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
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9 Jun 2010, 11:13 am
@XhosaKid(XhosaKid)-95: solly was used as a political pawn unfortunately.
i really rated this guy and am saddened that he was lost to our rugby.
it is not right.
9 Jun 2010, 11:14 am
@Mike H(Mike H)-98:
I think he meant Heyneke Meyer- IMO unparalleled in rugby initiative and development.
9 Jun 2010, 11:14 am
@adi(adi)-60:
if black people can’t make AA or BEE work in their favour arguing that white people are ‘more equal’ than blacks is completely nonsensical.
Any black person who fails to succeed in an environment created for him to succeed is either lazy or incompetent
9 Jun 2010, 11:14 am
This reflexion is kind of naive…
You can’t make 2 teams for the 2011 WC with the 2015 WC in mind. You need to have a group of 40 players, very close in term of level, who can play together, and if one is missing the team is still competitive. They will be picked depending on their form of the moment/injuries/tactics/rules applied etc…
But I agree with the fact that SA rugby has incredible depth, and some players didn’t have the chance/time to prove themselves, and it could be an issue during the 2011 WC…
9 Jun 2010, 11:17 am
102. Agile T*t-Tyrant(Anairetes agilis) :
June 9th, 2010 at 11:14 am
@Mike H(Mike H)-98:
I think he meant Heyneke Meyer- IMO unparalleled in rugby initiative and development.
Ah
I have seen Piss call for JW to be Director of SA Rugby as well – HM is a good choice as well.
But JW is my man, but i respect HM indeed – turned the BUlls from rubble into the best franchise in the world.
9 Jun 2010, 11:23 am
Januarie 4 captain!
9 Jun 2010, 11:40 am
@Tacitus(Tacitus)-74: Dewaldt Potgieter is a King or a Spear …
9 Jun 2010, 11:45 am
@Mike H(Mike H)-105:
Correct I would not mind either of the two.
I remember in December in 2007 I mentioned Jake would make a mistake if he continued to coach the Boks as his role now should solely be in the management and implementation of structures within the game.
I was not well liked after that comment.
9 Jun 2010, 11:49 am
@quotas_sux(quota_conrad_jantjies_is_jorrie_muller)-96: and @Mike H(Mike H)-99: and@Frankly speaking(Frankly speaking)-100:
Would you guys care to comment on the below, its easy to distort history to suite a certain agenda or perception.
08/Feb/06
“Coach **** Muir has gone with veteran loose forward Warren Britz at No 6 and named Samoan import Daniel Farani on the bench for Saturday’s match against the Chiefs in Durban. It is a selection that will no doubt irk Bok coach Jake White who has spent the last two years trying to convince the Sharks that Tyibilika is good enough to play in the Vodacom Super 14.
Tyibilika earlier in the week told keo.co.za that he needed regular game time ahead of the World Cup and was in the best form of his life. In Bok conditioning tests held over the last year, Tyibilika was always the fittest loose forward in the squad.
While Muir’s decision to play Britz and AJ Venter on the flanks is understandable, he will have a hard time defending the selection of a foreigner ahead of a black Bok.”
9 Jun 2010, 11:50 am
pdv in his 2006 under21 baby boks team, had chiliboy as starting hooker & his captain with maku on the bench, alistair hargreaves was on the wood with wilheim steenkamp & nikolai blignaut as the starting locks…pdv has tried with do exactly what keo & pissant are suggesting with a lot of the guys eg morgan newman (when pdv picked him to go to the bok camp last year or the yr before, everyone & their grandmother were screaming “who the hell is morgan newman?”), adriaan strauss (who was also on the bench), heinke van der merwe
9 Jun 2010, 11:56 am
@XhosaKid(XhosaKid)-109:
All provincial coaches care about is winning. They will pick whoever gives them the best chance of achieving that goal.
A provincial coach isn’t going to drop a black player if that player increases the chances of the team achieving a win by 1%.
At the same time, he isn’t going to pick a black player if a white player gives the team a 1% better chance of winning.
Coaches don’t care about colour. They care about results. Because that’s what the fans care about, and the fans vote with their wallets when it comes to ticket sales.
It’s a harsh environment, and all that counts is success.
