Roux confirms camp
28 Jul 2011
South African Rugby Union CEO Jurie Roux has contradicted his coach Peter de Villiers by confirming the Springboks are in Rustenburg in a camp.
On Wednesday De Villiers vehemently denied this, but Roux, speaking to the media in New Zealand conceded the group of supposedly injured players where gathered at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Campus.
However, he moved to dismiss reports that they were working on technical and tactical issues with Springboks coaching consultant Rassie Erasmus.
‘I’m not denying that they are in Rustenburg. I’m denying the fact that there is a secret training camp,’ Roux said. ‘I have my players in a single high-performance entity being rehabilitated.
‘I am surprised that people are worried about this. I run a multi-million rand corporation and my biggest assets are my players. They are injured and I need to do something to get them ready for a World Cup.
‘You don’t send an injured player to Bali or Mauritius to have a holiday. You pull him into your high performance centre, you put him with the best doctor you can find, and you put him on a rehabilitation programme to get him ready for the World Cup. I don’t understand the conspiracy, I don’t understand the confusion.’
The decision to stage the Tri-Nations in a World Cup year, particularly in light of a significantly elongated Super Rugby campaign, has been widely criticised. In informal discussions with keo.co.za, Sanzar’s CEO Greg Peters said that in the absence of June incoming tours as well as no year-end tours South Africa, Australia and New Zealand needed the income generated from Tri-Nations Tests.
It is widely thought that the Springboks, seeking to give their key players an opportunity to rest and recuperate before the World Cup, tried to circumvent their agreement to field their best available squad in the tournament by fabricating an extensive injury list, peculiarly featuring most of what is likely to be their match 22.
De Villiers expressed his dismay at having to contest the southern hemisphere’s showpiece, but tried to remain optimistic.
‘There’s a lot of opportunities you can take from it. In an ideal world you wouldn’t want these games to be played before the World Cup because they can be detrimental with the workload that’s on the players already,’ he said.
‘But then again you look for the opportunities. New Zealand and Australia, what better preparation can you get. If a guy comes good in those games you know he can go to the World Cup and be an asset to the team.’
Asked about the possibility that New Zealand would send a weakened team to South Africa, Roux said: ‘New Zealand must do whatever is in their best interests. Whatever team they send will be an All Black team and will be treated like an All Black team…we will be happy to receive any team that they send.’
383 Comments
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28 Jul 2011, 23:04 pm
RWC should be put in perspective
It is NOT the real indicator of which team is strongest or top of the world rugby heap
It is simply ONE competition amongst others which pits most rugby playing nations against each other in one competition over a 5 week period every 4 years apart.
By making it the be all and end all of a rugby coaches portfolio or his credibility actually puts the entire reason for playing the sport into jeopardy unless the coach can distance himself from the non relevant pressures that this lop sided competition places around his reputation.
A coach should at least attempt to gain the best development and combination of talents to be competitive throughout his tenure and then the fluke results will come of themselves. But when a coach becomes so obsessed with this bullshit baffling brainless fiasco that RWC represents the ONLY level of value that rugby offers as the pinnacle of his entire tenure as caretaker of the nations talents and ambitions… then he has absolutely and totally lost the plot as to what in fact the appropriate and pertinent reason is for the game to be played and enjoyed and competed for at all…
And then I would almost go as far as to say if he cannot set his personal fears and ambition apart from the overall good of the development of the talents towards the countries focus for sporting excellence beyond the tinsel town RWC dream at a 4 year culminating event… then he has failed the greater reason for his appointment… which is actually to grow the sport and its participants to a holistic overall gain and not a selfish little self gaining exercise in fluking a fickle crown that in the greater scheme of the sport over a longer more meaningful period is far more important than this obsession with short term name and fame.
28 Jul 2011, 23:09 pm
I disagree, i think it is the real indicator of which team is the strongest.
While the 3N and 6N are both great tournaments, they have limited participants and different seasons, and the 3N is heavily biased against the south africans from a travel perspective.
Everything else pales into signficance compared to the RWC, players u thought were once past it are managed and conditioned to ensure the best are avilable, the conditioning of the players and the preparation goes up several levels, the crowd support and pressure goes up several levels, and the overally excitement, interest and kudos goes up several levels in the quest to be crowned World Champions.
The Springboks are the reigning World Champions. Lekker.
28 Jul 2011, 23:15 pm
@I am a stormer(I am a stormer)-350:
Yip this time no fancy dress rehearsed party where all you gotta do is tiptoe through the tulips around a fading dead beat 7th ranked England and a pooped out finished amateur team of tired and worn out 6th ranked Argies to fluke your sorry arse onto an inscription the reads .. ‘World Champions’ … inscribed on some tinsel little dream world cup of merry go round the 4 year roulette wheel and lands in your lap of honorable fake credentials.
