Forward thinking
9 Jun 2010
Keo, in SA Rugby magazine, writes that Peter de Villiers should be appointed to a second successive term as Bok coach – and gives the blueprint that would make this appointment logical.
South African rugby’s future has never looked so secure. Careful management of and greater patience with players is non-negotiable to turn the prospect of long-term international dominance into the tangibles that come with Test wins and tournament successes.
This country is blessed with more natural talent than any other, New Zealand included, and the depth is spread across every position. There’s not a position in which South Africa suffers, but there’s a perception that we suffer in too many positions because the patience needed in developing players and allowing them to mature isn’t always applied.
Players too often have left this country disillusioned at the inconsistent provincial, regional and national selection policy, and this is the one curse of having so much talent. If there’s no immediate blossoming, coaches and selectors have turned to the next talent.
In countries not as fortunate to have South Africa’s playing base, coaches are judged on their ability to develop players as much as their team’s results.
Quade Cooper, the outstanding Reds flyhalf, is just one example of how a country with limited rugby union resources had to stick with what they had identified. Cooper played Super Rugby as a 19-year-old and played like a kid just out of school. His game lacked natural authority, there was no maturity and one act of brilliance was counter-balanced with three acts of schoolboy jitters.
The Australians didn’t panic because they couldn’t afford to. They kept on playing him and three years later he’s the sensation of the tournament, and he’s only 22 years old.
In the early- to mid-noughties our coaches were inspired by the way Australian Stephen Larkham played flyhalf, so they tried to find South Africa’s Stephen Larkham. There were many players of similar skill but lacking in experience. They weren’t given the time to develop and because they didn’t play like the veteran Stephen Larkham they were dismissed as pretenders. It was wrong and that kind of thinking will always be wrong.
Identification is critical to any strategy and in the next 10 years the greatest opponent South African rugby will face is itself. New Zealand will always be competitive and, in the right cycle, seemingly unbeatable. But the Kiwis have suffered like never before because of the overseas player exodus. It has not necessarily weakened the national team, but it has shredded the fabric of the country’s Super Rugby superiority.
It used to be a Super Rugby experience to win in New Zealand. Now with some teams it is considered a failure not to win at least half of their matches there. The quality of players leaving New Zealand is also of finer pedigree than the South African ones who have sought northern hemisphere salaries and the comfort of less intense domestic leagues.
South Africa’s game can maintain those seeking a European experience. New Zealand’s can’t, and that’s the biggest advantage South African rugby currently has over New Zealand. The lesser advantage is that our schools rugby structure is the best in the world and the production line of talent is endless.
Having the best recipe still doesn’t guarantee the best meal, and that’s why the dismantling of coaching and administrative egos has to be as ongoing as transformation. It can’t be an event; it has to be part of everyone’s contribution to a calmer, better and more honest South African game.
Springbok coach Pieter de Villiers, under pressure from politicians to include more black faces in the national squad, succumbed to the pressure and picked players not good enough to play in the midweek Bok squad last November.
The selections were blatant window-dressing and particularly sad because South African rugby has progressed in substance when it comes to a national game that includes anyone good enough to play it or have the passion to contribute to its health.
The selections and shocking subsequent results indicated that South African rugby lacked depth. The truth is more pleasing because between the Bulls, Stormers and Sharks, South Africa has three of the most powerful provinces in world rugby, and all three teams are well represented by the next generation, who have succeeded at junior level and are excelling in Super Rugby.
Add the handful of genuine national contenders playing in Europe and South Africa should be able to select two national run-on XVs of near equal strength. Previously, only New Zealand could do that and if they continue to exclude their offshore players they will never be in a position to do so again.
South African rugby has been spoilt by the player investment made in 2004 by then Springbok coach Jake White and his selectors. The Bok coach trusted youth and allowed this youth to grow up on the international field and not in domestic rugby. These players went on to win the World Cup and because of their youth many are still around to defend the title. Those new to the environment have walked into a culture of winning and excellence. It’s easier to prosper when you live in a house built with cement and not dressed up with colourful wallpaper.
The talent, though, is what makes South Africa the envy of everyone. No other country has as much international depth among wings, scrumhalves, loose forwards, locks and hookers.
Every country, bar Italy and Argentina, suffers for quality tightheads, but while they have these front-row Frankensteins, they have little else to trouble the more established teams.
