful bok TH of all time. 80% win record.
good enough for me
good enough for you
good enough for three
if you count pdv
19 Apr 2010, 21:31 pm
madness. i mean everyone knows the Boks have to select a certain no of black players in every squad, this type of legislation is widespread in modern day SA.
It is race reservation based on skin colour, but apparently excused on the basis of past injustices.
As for due process and the rule of law, please.
the president of SA rugby is black, the Springbok coach is black, the govt of this country has enforced widespread legislation based on skin coloring and favouring black ppl – so please dont talk nonsense.
And as for the struggle, what exactly are you trying to expose. I mean how do you prove there is all this supposed inherent racism where PdV is supposedly this powerless naive puppett. Pdv does not take anyone’s kak, and everyone knows that any white organisation, be it real or imagined, is pisswilly compared to the might and influence of the ANC – so please lets frame the context accurately.
19 Apr 2010, 21:32 pm
lets do the merit thing…..thats all i want.
Bloody quota smit at 3 ….and r pienaar at 15….
disgrace.
wake up pdv…..smell the coffee.
19 Apr 2010, 21:32 pm
@cab: 152.. Watson’s political history made him unpopular with the white supremacist.. Remember, White activist were also assasinated/murdered by white supremacist..Neil Agget, Rick Turner….??
19 Apr 2010, 21:35 pm
beast and guthro do more in 10 minutes than smit in 80…..disgrace i tell you.
Relying on past glories….soft…soft…soft.
we will go down smashed by the frogs…..watch.
19 Apr 2010, 21:36 pm
the civil service in south africa has been “over transformed” according to research.
transfomed into a festering sink hole of corruption and incompetence.
luckily sport is all about actually having talent so it has not been so easy.
19 Apr 2010, 21:36 pm
@rangerman: Still sad about the death of ET you faker.. When you gonna meet up with xkreni.. stay at his B&B.. talk about the good old days.. You are pure twat mate
19 Apr 2010, 21:36 pm
@grant10:
they said that about gary botha and then scalk britz, in fact, you were almost certainly one of those, he’s seen them all off and has forgotten more about the game than you will ever know.
@GOD:
157, as far as a i know Kayser was competing against Robbie Fleck and Andre Snyman at the time, arguably one of the best centre combinations the Boks have produced. Keyser was also selected by Mallett as far as i know and played where possible.
Would you select Kayser ahead of either Fleck or Snyman?
As for you supposed evidence, its all total conjecture as experience through your subjective prism. I believe JW was a strong admirer or Mandela and would never purposefully try insult him, but as far as i know the Mandela trophy remains a series of test matches, not charity friendliess highlighting the scurge of racism.
19 Apr 2010, 21:38 pm
skopshit just met 2 other bloggers today, Ufo and Charo just had a beer while skopshit drank his bitter lemon, so yeah just because other bloggers like cab and rangerboy think JW walks on water and his prodigy JS too, don’t mean diddly squat in the grand scheme of things, not even in the grand scheme of all things rugby,
there are many fine lines drawn in the sand between heroes and villains, and just as Krakatoa might erupt again tomorrow, so too does John Smits invincibility or Jake Whites credibility get washed down the plughole of time, because as much as hero’s are born from biochemically baffled brainwashed bred contortionists theories of pie in the sky morality, so too are those who got done by the status quo conundrum of puritanical bigoted bully’s still to garner their own pound of flesh, somewhere, someday, somehow.
19 Apr 2010, 21:39 pm
anyway…..pdv has made the bed….i will continue o point out his stupidity….maybe he reads this….
if he chooses ‘capt fantastic i walk on water but cant scrum for toffee’ at 3 though, then i choose the right to support the wynberg girls u 15 rugby team rather than watch the carnage that will be bok rugby.