Far more important and a far better reflection of who actually wears the pants if you are able to beat and subdue all comers every time or at least most times you meet them.. Get your win % against the top 5 rugby nations globally up to 75% plus… and then start patting yourself on the back and start crowing around the park suggesting to the rest of the world that you are in fact the ‘best’ rugby playing nation on the planet.
Otherwise the only dumb fck deluded arrogant ignorant imbecile you are actually deluding is none other than yourself.
Win 75% tests against all comers and particularly against strength vs strength competition and only then can any coach or team start considering they are worthy to be called World Champs… or some such fickle fancy fake term of self satisfied adulation
28 Jul 2011, 23:19 pm
Boks won the 3N 2009 with a 5 of 6 record, thats > 80%.
Won BIL series and RWC 2007.
If this team wins RWC 2011 it will be without doubt deserving of the title World Champions.
Like it or lump it.
28 Jul 2011, 23:26 pm
I rather lose by going flat out incorporating principles of courage and potential possibility than fluke a damn roulette type competition by being afraid to change tack or change gears.
If PdV is able to suddenly come into his own and make the tough calls and switch out of the staid set of conservative cowardice that has gripped this team the past 2 and a half years as we have blatantly seen .. and start picking players and strategies that are currently poised to perform and not due to some traditional pattern of prima donna principle or prestige, the he may still be able to surprise the doubters and the naysayers behind his back.
But if he capitulates like his captain and some his stalwarts have been doing the past 2 years gone and counting like last week… then he don’t stand a chance of negotiating that pool of Samoa, Wales and Fiji and still take out NZ or France or England or Ireland in quarters or semi to go the whole distance…
Forget the lucky packet fiasco that happened last time around… like IAAS says above.. it won’t be happening again .. at least not this time around.
28 Jul 2011, 23:29 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-353: Yes, this time no simple games against a 4th rated France that got whipped by 6th rated Argies twice, and a worn out English bunch of Grandpa hasbeens….
The best players, NEUTRAL referees, and one tournament in a season where everyone has had a much notice and chance to prepare for.
How easily we forget 2009?
28 Jul 2011, 23:30 pm
Least he’s made one bold step this week.. looks like he’s starting to catch a wake up and start calling the shots himself instead of relying on Smittie and Mattie to make all the dumb fck decisions.
If he’s playing MS at FB and Lambie at 10… that is one BOLD step in the right direction… for at least ONCE in his tenure since he capitulated by handing over the reigns to the fat boys overrated WC 2007 dumb fck club during tri nations 2008.
Something he should have been doing all along… making the hard calls and brave calls HIMSELF.. and not letting his 2IC’s and his cappy and vice cappy call all the dumb fck skop en jaag shots.
28 Jul 2011, 23:30 pm
Oh wait.. the AB’s and Aussies lost those games didn’t they?
28 Jul 2011, 23:32 pm
to everyone saying that the rugby world cup is spoiling the true spirit of the game…..
blame the kiwis…..
they are the ones who pushed for it in the first place
28 Jul 2011, 23:32 pm
2008 NZ 2-1
2009 SA 3-0
2010 NZ 3-0
they are ahead by 1 win in 3 years, there’s nothing in it to suggest they are better than us, particularly with the injuries the Boks had in 2010 and the team they will be fielding for this year.
the RWC is a totally different kettle of fish in which teams raise their games to new heights, and you better be prepared for your best game as NZ found out in 91, 95, 99, 03 and 07. You not going to just win it pitching up with arrogance as supposedly being the best team in the world, you gotta step up and prove it.
28 Jul 2011, 23:40 pm
We can take these buggers, and we can do it in their backyward, and we’re the only side to have done it repeatedly. let them write us off, but krusty is the one and only coach who knows how to win repeatedly in their backyard.
u better believe it, which team GH rates as their stiffest competition.
28 Jul 2011, 23:41 pm
@SjamBok(SjamBok)-356: 2009 was kick and chase hand me the game from opposition mistakes, same as the JW manual of defense wins games..
The game and the rules have vastly been improved since then.. and also we don’t have ref’s in pockets no more who allow the tackler free reign to compete on the deck… now you get pinged and turned over if you don’t give daylight at the tackle ball situation.
WC 2007 was a non contest.. 7th rank England and 6th rank Argy did NOT represent the 2nd and 4th best teams in the competition.