South Africa’s talent has to be celebrated, and where there’s a feeling of anxiety, the perceived second-rate talent has to be coached and the decision to invest in a player who’s not the complete case study has to be supported with a desire to get the maximum out of his talent.
Bulls and Bok flyhalf Morné Steyn, playing a secondary role to Derick Hougaard at the Bulls, was never considered the all-round international package. He got a chance last year, kicked the most incredible pressure penalty in the series-winning Test against the British & Irish Lions and forced the selectors to play him. In a new environment, with different demands and philosophies he had not been exposed to, his game strengthened and he finished the season as one of the top three international flyhalves and definitely the most consistent wearing a No 10 jersey.
An early call has to be made on who’s good enough to play Test rugby, not just with an emphasis in 2011 but also 2015.
It’s possible to prepare for both World Cups in the next six months and doing so would also address the issue of player burnout and of getting the right players to be at their peak at the 2011 World Cup.
It won’t be a crime to lose a Test in the next six months if the planning is obvious and the identification is as definite. If De Villiers plays what is a team for the future in certain Tests, it has to include the type of players who have forced their way into Super Rugby at a young age or have the skills to replace a Test incumbent who won’t be around in England in 2015.
This season allows for selection identification with a difference; two squads for two World Cups and this also gives De Villiers an advantage should he want to continue post 2011. Having worked with the next tier of Test player for two years has to be a magnet to continued employment.
And I don’t think De Villiers should be judged simply on winning the World Cup. It’s too much of a lottery. His greater judgement should be from the players he picks, the quality of the rugby played, the improvement of the individual and results that bring more champagne than flat beer.
There’s enough in the current playing pool to alternate Test sides, but this can only be sold to the rugby public if there’s conviction that when Victor Matfield, John Smit and Bryan Habana, for example, don’t play, the three who replace them will be there in 2015.
Playing rugby in South Africa and coaching South Africa has never been as exciting. The demands and expectation will never allow for mediocrity and failure at the expense of building, but in this country we don’t need to build or transform and expect to fail.
White proved it when he selected nine black players in his match 22 that beat a full-strength Wallabies side 33-20 at Ellis Park in 2005. The Bok line-up, laughed off as a political gesture to former president Nelson Mandela, led 33-8 and with a bit more experience could have put 50 past the Wallabies.
The failure of that victory was how few of those nine black players made it to the World Cup two years later. De Villiers has a test case he can refer to and learn from.
Black players in this country win South Africa more Tests than they have ever lost and when the right young white and black players have been identified, played and trusted, they have not failed.
There’s so much to be bullish about this international season, but it’s what can be assembled as a national squad for 2015 that is even more powerful than the very good squad De Villiers will take to defend the title in New Zealand in 2011. No other country can say that.
– This article first appeared in the June issue of SA Rugby magazine
267 Comments
Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 » Show All
9 Jun 2010, 06:19 am
Forward Dragon
9 Jun 2010, 06:22 am
Some people still has a lot to learn what rugby AND business is all about.
9 Jun 2010, 06:23 am
Skopskiet for next bok coach -
9 Jun 2010, 06:33 am
I would say that one of the biggest failings of the Boks selectors is that they dont identify startling talent at a really young age (like schooboy age), and make sure that they get put into the best training and conditioning institutions that they can. I know that the Bulls do it, but there should be such a thing on the national stage.
9 Jun 2010, 06:35 am
@straight talk(Chris Coetzer)-3: Oh hell no! If you think Pdv talks a lot of **** – then wait…
9 Jun 2010, 06:46 am
PDV has given us a team with frayed edges, against one of the top sides in the world.
Two centers on the bench (one in his first Super Rugby season). No fullback. Chilliboy, who hasn’t played consistently for two seasons. Dropping Frans Steyn, a star player, because he was “not up to standard” in one match.
I’ll give him the Ricky selection, for his mongrel against France, which I think is needed.
But that bench shows PDV’s continued immaturity.
He was appointed, and he accepted, the job of Springbok Head Coach prematurely for “other than rugby” reasons.
The worrying thing is that maturity comes with experience. And the World Cup is just around the corner, not four years from now.
9 Jun 2010, 06:48 am
New Zealand tried the whole “two world class XVs” thing before and it ended in a quarter-final exit at the WC.
Who cares if we could pick two great test sides now, yes it’s good to have but I would much rather we pick the best xv we can for all games…unless we play some more mid-week games.