9 Jun 2010, 12:04 pm
@JEZ(DEE DAH)-103: Not all whites succeeded when the system favoured them. So your comment about blacks not being able to make BEE work for them makes no sense. WorKs both ways buddy!
9 Jun 2010, 12:11 pm
Apart from having a formal SA “A” team, like the England Saxons, who play regularly, I reckon we should pay more attention to the original reason for the Super series. Which was to provide a platform for the countrys’ top 150 players at just below test level and eliminate national trials.
The AB policy of allowing the franchises to announce a core squad of 25 contracted players with the national selectors then apportioning non core players that they want to see more of to bolster other franchises, is the better option. This wouldn’t affect CC contracts but would ensure that young players don’t get hoarded by the unions or kept out by more established ones. Currently the Unions/Franchises are the ones deciding who the national selectors get to see.
9 Jun 2010, 12:28 pm
Beeno – Your comments from post 40odd are very rude and derogatory towards PDV. I believe/know that PDV has done very well as a coach, he has good people skills and is not too arrogant to learn from his mistakes!!
I do still belive we are benefiting from the White era, but it still takes a good coach to continue it!
Take Markgraaf(kkk lookalike) for instance, inherited the well coached(Christie) RWC95 team and destroyed it.
9 Jun 2010, 12:36 pm
Here are a lot of fake people. The boks are winning.
But it seems thats not good enough. Then you have to conclude its the colour of the head coach.
9 Jun 2010, 12:37 pm
Hey KEO – regarding your twits, encase you didn’t know there’s another game against France and one against Italy for Butch to play…
9 Jun 2010, 12:42 pm
a lot of people here would really like us to believe that jake white is some rugby messiah when white himself 18 months to the ’07 world cup admitted he had no succession plan in place and was annoyed with provincial coaches for not resting the guys he depended on. If jake masterfully engineered succession in sa rugby why didn’t he field the team of supa dupa youngsters that he’d identified as the next tier when he rested the boks for the away leg of the tri-nations?
9 Jun 2010, 12:48 pm
@Bok fan(Bok fan)-116: you are wrong.
France a 1 off
then 2 games vs Italy.
9 Jun 2010, 12:50 pm
@adi(adi)-115:
“Here are a lot of fake people.”
Oh…no…we…have…been…found…out. Robots!…prepare…for…retaliatory…action…
Over…and…out.
Bizzzzzt. Fizzzt.
9 Jun 2010, 13:01 pm
@grant10(grant10)-118: G10, you see Deysel is under the knife for a wrist injury. Explains his absence over the last 2 weeks.
9 Jun 2010, 13:02 pm
@Oubaas2009(Oubaas2009)-120: That explains it then.
Blow for sharks if he cant play in CC….
I see brussow renewed contract with cheetahs till end 2011 as well.
9 Jun 2010, 13:03 pm
@Oubaas2009(Oubaas2009)-120:
Oh noes! How long will he be out?
9 Jun 2010, 13:04 pm
@grant10(grant10)-121: Yip, Alberts also injured at the mo.
Pity about Brussouw. ‘Dolf has a Durban Country Club membership lined up for him.
9 Jun 2010, 13:06 pm
@Oubaas2009(Oubaas2009)-123: LOL
Ja….Sharks been after him for over a year now.
Alberts out as well!!
Hell….give that Rhodes and Downey chaps a go !
9 Jun 2010, 13:06 pm
@Agile T*t-Tyrant(Anairetes agilis)-122: According to sharksworld, Deysel out for at least 5 weeks. Not sure about Alberts but apparently undergoing ankle surgery today.
9 Jun 2010, 13:07 pm
@grant10(grant10)-118: Oops my bad, still 2 more games for Butch to get a run though
9 Jun 2010, 13:08 pm
no Keo are you in G10′s words are you mal? Only losers like Henry gets a second term.
9 Jun 2010, 13:09 pm
@grant10(grant10)-124: Yip, its a pity. A Deysel/Alberts would have been great against France even if just off the bench with Pottie as well, if we had gone with a 5-2. Ah well.
9 Jun 2010, 13:11 pm
Will be interesting who plays against Italy. I am sure they will bring in a ‘B’ side for the first test to allow rest for Matfield, Smit, Fourie, Rousouw, etc.