SA went into the WC 07 as 4th rank IRB nation behind NZ, Aussie and France and emerged at No.1 after 5 weeks of facing 11th, 7th, 16th, 14th, 13th, 6th and 7th rank teams in the build up to the fickle fancy dress party of who wears the crown at the end of the all fall down fiasco.
Kick chase and Brussow competing every breakdown ball and M. Steyn bombing it up for Brussow, Fourie, Habana and etc to chase and force penalties and opposition spilled balls went out in 2009… it is passe and dead as a dodo as was painfully obvious not long after that 2009 hail Mary set of events.
When Smit and co. tried the same antics against France and Ireland that same year on Eoyt it all went titties up and bombed into a false dawn disaster as Fdp and M. Steyn tried mastering the defense wins games approach one more dubiously dead beat derelict time… and it failed a sorry death and has been failing ever since
Or we still clutching at yesterday’s hero’s… yesterdays strategies and yesterdays reputations and traditional so called long gone conservative cowardly strengths?
28 Jul 2011, 23:47 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-357:
“Steyn is probably the most
proven at international level but in saying that James won the World
Cup, he’s a fierce competitor but
I’ve been impressed with Lambie
this year and how he’s played.
“The thing that I’m impressed
most about is his all-round game.
He’s not one-dimensional, he’s
got a fantastic kick on him but he
can also run the ball as well and
he’s a real attacking threat.
“If they’re looking to use the ball
he’d be a valuable part of that
side if he got the nod for the 10
jersey so it’s good for the South
Africans, they’ve got a lot of
competition there which brings
out the best in players,” he said. – daniel carter
high praise for 3DPat
28 Jul 2011, 23:48 pm
nothing wrong with a foward oriented game, that can still win world cups, its not conservative, its clever, its making the best use of whats available, we dont have backs like the australasians, but we’ve got better forwards when all fit. In 2009 we blitzed all their arses off the field, and u could see it happening too, they were in their prime.
28 Jul 2011, 23:57 pm
wel done pdv….respect….
about time the kick and jag en skop en bid jockey was relegated out the 10 job…..
Pity aplon was not there at 15….
I reckon M Steyn is a goner…..and seriously not a bloody moment too soon….
now for plod and spies to bite the bullet and maybe, just maybe, the boks a force again
28 Jul 2011, 23:58 pm
24 Jul 2004 3N South Africa v New Zealand 21-23 Christchurch A
14 Aug 2004 3N South Africa v New Zealand 40-26 Johannesburg H
06 Aug 2005 3N South Africa v New Zealand 22-16 Cape Town H
27 Aug 2005 3N South Africa v New Zealand 27-31 Dunedin A
22 Jul 2006 3N South Africa v New Zealand 17-35 Wellington A
26 Aug 2006 3N South Africa v New Zealand 26-45 Pretoria H
02 Sep 2006 3N South Africa v New Zealand 21-20 Rustenburg H
23 Jun 2007 3N South Africa v New Zealand 21-26 Durban H
14 Jul 2007 3N South Africa v New Zealand 6-33 Christchurch A
05 Jul 2008 3N South Africa v New Zealand 8-19 Wellington A
12 Jul 2008 3N South Africa v New Zealand 30-28 Dunedin A
16 Aug 2008 3N South Africa v New Zealand 0-19 Cape Town H
25 Jul 2009 3N South Africa v New Zealand 28-19 Bloemfontein H
01 Aug 2009 3N South Africa v New Zealand 31-19 Durban H
12 Sep 2009 3N South Africa v New Zealand 32-29 Hamilton A
10 Jul 2010 3N South Africa v New Zealand 12-32 Auckland A
17 Jul 2010 3N South Africa v New Zealand 17-31 Wellington A
21 Aug 2010 3N South Africa v New Zealand 22-29 Soweto H
Totals points : 381-480
Tries : 32:42
Points : 58-95
Differences points : – 99
tries : -10
points : -37
Summary Total
Played 18
Wins 7 - 38.9%
Losses 11 - 61.1%
Home
Wins : 5 - 55.6%
Losses : 4 - 44.4%
Away
Wins : 2 - 22.2%
Losses : 7 - 77.8%
29 Jul 2011, 00:05 am
the more I think about this switch the happier I am getting…..this may be the bravest move yet by PDV….breaking the shackles of the fat boys club……3 cheers from me pdv
29 Jul 2011, 00:05 am
No other team’s comes remotely as close as that record, in fact in our history no other team is remotely as close, no other team has beaten them twice in the own backyard in the last 3 years and no other team has beaten them 3-zip in one year. In fact, in the amatuear era that you are harking back toward, SA led NZ in the historical test ledger.