9 Jun 2010, 07:04 am
@sglazer: #6 in your pessimistic view, an “immature” pdv trounced the geniuses of robbie deans & graham henry last year?
9 Jun 2010, 07:14 am
@Transformation(Transformation)-8: He had the strongest group of players in world rugby.
I’m not saying he’s not a good coach or a good person, just that he was appointed and accepted the position of Head Coach prematurely, and is now learning at this level on the job.
There’s an alternate reality we could and should be on, one in which we are a lot further ahead of the competition and settled in this role.
We must learn from this, never to make expedient appointments and selections ever again. And we must find a way forward now, with PDV as Head Coach, to winning the World Cup.
9 Jun 2010, 07:25 am
Soo now Keo admits that the European leagues are ‘less demanding’, and that our best players aren’t playing there.
The flavour of the day changes yet again.
9 Jun 2010, 07:28 am
In fact, he called it ‘less intense’.
9 Jun 2010, 07:33 am
@sglazer: #9 “alternate reality” you sound like walter bishop now, all this talk of being further ahead is nothing but conjencture. You’re basing your assumptions on not even a smidgen of reality. If jake white was mature enough to take over as springbok coach then peter de villiers was also more than qualified. At no point during peter’s appointment did oregan hoskins say we have gone for the less mature of the two candidates.
9 Jun 2010, 07:41 am
its all still Jake White … i really don’t think PDV has a clue. I wonder what PDV will do with a average team like the lions.
9 Jun 2010, 07:45 am
if jake was coach Brussow would still be a beer fetcher.
9 Jun 2010, 07:47 am
@sglazer(sglazer)-6:
Aaah, the old PdV was the political selection chestnut
Lets go back on the selection process
SARU Committe (Presidents of the various unions – political committee) elect a Technical Committe to assess the candidates
SARU and Technical Committee agree assessment criteria
Technical Committee chooses PdV
To my mind, this makes PdV the merit selection
Members of SARU Committee (the political arm), led by the northern unions, reject the Technical Committee’s decision
Said members of SARU Committee override Technical Committe decision and force matter to go to vote
PdV wins vote
Hoskins makes his infamous statements so as to appease the disgruntled members of the SARU (political) committe
Irony, PdV was the merit selection from the outset and is now derided as being the political selection
9 Jun 2010, 07:48 am
@Transformation(Transformation)-12: I do know about alternate realities. That’s my line of work. They do exist, all the time. We decide which reality we live in. They’re like movies, only more real ones.
I suggest watching The Elegant Universe (Nova) for windows into understanding the construct of our reality.
There’s no connection between Jake White’s appointment and PDV’s. They were separate, unrelated events. The one does not follow the other.
Oregan did say PDV was appointed for “reasons other than rugby”. And we all know who the rugby appointment would have been: the guy who went through the ranks and was the logical right choice to take on the role of Springbok Head Coach.
At the moment the Springboks are living a positive but befuddled reality, less than it could be, largely because of an expedient choice around the appointment of Head Coach.
Expediency is not a good choice. Honesty is.
9 Jun 2010, 07:49 am
@quotas_sux(quota_conrad_jantjies_is_jorrie_muller)-13: the same thing JW did last year i guess… F.all
9 Jun 2010, 07:53 am
@heita(heita)-15:
“Hoskins makes his infamous statements so as to appease the disgruntled members of the SARU (political) committe
Irony, PdV was the merit selection from the outset and is now derided as being the political selection”.
This is conjecture (an opinion or conclusion formed on the basis of incomplete information).
9 Jun 2010, 07:55 am
@Transformation(Transformation)-8:
You forget, according to the competency theorists, it was not PdV coaching those victories
As per the competency theorists, in Smit, Matfield & Du Preez we are currently blessed with what we can conclude must be rugby’s greatest EXPONENTS
Note use of the word EXPONENT (rather than player)
For not only are these inviduals the globes best players they similtaneously also out coach the worlds best coaches – Aus, NZ, BIL
Never has rugby history been blessed with such rugby talent
Combined player coaches the likes of which the game has never before seen
9 Jun 2010, 07:56 am
@sglazer(sglazer)-16: have you ever thought about what these “reasons other than rugby” are? It could’ve been anything really… think about it.