That wynberg girls team at least got a specialist 3…
19 Apr 2010, 21:40 pm
@GOD:
152, but you have simply equated Watson’s non-selection as being a result of JW’s supposed bigotry. I dont believe it was, i believe it was a rugby decision and there are others who believed there were better flankers in SA. As i have indicated, Jones and Mexted also felt this, are they also white supremacists? they have nothing to do with watson and yet i’m sure they were equally impressed by Watson snr’s stance.
But what has actually happened to Luke Watson insofar as his captaincy and impact is concerned. Do you know that in both of the S14 seasons after he left the Sharks and the Stomers, the team appears to have performed considerably better, that is concrete evidence reflected in the actual results.
19 Apr 2010, 21:41 pm
@rangerman: 166.. Rugby = competence.. LMAO.. Cheetahs still have the same twats in charge.. **** Muir gets applauded for a good lose..??? Grow up young man..
19 Apr 2010, 21:43 pm
Bloody hell we a bunch of sentimental,candy floss rah rah barney is a demi God bunch of pom pom ladies.
How much more we have to thank smit ?
FFS….its klaar, over, verby, kaput, in its moer man!
The man is finito!
19 Apr 2010, 21:44 pm
yeah and just like skopshit, et, grant10, heyta, trannie and the 1001 other fellas with a pyre to burn think their opinion about rugby and politics is correct – its mostly BS fanned by their politics. you’re simply blinded by your struggle and it feels good, so go for it, but its nonsense and its not fair either.
19 Apr 2010, 21:44 pm
luke watson has integrity….he didnt publically deride a fellow bok for 30 schekels of silver .
19 Apr 2010, 21:45 pm
@grant10:
170, yeah you mean more carnage like 2009, we should be so lucky.
fool.
19 Apr 2010, 21:46 pm
seems bloggers sit in France and then call the odds….
19 Apr 2010, 21:46 pm
@grant10:
175, no just spat the dummy and called in his pa when the coach did not select him.
19 Apr 2010, 21:47 pm
while others sit in clifton and lecture on the frontrow.
19 Apr 2010, 21:47 pm
we win a few tests in 2009 even though we scrummed in our moer….worst scrums i have ever seen….kak poor man, sleg!
Now we happy to leave it?
Fark that….smit must go….klaar!
19 Apr 2010, 21:48 pm
@GOD: now now, dont get all worked up shaun.
i may speak uncomfortable truths but i have not a racist inclination in my body.
and why would i give a toss about a horse riding meglomaniac who professed just as much hatred towards english speakers as he did about security gy=uards and petrol attendants.
lastly, come back from stevengae man, we need thinkers here to write speeches for young julius
19 Apr 2010, 21:48 pm
the poor dumb lefty has done an about turn and become a full blooded righty, in fact the poor dumb rationalist has rationally convinced himself that playing black players in the bok setup is tantamount to racism, the reverse type at that.
So now you have a dyed in the peepee hole revolutionary, standing vas by his bigoted pie in the sky poephol White coach who was such a conniving two timer coward that he was too chicken to select the best No.6 in the country for fear of his cowardice being found out for what it was. So what does this bigoted conniving unscrupulous schoolmaster do, he creates a pariah scape goat catalyst and hides behind his schoolboy head boy captain, making him the evangelist and the black sheep the sacrificial lamb.
Should be hung up and drawn and quartered for such despicable acts of underhanded deceitful Big Man Coach cowardice, creating scape goats from minors because he’s not big enough to face him square on one on one.
Pah, cowardly underhanded chicken **** tactics supreme, and these punk eyed rationalists can’t see reality from fiction.
19 Apr 2010, 21:49 pm
a few tests…you an utter idiot, its the best year we’ve had since readmission.
19 Apr 2010, 21:50 pm
@cab: Your selective amnesia is wonderful.. The stormers and province started to perform when luke took the helm.. rather disingenius of you to forget that Luke was chosen as player player of the year at the stormers last season.. why?? Luke was the best loosie at the sharks.. he was also the best lossie in SA. Catleya who hates him proved that in his very interesting analysis.. so you view of Luke in terms ability and leadership is skewed by your own lack of ability to remove your blinkers
19 Apr 2010, 21:52 pm
smit lost all my respect when he took the sensationalism for cash. I still am in shock that a bok skipper could ever stoop that low….sorry, but that was the end for me . I cant stomach that….on so many levels it is wrong.