Then the 2nd test? Do you get the ‘A’ side together to get some momentum going before 3N? Or do you keep resting the stars?
9 Jun 2010, 13:14 pm
@Oubaas2009(Oubaas2009)-129: pdv has said he will use a North bok team and a south bok team against Italy, and use it to experiment.
So i reckon stars may be rested for both games….
9 Jun 2010, 13:15 pm
of course if we lose 1 st test against italy expect a change of approach!!
9 Jun 2010, 13:17 pm
@grant10(grant10)-130: Oh, yes. Forgot about that, he’s been rather quiet about that lately. Wonder if his mind has changed.
I suppose JDV will need some game time, Bakkies too. Butch will be in the mix no doubt.
9 Jun 2010, 13:21 pm
@grant10(grant10)-131: That damn Castro will be lurking.
Interesting thought about who the backup loosehead is going to be? Beast, Wian, Heinke all out of contention. Leaving CJ possibly covering 1 and Jannie 3? After CJ we start scratching around a little…
Coenie, Blaauw, Cilliers? They just jumped a few places in the queue!
9 Jun 2010, 13:23 pm
hell I just read the whole article and now my head hurts. Keo kuk that you are writing these days is not on.
9 Jun 2010, 13:25 pm
117. Transformation(Transformation) :
He started off with a group of youngsters, he picked them from nothing, on belief in their talents – why did he have to develop a second group come World Cup time.
We went from having one of the most inexperienced teams in the world to one of the most capped come WC time.
His succession planning was building a team of experience. Any youngsters coming into that setup learn exponentially.
Jake White said to his palyers in the first weeks of becoming coach his goal was to resurrect SA rugby and win the WC.
He achieved that.
PDV is the one that got given a team on the top of the world, he needs to do the developing now. Fourie said he loved playing under PDV, PDV proved he can take experienced palyers and give them an environment to thrive.
9 Jun 2010, 13:26 pm
@Oubaas2009(Oubaas2009)-133: ja….i agree….
Jannie covering BJ
CJ covering guthro.
Butch must be given a shot at 10….not bloody 12…[ thats almost as mal as playing smit at 3 ! ].
I am a Butch fan….imo the best 10 we have, although currently M Steyn just too hot to drop.
Work to do….till later.
outta here
9 Jun 2010, 13:56 pm
@Mike H(Mike H)-135:
Which youngsters made their debuts under Jake White??
He did not start off with a group of youngsters
Players already capped when Jake selected them:
Os
Percy
Burger
Matfield
Bakkies
Mal Jaco
Marius Joubert
Julies
Smit
Juan Smith
Joe V Niekerk
Danie PK
P3
Breyton
Gaffie
CJ Davids
Bolla
9 Jun 2010, 13:58 pm
The biggest problem SA rugby has had for years has been the unprofessional standard of administration,particularly at provincial level. It is no surprise then that the three SA teams who are performing well now are those who have implemented professional standards to best utilise their playing roster as well as setting high standards of management.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the contrast between the Bulls and the Lions. These two teams are spitting distance apart.
Joburg is the financial powerhouse of the country with every advantage that goes with it and yet the Bulls implement a highly professional regime while the Lions are like Boswell Wilkies circus without a ringleader.
The current state of rugby in SA is what it should have been for years. Regardless of this rugby fans in SA will always be at odds with the coach’s selections due to provincialism and the fact that every rugby fan ( quite rightly,too) thinks he/ she is an expert of unparalleled authority.
There can ultimately be only one criterion by which a coach of such an expectant country can be judged. That is results. Jake did it and PdV is doing it. Disagree with him as much as we like, the Boks and SA rugby is doing a lot better than it did under a lot of others. That to me is bloody brilliant.
9 Jun 2010, 13:59 pm
How many caps? virtually none except for a few. Ofc no coach is going to start a team of no caps
9 Jun 2010, 14:03 pm
@stormer in a teacup(stormer in a teacup)-138:
A successful team/union is built around its leaders, this is mainly the reason the Lions fail.
9 Jun 2010, 14:03 pm
137. wpw(wpw) :
How many caps in total. Only a couple of those players had any caps behind them. I think Paulse might have been one of the most capped in there.