I can list a few things already… but instead I will let you try to come up with something…
9 Jun 2010, 07:58 am
@sglazer(sglazer)-18:
Its simple
Technical criteria were agreed by all
PdV was the candidate of choice
That made him the merit selection
Nothing incomplete about this
This is fact
No conjecture in this
If you believe otherwise, please highlight
9 Jun 2010, 07:59 am
AAAAAAAAAAAG PLEEEEAAAAAAAASSSSSEEEEE not so early in the morning with the merit/white/black snot asb!
Eish manne!
As jul wil relax kom bietjie plaas toe dat julle van al daai nonsens kan onslae raak.
Come and sit here with a coffee next to the dam and watch the Zebra, Kudu and rest of game… maybe then you will forget about all the merit/colour snot!
Eish..
9 Jun 2010, 08:01 am
@Staal(Staal)-22: Ek stem saam..
9 Jun 2010, 08:04 am
There’s no point in dwelling on the history, but there is value in being honest and learning from our mistakes (one of PDV’s virtues).
We need to find a way forward, that strengthens PDV’s weaknesses. We don’t have much time for experience. The World Cup is around the corner.
And we must resolve not to make expedient appointments and selections in future.
9 Jun 2010, 08:05 am
Heita, Transformation, how about commenting on this:
Two centers on the bench (one in his first Super Rugby season). No fullback. Chilliboy, who hasn’t played consistently for two seasons. Dropping Frans Steyn, a star player, because he was “not up to standard” in one match.
9 Jun 2010, 08:17 am
Keo,
This website was one of those claiming that it is the senior players coaching the team
Following this, your article then misses a key point
With pushing the re-election of PdV, should we not then also be proactive and start pushing for the likes of Potgieter, Hougaard, Spies, et al to complete their level 3 coaching certificates
For surely if we are going to continue with PdV combining his moustache on the sidelines we should have the next generation of rugby exponent ready to take over the player coaching roles
9 Jun 2010, 08:29 am
And then KEO has something to say when Chilliboy is included in the National setup meanwhile that is PDV trying to achieve what is suggested in the article.
9 Jun 2010, 08:33 am
@heita(heita)-26: LOL
Classic
9 Jun 2010, 08:34 am
Actually really surpirsed at some amteaur journalism on some valid points, but mostly non-related ramblings.
Isn’t this way of thinking exactly why we should move away from PdV specifically and go with someone with merit? Still think that he’s a clown of a couch, that is absolutely worthless if not for senior players controlling the team.
9 Jun 2010, 08:40 am
@Gevaar(Gevaar)-29: You know nothing about rugby, maybe you should start blogging on the FIFA website instead.
9 Jun 2010, 08:41 am
And here I thought that the Boks was and are currently coached by senior Boks?
9 Jun 2010, 08:41 am
@Staal(Staal)-22:
can we
shoot
them
9 Jun 2010, 08:46 am
@sglazer: #25 re chkiboy, read middles comment @ 27 and then re-read keo’s article on taking our best young/high school players & investing in them & what australia did with quade cooper! Pdv didn’t start picking all on his own, chili was in the set up already when pdv was appointed.
9 Jun 2010, 08:51 am
The secret to being successful is consistency. Before Jake we had a new coach almost every year ena each tried to enforce a new style of play which ultimately failed. Jake was almost fired as well but thankfully he prevailed.
For SA to stay dominant the coach has to be retained and the selection policy must be based selecting the inform team with a mix of old and new talent.
The Springbok jersey is not cheap and selection of a new prodigy should not be based on one game but on consistent excellent form.
That is what has been the basis of All Black and Aus success.
If you consider the showing of the Lions in the S14 with new staff all over the place from top management to players, it will take them at least 3-4 years to be competitive ifthe status quo is maintaid
9 Jun 2010, 09:04 am
@Porra the Fat Speedster(Porra)-32: yip.. you need ammo? Got plentch here oppie plaas!
9 Jun 2010, 09:07 am
The lengths people go to try and expose Keo as a d o o s is rather bizarre !!!
Who cares ????, he’s opinion is to generate debate /hits , rather successful if you ask me !
9 Jun 2010, 09:08 am
#9
Do you think PDV would have coached a provincial supa 14 side by now. He would still have been a assistant coach for **** or naka
9 Jun 2010, 09:09 am
@Staal(Staal)-35:
No man…….. let them roam and eat in peace !!!
9 Jun 2010, 09:17 am
@justrugby(justrugby)-38: hey i very rarely shoot something oppie plaas but here on this blog i wanna shoot a few!
