Bok icons fading fast
11 Apr 2011
MARK KEOHANE, in his weekly Business Day column, says that guaranteeing the likes of Victor Matfield and Bryan Habana a place in the World Cup squad has done them no favours.
It wasn’t so much that the Bulls lost against the Crusaders. It’s the manner in which the bully boys of Super Rugby were dismantled.
Players, in the context of a World Cup year, will always have an escape; be it that the year is a marathon and not a sprint or that the peak has to come in New Zealand in October. They will also have an excuse that they want to be judged at the World Cup, but to do this the player actually has to get there and too many of those singled out by Springbok coach Peter de Villiers as certainties are currently not deserving of a ticket to New Zealand.
Experience will always be significant in a World Cup campaign, but nothing substitutes for form and the form of the Bulls players, in particular, cannot be ignored. It is just not good enough.
The South African momentum in 2007 came in Super Rugby. Those players who excelled at the World Cup in 2007 were the form players of Super Rugby. Bryan Habana was sensational as a finisher and Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha were destructive and dominant in everything they did.
It isn’t so this year.
Watching these three icons of the last decade on Saturday was particularly sad. Habana would struggle to catch a cold at the moment and while I can understand the Stormers coaching staff refusing to lose faith in him, there has been nothing in the tournament to justify the conviction that it is only a matter of time before he rediscovers his mojo.
You can’t compare the quality of wing play to that which Habana produced in 2007, while Matfield and Botha, as a combination, no longer command the presence of four years ago.
Matfield’s performance against the Crusaders was his worst in a decade of Super Rugby. Any criticism has to be balanced with what he has achieved, but Matfield’s form, like that of the Bulls, has become more than an aberration. It is a weekly issue.
Sharks and Springbok captain John Smit continues to be singled out every week for his lack of form and inability to command a starting place at hooker for the Sharks, but Matfield has escaped similar scrutiny, as has Botha.
The guarantee that the quartet of Smit, Matfield, Botha and Habana will go to the World Cup has done them no favours and it does little to inspire confidence in the selection process for the next generation of players who have to accept that until there is a change of Bok coach there won’t be a change in selection policy.
The Bulls, as a unit, have refused to adapt their style of play this year, but without physical superiority and set-piece control they can’t be successful. Write them off as championship material.
Not so the Sharks and Stormers, who have shown enough in the first half of the campaign to inspire confidence that they are good enough to go all the way.
The Crusaders and Reds, of the Australasian teams, are of a similar pedigree. The Reds were outstanding in Cape Town in the way they inflicted a first tournament defeat on the Stormers. Reds coach Ewen McKenzie won the coaches’ battle, the Reds forwards edged the collisions and the halfbacks, Will Genia and Quade Cooper, added the final touches to a win that was surprisingly comfortable. The Stormers were out-muscled, out-thought and outplayed for the first time this season and the emphasis should be more on what the Reds did right than what the Stormers got wrong. This was a match won by the Reds and not lost by the Stormers.
It was also a lesson to Stormers coach Allister Coetzee that to win this tournament his team need more than just defence and more good than bad will come from having lost at this stage of the season.
Coetzee has consistently defended the style of play by pointing to the scoreboard. This week he doesn’t have the scoreboard as his ally and, I hope, that will challenge him to be more creative in his response to the defeat and in his approach to the match against the Lions.
Let me emphasise again that the Stormers losing was not a disaster. What happened to the Bulls in Timaru, New Zealand, was far more damaging.
131 Comments
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11 Apr 2011, 20:13 pm
@ET.(ET.)-98: true but you gotta admit that for all our supposed talent in SA rugby there aren’t too many young players looking too flash..
our backline players seem small and low on skillz when compared to Kiwi and Aussie opposition.
11 Apr 2011, 20:22 pm
@ET.(ET.)-99:
Come on, do tell….I can tell you are dying too!!
Modesty does not become you!!
11 Apr 2011, 20:38 pm
Our wonderful statesman leader, Comrade JayZee, has been winning friends in Libya and the western world… appearing on behalf of the African Union in Libya he greeted Gaddafi warmly as “dear brother leader”…
thick.
11 Apr 2011, 21:09 pm
Oh dear extraBall.
A miracle is an event explained by divine intervention.
So don’t try and get clever with uncle gunther.
You have once again been exposed as a blagger and a blowhard.
You are my bunny.
Remember Easter looms and bunnies are in short supply.
11 Apr 2011, 21:19 pm
@brains_trust(brains_trust)-101: Boet its the standard of coaching that is too blame. Its way behind Aus and NZ. The other problem is this acceptance of mediocrity. Players aren’t taught to strive for perfection like they are in NZ. The Boks might pull off the odd miracle and win the 3N (once in a blue moon) or a Lions series but then they’ll struggle to put away an inferior Scottish side. While the ABs will win the 3Ns and then go on to hammer NH opposition into the ground, despite having had a long season. The desire to win and to compete with themselves is driven into them from a young age. This is why they regularly do a cleansweep all of the NH teams. When was the last time the Boks did that?
