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, 22:05 pm
@grant10: well what u say about matfield as a captain on the other hand look at what smit has lead us to ,he hasnt been average this year ,hes been good at loosehead -the shars front row is probabl the best in sa atm ,which is a scary thought becuase last season they where shocking -and grant if ud rather have brok ahrris than john smit than you crazy haha
19 Apr 2010, 22:05 pm
ef
19 Apr 2010, 22:05 pm
@ET:
No, you misunderstand what i am saying, White always wanted size, we all know that, its what everyone gets pissed off about, he would select Burger over Brussow.
But White also knew he had to select the min no of black players, so he mostly likely would’ve felt since both watson and floors were the same size, pick the black player – its obvious.
If you had said to White, forget the political policies, i doubt very much watson or floors would have been selected.
19 Apr 2010, 22:05 pm
G10,
On what are you basing your chastisement of Smit? When has he played poorly for the Boks?
Many, many international players have average S14’s, then have great international seasons
19 Apr 2010, 22:07 pm
Got sweet fanny all to do with pay back, its to do with non bigoted open eyed ability and pursuing equality in sport as an equality in society. Whats enshrined in this constitution is equality, no reservation of ethnic supremacy, which is still rampant in rugby circles, ask the players who have suffered under its yoke.
Watson in any other sane country would have been automatic first choice open side flank in 2006, only reason he wasn’t here is purely because the coach and the ideology behind him represented cowardly convictions of blinded bigoted fear, nothing else, pure unadulterated fear and power politics between a coach and a minor rugby player.
bullshit yourself any which way that its about size, nothing of the sort, it was about fear, and manipulative control, and that was it.
19 Apr 2010, 22:07 pm
Scuse me, have just remembered I need to watch some paint dry!!
19 Apr 2010, 22:07 pm
@GOD: i am the rangerman.
welcome to my world little guy.
@grant10: ag, smit has 2x3n, a BIL series, a world cup and a CC.
and you talk kuk man, you have not read smitty’s book. have you read jakes book?
reading snippets on keo or in a magazine does not count buddy.
19 Apr 2010, 22:07 pm
@elliott2:
you right, terms like left, right and centre are stupid, but since we’re a country that operates on labels and small-mindedness, and being proud of such stupid categorisations – feel free to continue.
19 Apr 2010, 22:09 pm
****, equality is equality, it does not mean race reservation based on skin colour (for any justification), it means equality for all from now. you have skewed equality to mean postive discrimination against a previous advantaged minority, which is payback and probably justified, but its not equality – this is what you ppl will never understand.
19 Apr 2010, 22:10 pm
carol, if you bored, i suggest heading back to RT for some back-slapping.
anyway, i gotta go pick someone up so must be off.
19 Apr 2010, 22:11 pm
@elliott2: ag, i had nothing to do with any banning, i really couldnt give enough of a toss.
non racial south africa?
LMAO!
if you are in business then you soon learn that the boot is simply on the other foot.
soon it will be on your neck froggie, but you just keep going…riiiiiiiiiibbbbbbit!!!!!!!!!
19 Apr 2010, 22:12 pm
@rangerman: You don’t understand business or economics you twat.. S14 is not only about developing local talent to play rugby.. it is about selling entertainment and making a profit. Its bigger than the on the training field. A S15 in the franchise in teh Eastern Cape is a marketing boon for the whole of the Eastern Cape.. Getting a winning team is about the wise selection of resources.. If there is enough money, the Franchise can buy whoever it wants to make it succeed and achieve the higher objective of uplifting the whole economy of the Eatern Cape.. Fortunately there is a rugby culture in the Eastern Cape so the use of Rugby as a marketing tool for teh Eastern Cape is not a bad idea.. No fake implementaion of a rugby culture is needed.
19 Apr 2010, 22:15 pm
of course i read whites book….i wanted to see how the sod spoke his way around not selecting the best opensider in SA in 2006….bloody malicious wally that he was////
broke down crying in church asking luke for forgiveness i bet…..sod!
19 Apr 2010, 22:15 pm
@cab:
@202
Cab you are ignoring my Facts. Solly and Kabamba were selected in Burger’s injury absence in 2006 and Luke was voted S14 player of the year that occassion for his superb play as a #6 in that 2006 S14. Where is the size factor with those 2, where is the form factor with those 2, where even is the non-racial factor with those 2 relative to Luke. You can, ad infinatum, say Watson is white but you will not convince the millions who know and support what he and his family stood for, that he is not black or not non-racial to the very core try as hard as you may.
19 Apr 2010, 22:15 pm
oh gawd, listen to this fool.
right i’m out.
19 Apr 2010, 22:16 pm
sorry ET, i am late, will reply when i get back. cheers.
19 Apr 2010, 22:16 pm
and with that, i too am off.
now no one get banned in my abscence please, it will all be my fault like all the criminals in south africa with their scapegoats.
captain glorious is going nowhere so grant should be able to entertain us all for another year.
and jake white is one of only six rwc winning coaches.
these truths, i hope, will set you all free.
19 Apr 2010, 22:17 pm
@rangerman: 215
Go read your latest vryheidsfront newsletter tosser.
19 Apr 2010, 22:18 pm
@GOD: huh?
i said drop the lions and bring on the spears.
are you sucking on a crackpipe langes?
look, i agree, rugby must grow, roundball must fall.
gotta go man, stay well.
19 Apr 2010, 22:19 pm
@grant10: bye bye grantie, just one chance!