9 Jun 2010, 09:19 am
I just hope all the racists out there can finally appreciate what Jake White has done for SA rugby.
When he took over our rugby was in the doldrums due to his efforts he left(forced out) the national set up far healthier than when he arrived.
Pdivvy and all future coach’s should bow down and kiss Jakes feet.
9 Jun 2010, 09:24 am
Keo pulls out another race related article.. It’s tired now.
9 Jun 2010, 09:25 am
@Staal(Staal)-39:
LOl…. that’s for sure !!!
9 Jun 2010, 09:29 am
I read this article in the magazine and I thought it was great then, as I do now.
My belief is that South African rugby, as more or less implied by the article, lacks proper business planning around a sports industry.
Something as simple as a SWOT analysis can map out a very clear and concise plan for now and the future.
There are certain risks or ‘threats’ we are faced with in rugby, some are global threats and some uniquely South African, these threats need to be identified and addressed. (Player exodus, player identification and player development as well as transformation are issues to fall under this)
Similarly our strengths (player depth, talent) and opportunities need to be identified and amplified or secured (policies on developing local talent, keeping local talent and criteria’s for selecting overseas based talent and what ‘carrots’ we can hold in front of the noses of the players). This might include privatisation if only in part of rugby or unions in South Africa to improve the cash reserves in rugby locally as well as our most valuable asset with great value even if not monetary being the Bok jersey.
One of our biggest weaknesses though is structures within SA Rugby. Structures such as the Bulls employ needs to be adapted and adopted to a national scale.
The simple goal should be that once players are identified and incorporated into the South African rugby system, to make it close to impossible for them to leave it or get lost in it.
This in my view will remain our biggest challenge as it is our biggest weakness. But if we get that right, SA will dominate rugby union in the way America, Russia, etc dominate the Olympic games.
As a footnote, and seeing it is a major topic of discussion this article with the example of Cooper suggests that both White and Peter are doing the right thing with Chiliboy, having invested so much time and resources in what no doubt was/is a good talent, by keeping him involved. The only criticism being the criteria in which this is done and when, as a business, to perhaps cut your losses and move on.
It will be a very tough call to make in rugby, but it is a very tough call to make in business and that is what rugby is now isn’t it?
9 Jun 2010, 09:30 am
@adi(adi)-37: A Bok assistant coach. Look at the contribution Alistair Coetzee made, and how he developed.
9 Jun 2010, 09:35 am
Perhaps the most stupid and politically correct suck up post I have ever read. Keo you post a lot of insightful stuff but how in the world can you back a buffoon like pdv.
Nobody in their right minds would back this guy. He is just extremely fortunate to have an incredible array of talent available with plenty of player experience. If we win anything it is despite ou pdv – a brainless hatter who is selecting quota players and claiming to select on merit.
Please Keo show some guts and stand up for rugby and decency rather than condoning the appointment of this quota coach who should be muzzled once and for all -what an embarrassment he is!!!
9 Jun 2010, 09:36 am
Yes … A Coetzee didn’t know the difference between a scrum and a ruck … Rassie & Jake het hom mooi geleer.. Nou perform hy
9 Jun 2010, 09:37 am
Why does it take ten years for non-white people to develop where-as whites can just coach (Rassie,****,Naka,)
Allistair has developed a long time ago, he just had to go with the system to get an oppurtunity
9 Jun 2010, 09:38 am
#46
Dankie Baas
9 Jun 2010, 09:39 am
@PissAnt(PissAnt)-43:
Don’t throw good money after bad money. Meaning just because you unwisely invested loads of cash in Chilliboy in the past, don’t base your future decisions on that.
It is a sunk cost, and I can only imagine the results if the same amount of time and effort had been invested in Adriaan Strauss, for example.
Or you could have saved all that money, and simply picked guys who had risen to the top by themselves, or thanks to the work of their provincial unions. Guys like Gary Botha and Tiaan Liebenberg.
We’re wasting our money on Chilliboy, in my view. The future Bok captain is not Rallapele in any case. It is Dewald Potgieter. Who will also take over the captaincy at Chilliboy’s provincial union, in my view.
9 Jun 2010, 09:40 am
@Tacitus(Tacitus)-49:
Like I said, where we miss the boat with many players is knowing when to cut your losses.
Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 » Show All
Have your say
You must be logged in to post a comment.