The Boks have always relied on using their forwards to bully the other team into making mistakes but now NZ/Aus and to a lesser extent the NH teams have become wise to this tactic and started fronting up against our forwards, our players have been exposed as decidedly average and lacking the most basic skillset that even the Irish backline have a better grasp.
The whole culture of coaching has to change in SA. Maybe having coaches like Mitchell in SA will slowly help to change the attitude towards coaching in this country but its going to be a slow painful process.
11 Apr 2011, 21:33 pm
what a great win by my boys UCT….damn I am so proud right now!!
beautiful
11 Apr 2011, 21:37 pm
yup yup IKeys done Tukkies at home
Little capey boys stood up and defended like Trojans to take the Varsity Cup home
Huge guts to come back from half time deficit
11 Apr 2011, 21:39 pm
@grant10(grant10)-106: so, windgat.
is grant still the cheese and tomato sandwich you told us all he was befor the weekend?
how about smitty’s scrumming?
how do you feel about your predictions of the stormers snotting the reds?
ag, you are probably so confused right now. rather give me an answer when you pull yer head out of yer bum ok?
11 Apr 2011, 21:58 pm
well that went well.
to be honest i didnt even watch the weekends games.
had a bush break in the timbavati.
it was naaice but now i need to catch the replays..
a lot of people have said that p grants kicking out of hand was poor in terms of distance? well that was my point this week when gwantie and woof vilified me for holding the opinion that he is not worthy of the hype he was getting.
all of a sardine his name is a swearword it seems?
he must come play 12 at the shark
11 Apr 2011, 22:27 pm
but what do you do Mark my son? do you push Victor and Bakkies to the curb and hope like hell someone else can do the job?
do you pull the Boks from the S15 and rest them in the hope that that they regain form?
I dont know kid, I dont know.
11 Apr 2011, 22:54 pm
@ET.(ET.)-98: It’s a DIE that is cast, not a pigment dye. (A die is a metal machine-tool employed to cut a thread on to a bolt.)
11 Apr 2011, 23:00 pm
O fok genade the professor is being out professed by somebody more qualified to profess, my magtig ou Tackling Tickler moenie nou die einaardige ou Yankee doodle dandy domdroldoos sy spel lesse hier kom leer, die ou vrot onnoselike Neanderthal sal nooit die les kan skeeur nie.
11 Apr 2011, 23:25 pm
@TheTackler(TheTackler)-111: Ai, amper ou Tickles … amper. The die in this expression had nothing to do with cutting metal. Rather it was Julius Caesar who supposedly said Alea iacta est, referring to not two but one die, after he crossed the Rubicon. Teacher, you have been taught.
11 Apr 2011, 23:34 pm
@TheTackler(TheTackler)-111: For clarity’s sake: it’s a gambling metaphor. Do you feel lucky, Tickles?
11 Apr 2011, 23:40 pm
and now we have the professor to upstage the professing prophesier who upstaged the dyed in the wool professor of academic superficiality
Kaksoeker you top o the class, show dem goons mon, show dem who be da boss.
11 Apr 2011, 23:45 pm
@sohojo(sohojo)-115:
Poor old Tickles. Schooled by a Japie. He’ll take this one pretty badly.
12 Apr 2011, 00:17 am
Ive been saying this since we won the Tri Nations. If all be said and done we did not win that Lions test series convincingly. We scraped through and we were the poorer team for the bulk of the matches. We nailed them when we played well (which was usually about 30 minutes) and then clung on for dear life as a big lead was squandered in each match. I got the feeling with both first tests that had the game been 10 minutes longer we would have lost. We had moments of sheer brilliance but the writing was on the wall back then. EOYT 2009 confirmed this – we imploded in some matches. Come 2010 all looked good with Super rugby but come test time we were less than convincing again. Then we got whacked in the Tri Nations. EOYT 2010 we again looked shaky and went and lost to Scotland. Now I feel weve regressed even more since then.
We have no clue tactically, basic errors and handling are shocking across the board. Habana lost form 3 years ago and has really not recuperated it. His moments of brilliance since the World Cup have been more like lack of form than his lack of form if you know what I mean. There is something really wrong with him. I dont know what but there is a major problem with that guy and he needs to have it looked at. Our backline is without any rugby nous for the modern game. There is no creative running in our backlines and the moments of slick interplay ala Crusaders are preciously few and far between. Cheethas showed a bit of it on Sat (who wouldve believed it), Sharks have shown flashes of it in the beginning of the year as have the Lions. Even Stormers on occasion. But on the whole – no clue. Were living off mistakes made by other teams. We do not create tries as much as hang around like vultures. I for one have gotten to the point where I dont really ever want to see us scoring off an intercept again. It feels like cheating. Like maybe thats the only way we can compete – and that feels ka k. Something is very wrong in Sa rugby. I used to think it was mainly De Villiers and some players but now I think its way more widespread than I thought. At current rate we´d be lucky to win a quarter final in the WC. Seriously. I´m totally worried.