No coach is going to start completely from scratch, PDV sure as hell didn’t and nor will the next guy.
Jake’s core was Smit, Victor, Bakkies, Os, Juan, Schalk, JDV (wing at the time).
He obviously had to include more as he went along, some didn’t always work out but his core prevailed and are the core today.
Take the team that went to the WC and then compare the caps to the team Jake started with.
That’s what i mean
9 Jun 2010, 14:05 pm
@Mike H(Mike H)-141:
The starting 15 had a combined total on 179 caps.
9 Jun 2010, 14:07 pm
@Mike H(Mike H)-141:
You may be right.
I can’t believe Gaffie was at fullback ahead of Percy.
Maybe Percy was not available or back from Wales yet!!
9 Jun 2010, 14:16 pm
The question is can our backup team be competitive in the 3N, and will the australasians hit the roof if our top bokke are not selected?
And if going to select for development, surely gotta look at those positions we dont have alot of depth, i.e. 3, 4 and wing. I’d say it;d be a good idea to pick a younger side for the away leg of the 3N and also for the EOY tour – this will give the senior boks a good total 6 month rest before 2011.
1. Beast 2. Bismarck 3. WP 4. Sykes 5. Flip 6. Louw 7. Potgieter 8. Alberts 9. Hougaard 10. Pienaar 11. Van Den Heever 12. Olivier 13. De Jong 14. Mapoe 15. Viljoen
16. CJ 17. Rallapelle 18. Kruger 19. Bekker 20. Brussow 21. Basson 22. Frans Steyn
9 Jun 2010, 14:18 pm
143. wpw(wpw) :
Ye and teh worst part was how SA supporters basically kicked Percy out the country and Jake dragged him back and in the end he became the most capped Springbok in history with nearly every points record behind his belt.
Got to love our supporters
9 Jun 2010, 14:24 pm
@Mike H(Mike H)-145:
Yeah I agree.
Our good friend Tacitus is one of them. He still refuses to acknowledge that Percy is one of the All Time Greats of Bok rugby.
To him Percy was just a good kicker.
9 Jun 2010, 14:29 pm
@wpw(wpw)-137: Du Preez, Frans Steyn, JP Pietersen, Pierre Spies, the du Plessis brothers, BJ Botha, Ruan Pienaar, Bryan Habana, akona ndugane, wynand olivier, ricky januarie, gary botha, Johan muller, chilly willy, guthro steenkamp…… all JW debutants.
9 Jun 2010, 14:34 pm
146. wpw(wpw) :
Ye it’s not worth reading what Tacitus has to say at the best of times.
I’m sure he is still proud that the Springboks are WC champions but remembers it only as the Bulls playing and the team was coached by HM.
9 Jun 2010, 14:48 pm
People have short memories. I read here how JW was torn apart by all and sundry – me included. Then he wins a WC and suddenly he is the hero. I still think he is a useless coach and base my statement on the following:
1. We won the WC without playing Aus, NZ or France
2. Drafting Eddie Jones was a stroke of genius, but also a confession on his part that he did not know what he was doing.
The point is that he may be a brilliant technical analyst of the game, but that does not make him a good coach.
PDV is a good coach. He may not be the best technical analyst or the most eloquent at press conferences, but he knows what type of rugby he wants to play and he can convey that idea to his players and can coach them accordingly. He may have made mistakes in the past, but on the whole he is putting us in a far better position than JW ever did and would have if he still was the coach.
9 Jun 2010, 14:49 pm
If people like Skop and Tacitus had any say in the coaching or selecting of our team we’d go back to the days of Strauli and Viljoen.
A bunch of chickens running around with our heads cut off.
I am happy to acknowledge when someone has done a good job no matter if they are Afrikaans or English, Bulls or Lions, Black or White.
Jake did a f’ing good job and Smit was the kingpin and still is today. Victor has come a long way in the leadership stakes and that can only help the cause.
I just dare say I will tell you so when Smit is gone. Just have to take taht disastrous 3n’s where Smit was injured and Victor was Captain to see the issue. Even though Victor has come on leaps and bounds with his leadership, he said it himself he was a bad leader 4 year ago and he was. I bet he has learnt a lot from Smit and obviously HM to make him who he is today.
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