19 Apr 2010, 22:19 pm
goodnite all…
outta here
19 Apr 2010, 22:20 pm
@elliott2: The fkkers are so predictable… but Mark almost got his arse kicked out of Safika for that incident.. here I am blogging from teh same IP address that they banned.. proof of my power..lol
19 Apr 2010, 22:24 pm
@rangerman:
@3209 and 215
Of course you will see you stupid association with racists as not contributing to a banning, how else can you then sleep at night the so fair-minded fool others see you to be.
What will you some day tell yor daughter 20 yrs. hence when she asks daddy what did you do to improve our country except be a hypocrite?
And now you typically run when the kitchen gets too hot.
19 Apr 2010, 22:26 pm
@GOD:
Just keep on remembering the hypocrites and give them hell based on their growing confusion and frustration.
19 Apr 2010, 22:26 pm
@rangerman: Run away twat.. trying to be humerous accentuates your twat demeanor
19 Apr 2010, 22:29 pm
@grant10: Cheers dude.. will catch up sometime
19 Apr 2010, 22:33 pm
Seems like my work is done here for tonight… chhers all.. and remember.. The Bulls are White Supremacist Scum.. humanity needs them to fail…
19 Apr 2010, 22:36 pm
@elliott2: BTW.. Transformation called me a racist the other day to the applause of the Supremacist twats.. I have removed the knive from my back and wrapped it up as evidence of wabenzi submissive behaviour..
Cheers dude.
19 Apr 2010, 22:43 pm
Who is the ‘you people’ dumb schmuck? What kind of a people are you, dumb *** idiot?
Do you know what a ‘you people’ or a ‘them people’ is you dumb *** delinquent irrational non rationalist?
Your punk nosed irrational bigotry is spewing out your punk *** judgmental bewildered brain right about now. Schmuck face.
Facts are White chickened out, no other two ways about it. White was and is a coward for creating a manipulated scape goat scenario out of a junior player, one he could not and did not have the courage to handle or face straight out or head on. So he created a furor in a country already divided through political ideologies and the idiot made it worse not better.
And who suffered out of it all, the player, nobody else.
And size shmize, f.all to do with size. Outright manipulative paranoid fear nothing else, just personal manipulative control and fear. Idiot. Politics or pay back f.all to do with any of it. Personal blatant manipulative control freak fear. Thats all it was and is.
19 Apr 2010, 23:16 pm
@rangerman:
@209
You cannot even comprehend what you read.
My post 202 refers to “seeking a non-racial S.A.” and not as you understood which is to you claiming S.A. is non-racial, for it is clearly not.
But what can you expect when you attended the pits of our then English universities.
For your edification, and delight the order then was;
Uct, Wits, Rhodes and then Natal of which PMB was not quite up to Howard College standards.
19 Apr 2010, 23:29 pm
@GOD:
@elliott2:
umZala kancane, gqoka okumnyama ngakuziqhenya. Musa ukungatha umbala wakho
19 Apr 2010, 23:33 pm
This HG fella is a linguist, a multi national linguistic one at that.
19 Apr 2010, 23:35 pm
A Zulu speaking colonialist, now fancy that, I thought they all died out with the Empire.
19 Apr 2010, 23:39 pm
@grant10: Is there something wrong with you?
19 Apr 2010, 23:45 pm
@elliott2:
@GOD:
Alternatively because you are obviously “Sport Scientists”
parum vir, tergum verecundor non
19 Apr 2010, 23:48 pm
@skopskiet: 231. Bepa your umdidi pipe
19 Apr 2010, 23:52 pm
Dammit why cant we get an electronic version of this magazine?
19 Apr 2010, 23:52 pm
@elliott2: 222. As confused as you are about meat and colour?
19 Apr 2010, 23:53 pm
rather smoke my hooka hubbly bubbly thank you very much ta
19 Apr 2010, 23:54 pm
Old fruit, what.
19 Apr 2010, 23:56 pm
@skopskiet: White was a successful coach – he won a World Cup.
Luke is a serial cotch and spew revolutionary. Nothing special.
Smitty is the most successful Bok Captain of the Modern era, followed by Teichmann – both Sharks!
Wake up from your nightmare and emerge from your cave…
19 Apr 2010, 23:59 pm
@skopskiet: 231. The Empire is very much alive. Good thing that, Old boy?
20 Apr 2010, 00:03 am
@GOD: 210. Is this a lesson in voodoo economics from the Mugabe / Zanu school? G*d help the Spears!
20 Apr 2010, 00:04 am
@grant10: 154. Duh!!?
20 Apr 2010, 00:05 am
@skopskiet:
you ppl was a cracker, you dumb *** twat.
20 Apr 2010, 00:06 am
@GOD: 157. Dont remember. Where you smoking the same cultivar G10 smokes.
20 Apr 2010, 00:06 am
rubbish, White was quite entitled to pick whomsoever he wanted to and it need’nt have had anything to do with fear or race or any of your other bullshit either.
20 Apr 2010, 00:07 am
@ET: 101. Wow, Wallaby lover.
20 Apr 2010, 00:08 am
the only ppl that are full of fear and paranoi is poephols like you lot that see the boogeyman behind every tree, but i really dont give a goddamn what you believe or know to be the truth, it is not the truth, only your version of it, heavily influenced by your own beliefs.
20 Apr 2010, 00:09 am
@ET: 113. Capital is Global and Mobile.
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