12 Apr 2011, 01:33 am
Great stats can we have this here too please http://livescores.smh.com.au/rugby/super15/player-stats.html?refresh=1302564750230
12 Apr 2011, 03:30 am
@Slumtown(Slumtown)-117: Hey bro yeah you are right. You guys simply do not have in form players in the backs that could do it for you at the world cup.
Sadly for the mighty boks you will not win the world cup again this year because as keo has said, PDivvy will pick the players that are past it now. Graeme Henry introduced no new blood at all in 2007, his world cup squad was selected the year before aqnd he did all that reconditioning with his main guys during the super 14. I cant help but think PDV has done the same. Same old team, which the likes of us and ozzie already have blueprints on how to beat.
Had De Villiers had a cleanout last year it might have been different, but no, the Bulls spanking was testiment to what will happen to the Boks this year….and that was with no Richie or Dan!
12 Apr 2011, 04:28 am
@Slumtown(Slumtown)-117: hear hear spot on mate.
How many Saffa players, when fielding the high ball actually take the ball in the air. This is basic technique with Latham doing this for years. I see Lambie, Hougaard and daniller but the rest keep their feet grounded. Poor indeed but such basic things.
12 Apr 2011, 04:54 am
Isn’t it logical then considering we’re in a RWC year, they’re playing such bad rugby and in such desperate need of a break to simply rest them?
12 Apr 2011, 04:55 am
@Yetirat(Yetirat)-121: It would be a win-win for everyone?
12 Apr 2011, 04:56 am
@NZMaori(NZMaori)-119: I hate to say this the oke is spot on the money here. NZ/Aus rugby is moving on, making progress, constantly evolving. SA rugby is still stuck in the dark ages. I can’t see it changing until Saru is able to snag a foreign coach for the Boks.
12 Apr 2011, 05:35 am
@Slumtown(Slumtown)-117:
Spot on dude!
This past week-end showed this up big time, Bulls clueless, Stormers similar and the Sharkes battled to put away a seriously ka k Lions outfit.
Starting picking yourselves a second team okes, cause the Boks are not gonna be in the semi’s and would be lucky to make quarters the way things are going.
Eish!!!
12 Apr 2011, 09:43 am
Yeah unfortunately there are brilliant players but if everyone is mismanaged and if there isnt proper backline coaching and initiative I cant see it gelling when it matters most. Players who continue to impress week in and out:
1 Beast
1 Guthro (injured now)
2 Bismarck
2 Deon Fourie (bar his brain **** on Sat and skew lineout throwing)
3 Jannie (not standout but holding up)
4 ?? Bring back Danie Rossouw – Elstadt not doing bad but time will tell
5 Becker (but not at his best yet)
6 Brussouw started looking good but now injured again
7 Willem Alberts
7 Juan Smith (injured)
8 ???
9 Sarel Pretorius (no contest FDP is sheet at the moment)
10 Lambie (injured)
11 Basson and Mvovo ok but not brilliant this year (Habana is a train wreck)
12 ?? De Villiers showing glimpses
13 Jacques Fourie (but also not in top form yet)
14 JP Pietersen (looked good on Sat)
15 Aplon
And thats it unfortunately – a fair number of them touch n go. Quite alarming.
12 Apr 2011, 09:48 am
@NZMaori(NZMaori)-119: Yeah spot on with that assesment. I know the kiwis and aussies are loving it but in all fairness its much nicer winning against a firing team. When people say – ahh McCaws injured and Carters injured its out best chance of taking them I cringe. Is that the only time we think we can win? Points to serious psycholgical weakness. So in all fairness it would be better for all Sanzar if Sa was playing better. NZ have got it down to a fine art. Reds not far behind. Rebels have also shown this initiative. Quite funny when I say the team that impresses me the most is the Cheetahs. With 11 top player injuries theyre still contesting the best of them and pushing games to the wire. Their attacking play seems much more in line with the modern game. Quite a shock.
15 Apr 2011, 02:38 am
PDV has inherited from Jake a fetish about “experience”. So, when he received the baton from Jake in 2007, he has continued fetishing over the same golden oldies as what Jake did.
But the house that Jake built, starting in 2003, was designed to stand for four years, not eight.
PDV has pressed on and on and…. ON… with players who peaked in 2007 and who still gave yeoman service in 2008 and 2009, but who reached their sell-by date in that 2009 season.