So you ladies can don the pom pom dress and rah rah all you like….for me Smit is a persona non grata….and to top it all not even an average player .He should retire and go join Jake snake at winning ways….
thats my bundle….
outta here
19 Apr 2010, 21:55 pm
Grant10,
You know what, you are right. Smit is probably not playing his best rugby. I want to explain to you once and for all the impact of not dropping your Captain…
1) G Teichman. Dropped for a supposed better player. Nearly had revolt throughout the team. Henri Honiball was so angry, he faked injuy.
2) Sean Fitzpatick – overstayed his international welcoe by 2 years. In 1996, Norm Hewitt was NPC player of the year. Did the AB’s drop him? No. What did his leadership deliver? Tri-Nations titles in 1996 & 1997.
3) John Eales – not the best lock in Aus in 1999. Won the RWC though.
Now I am not trying to compare these players, but what I would like you to acknowledge (because I think that you have some decent ideas) is that dropping your Captain will cause ripples within your team. It will make certain players feel vulnerable, and create discontent.
Read a few books where players talk about how a Bok team with 17 consecutive victories fell apart at the seams over their Captain being dropped.
19 Apr 2010, 21:55 pm
Am I the only one that Victor looks like an Argentinian in this picture?
Any night owls about?
Or do we have to argue about Sharks and racists?
19 Apr 2010, 21:55 pm
i aint become a rightie, i am evaluating what has happened and prefer not to label ppl as racists when we dont know their actual selves. And insofar as i know there are racism is not the sole preserve of whites.
i dont have to convince myself of anything, it is widely known that the Bok have to select a certain no of black players in their squad, morever BEE is enshrined in the SA stature, so its my opinion, its fact, there are places reserved based on skin colour, and i can assure you its not white.
you got no clue, you blinded by payback, and its probably deserved, but you happy to bypass the principles. You are emotive and its not the wisdom mandela had, he expressed it very clearly when he took over, equality for the cycle to stop.
19 Apr 2010, 21:56 pm
@GOD:
and the eastern cape is punted for a s15 franchise on the back of coming 7th in the vodacom cup.
grow up yourself chappie, your bs doesnt fly in the uk and it wont fly here.
@grant10: LMAO! now PdV is going to read your drivel and learn something?
what an inflated opinion you have of yourself.
its actually quite disturbing.
now sit back and stay tjoepstil as langes and skopdoos unleash another racial tirade.
no backbone in a group of liberal clifton folk, just hoping being “revolutionary” will save the pad with the view.
sad thing is, your kind are rounded up first, like picking mushrooms (grow in the dark and eat….)
19 Apr 2010, 21:56 pm
in fact these so called scientific rationalists wouldn’t know what a politically driven sentiment is, all they see is White was right to banish and ostracize a junior player based on the very fear factor driven by the boys parental political agendas.
So in actual case of point, and no two ways about it is it in any way otherwise, shroud your dogma any which way you like, White was a downright underhanded unscrupulous double standard coward, and to this day he knows himself that I’m right.
bullshit baffles balderdash rationalists bunkum bewildered brains
19 Apr 2010, 21:58 pm
@rangerman: …”i may speak uncomfortable truths but i have not a racist inclination in my body.”… try and tell that to yourself every day.. while sipping a cold one with Xkreni.. Time to tell us who you are mate.. Don’t be afraid.. remember.. “you have not a racist inclination in your body”
19 Apr 2010, 21:58 pm
@cab:
You have this annoying habit of going to and fro wrt White and Burger. Come to a conclusion soon to help yourself and others.
The selectors and the coach are tasked with selecting a non-racial competitive team and you know the coaches(all) and the unions(even W.P.,eg. Jacobs to the north) were deliberately flouting that requirement. so the Govt. nudged them with ‘guidelines’
Even if I restrict myself to your criteria(sadly misguided they are) you are not being honest. Where is the stupid White size factor when you admit that in 2006 after the Burger injury the selectees were Solly Tjibilika and Floors. Where is the form or merit factor with either of those two relative to Watson? Where is the non-racial factor with those two relative to Watson.Please do not refer to colour as not a single black would have complaned about that if Luke was selected.
You do not want to accept that White deliberately did that to even the score with the Govt., ANC and his mostly
‘verkrampte’ SARU exec. who called him to task on a number of occassions. White imo deliberately did that to rub the nose of non-racialism in the dirt.
He is a racist, vindictive skunk, of that I have no doubt.
19 Apr 2010, 21:58 pm
@grant10: stop pushing youre anti smit campaign ,smits been good this year and youre whole turbo reverse story is slowly becoming ,no wait it has become a pain to listen to
19 Apr 2010, 21:58 pm
@GOD:
the currie cup is nonsense, half the best players are injured or resting after the S14 and EOY tests. hell if the currie cup was the indicator there’d be a different bok team each week, its the S14 that counts.
If Watson was all of that, how come both the Sharks and Stormers performed considerably better after he left?
19 Apr 2010, 22:00 pm
@BULLET: 186
I have read all the books mate….i love thios godforsaken game with a passion…..but smit is way off the pace….miles bhind…..and we still over a year out from wc 2011.
Smit is finished….klaar….and i would give the armband to Matfield….who would do the job without the massive backlash.
The game is professional…not amateur….these are top boks we are talking about….not amateurs….they will adapt.
FFS Smit would never make the bulle team anyway….Matfield has the WC and 2 x super 14 titles and a win in dunedin as capt.
This putting a now 2 nd rate player on such a lofty pedestal is childish and an insult to bok rugby.
Its downright ludicrous to think boks will implode without smit.
We may implode with him as he is a weak link…..
19 Apr 2010, 22:02 pm
SKOPSKIET,
I am not condoning or chastising White’s actions, as I do not understand the facts well enough, but on 20 October 2007, I believe that any of the critics who claimed that White did not know what he was doing as coach, were hiding.
He delivered the ultimate prize.
when he delivered that prize, I do not recall too many bloggers/fans complaining that Watson was no in the team…Even the “Anti-White” campaigners were happy to receive the trophy, endorsement deals, trips to Laures Sports awards etc etc.
19 Apr 2010, 22:02 pm
nonsense, Jake White is quite entitled to choose whoever he wants provided he is rugby coach, he was not the only one who did not feel Watson’s selection was deserved, so please stop talking **** in my ears, you want to believe that, that is fine, but its rubbish.
White was annoyed when Watson attacked him through the press, and responded in kind. Now you can argue who should’ve been the bigger man and all that, but that cuts both ways, and i find it especially ironic coming from a section of ppl that have already so plainly made up their mind about ppl that its actually amusing.
Dogmatic struggle fellas, every bit as dom as their calvinistic forebears. you just dont get it, its conditioning, but no surprise.
19 Apr 2010, 22:03 pm
and there we have it.
grant has not read smitty’s book but will attack the man endlessly because of snippets he has read on keo and in the sensationalist press.
does this make grantue the same as all those who attack luke for his speech about kotsing on the bok jersey while his comments are apparently taken out of context?
i think so.
and i think it makes our grant a hypocrite.
and you cannot EVER trust a hypocrite folks. their moral compass spins according to what they hope to gain out of honest discourse.
19 Apr 2010, 22:03 pm
Oh, never mind……
!!!!
19 Apr 2010, 22:04 pm
@GOD:
Just remember the trio of Xkreni, Karen and Ranger and boom you were banished.
Note who is on the far right of that group.
Just seeking a non-racial S.Africa means being a leftist to that misguided oaf. He does not know his arse from his elbow when it comes to left, right or centre for that matter.
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