They decayed swiftly and catastrophically in 2010.
But that “experience fetish” is as strong as ever. PDV has blooded hardly any new talent, other than handing out a huge wodge of five-minute cameo test caps to all promising prospects in the 75th minute of tests without accepting that you’ll learn absolutely nothing of any man’s test potential by making him play against opponents with 75 minutes of exhaustion in their chests.
So, PDV has not a clue about who his genuine test quality back-ups are. And neither has he cottoned on to the truth that Jake’s team’s stalwarts (Smit, Matfield, FDP, Bakkies, Schalk, Habana etc) are all post-orgasmically sleepy by now.
PDV has, in fact, utterly wasted four years of golden opportunity. His inherited house is crumbling and there simply isn’t enough time or resources in which to rebuild it, let alone improve it.
Across the Indian Ocean, both Graham Henry and Robbie Deans have been grinding and case-hardening some truly awesome and authentic new talent for four years and carefully timing the pensioning off of their past-prime stalwarts. It’s been hello to some pretty sensational new men like Quade, Ripia, O’Connell, Kieran, SBW, Kaino, Jane etc. and goodbye to some tough old go-to stalwart tungstens like Jerry Collins, So’oialo, Hayman, Somerville, Rokococo etc.
And PDV is stuck with poor John Smit and 80% of a team brimming with “experience” (albeit much of it being those 5min cameos) but with their ageing bearings knocking and grumbling and creaking like a once-perfect shiny Studebaker but now with 200000 miles on the clock.
15 Apr 2011, 13:06 pm
Not sure we can blame it all on Divvie. He might have dropped Plod 2 years ago and picked a new captain. Problem was Victor was then still the first player to be pencilled for bokke and would have been unmanagable if he wasn’t chosen. He’s proven to be a petulant captain in a struggling team.
No other obvious choice for skipper.
Victor and Bakkies may yet not start and Habana has been terrible but his compettion is not outstanding. I mean JPP is still being chosen in most punters bok picks and he wouldn’t get a game in any of the 10 Oz and NZ teams (and yes he did have a good – not great – game last weekend)
SA rugby is just not offering a lot of new talent for PdeV. Who’s he left out? Apart from Lambie, Basson (anonymous at Bulle this year), the now-dropped Jantjies and maybe Lwazi can you name ANY really exciting players to emerge in the last, oh since Habana and Frans Steyn and Pienaar and co?
15 Apr 2011, 23:33 pm
Well, nobody CAN know who would be an “exciting” new talent because they need to be spotted when they are still raw and not all that exciting, and then carefully and systematically coached and gradually exposed into the exciting talent they turn out to be. Think here of someone like Robbie Fruean — he’s been around the blocks for quite a while — understudying here, substituting there, coming off the bench occasionally — and now he is a very “exciting talent”.
He actually captained the NZ u19 team to their world age-group championship win over SA in 2007, then had major open-heart surgery a few months later, played for the Hurricanes upon his recovery but was up against the mighty Conrad and Ma’a, moved to Canterbury and suddenly… here’s Robbie! All 6ft 3in and 110kg of him. Alongside SBW. Striking terror into midfields everywhere. And he’s only 22 years old and still uncapped at AB level! But he’s ripened sweetly in the run-up to RWC, hasn’t he? Might get a game or two in the warm-up tests and the short 3N to check his mettle to see if he’s the real deal?
Flying in under the radar.
15 Apr 2011, 23:51 pm
There are several SA players who — IMHO — have probably been under-rated and have certainly been criminally undercoached.
Hennie Daniller is one. Huge talent there, Pierre Spies is another, but in the backline, not the backrow. Ruan Pienaar has been shockingly yanked around; he has arguably the finest rugby DNA in the country, but he’s a scrumhalf and NOT a “utility back”. Whatever happened to Koster, from Bishops? Why hasn’t Bekker been given the incumbent’s #4 berth ahead of the sociopathic Bakkies yet? Why is Brian Mujati setting frozen fields alight overseas when the Bok front row with its centurion captain and “utility frontrower” is not even able to compete on equal terms with…ehhh …Italy? (Even without their titan, Castrogiovanni).
The talent IS there. Of course it is. It’s always been there and it always will.
But all the coaching/development pooh-bahs with their millionaire wages and their first-class airfares and big Audis just can’t see the wood for the trees.
That’s the pity of it, Iago.
16 Apr 2011, 00:09 am
So, if you were picking a team, would YOU pick an uncapped rookie like 22 year old Robbie Fruean who had heart surgery or would you pick…ummm… let’s say, Wynand Olivier, aged 27 and in his absolute prime, with his impressive 35 tests worth of “experience” even if he has only one try against Italy to show for it?
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