And insofar as RWC’s, no other team’s come close to SA’s strike rate. 4 played, two first place and one 3rd place finish. When it comes to RWC rugby, gees and BMT count a tremendous amount.
29 Jul 2011, 00:07 am
In fact, insofar as courage and bravery is concerned, there is no RWC side that steps up to the plate like SA. None.
29 Jul 2011, 00:22 am
u can have all the talent and fancy-arsed attacking skills in the world, but if you got no BMT or stoic composure when the going get tough, you going down and out. in fact, thats the real test of RWC rugby, and many might say a proper test of mental character is even more admirable than natural talent squandered.
29 Jul 2011, 00:22 am
SAF v NZL
13 Aug 1921 TO 21 Aug 2010
Totals points: 1261-1514
Tries: 124:155
Points: 288 -393
Differences points: -253
tries: -31
points: -105
Averages : 16-19
tries : 2:2
points : 4-5
Summary Total
Played : 81
Wins : 33 – 40.7%
Losses : 45 - 55.6%
Draws : 3 - 3.7%
Home
wins : 23 - 54.8%
losses : 18 - 42.9%
draws : 1 – 2.4%
Away
wins: 9 - 24.3%
losses: 26 - 70.3%
draws : 2 - 5.4%
Neutral
wins : 1 - 50.0%
losses : 1 – 50.0%
draws : 0 -
29 Jul 2011, 00:29 am
SAF -vs- NZL (1900 to 1992) , ranking points
Totals points : 419-377
tries : 52:53
points : 172-142
Differences points : 42
tries : -1
points : 30
Averages 11-10
tries : 1:1
points : 5-4
Summary Total
Played : 38
Wins : 20 - 52.6%
Losses : 16 - 42.1%
Draws : 2 - 5.3%
Home
Wins : 14 – 66.7%
Losses : 6 - 28.6%
Draws : 1 - 4.8%
Away
Wins : 6 - 35.3%
Losses : 10 - 58.8%
Draws : 1 - 5.9%
29 Jul 2011, 00:31 am
did anyone see that documentary tonight by julian shaw?
by far the best i have ever seen.
a young kiwi photo journalist’s account of the rwc and the build up to 2011 from a very personal point of view.
gives an eye-opening story of the disappointments of the nz public every four years – as seen by friends and family (particularly his divorced father) and includes interviews with the prime minister as well as coaches and players in nz.
hope they broadcast it again – it is award-winning good.
29 Jul 2011, 00:39 am
SAF -vs- NZL (1994 to 2011) , professional era
Totals : 842-1137
Tries : 72:102
Points : 116-251
Differences : -295
Tries : -30
Points : -135
Averages : 20-26
Tries : 2:2
Points : 3-6
Summary Total
Played : 43
Wins : 13 - 30.2%
Losses : 29 - 67.4%
Draws : 1 - 2.3%
Home
Wins : 9 - 42.9%
Losses : 12 - 57.1%
Draws : 0 -
Away
Wins : 3 - 15.0%
Losses : 16 - 80.0%
Draws : 1 - 5.0%
Neutral
Wins : 1 - 50.0%
Losses : 1 - 50.0%
Draws : 0 -
29 Jul 2011, 00:41 am
@grant10(grant10)-367:
hope you didn’t watch boots ‘n all tonight.
might have given you a siezure 8)
without exception, every kenner agreed that it was correct that john smit leads the boks to the rwc – whether as squad or team cappie.
29 Jul 2011, 01:21 am
@grant10(grant10)-365: I’m not sure how Steyn can be classified as ‘skop and jag’ given the expansive and attacking rugby the Blue Bulls have played in the past couple of seasons.
Now don’t get me wrong, there are better individual running and more creative flyhalves in test rugby but Steyn does not kick everything and passes quite a lot, the problem with the SA backline is, and has been, the centres. For the most part all they do is crash it up, whether it be JDV, Olivier or Fourie.
If they don’t pass before contact how are the back three supposed to get the ball?
29 Jul 2011, 02:28 am
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-374:
Good post should also note around the same time the introduction of neutral english speaking referees.
29 Jul 2011, 02:58 am
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-353: 1987
Kiwis had just such an easy armchair ride, but hey, they still won a RWC finish and klaar
29 Jul 2011, 07:14 am
@charo(charo)-373: cup of dreams…i watched for the 2nd time last night. i spoke about it here too on monday – very interesting inside view to the psyche of the kiwis…
that guy’s old man is an interesting character 8)
29 Jul 2011, 08:28 am
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-374:
World cups
SA 2 – NZ 0*
* NZ did win 1 when SA was still persona non grata.
29 Jul 2011, 08:43 am
@Transformation(Transformation)-379:
yeah, the old man reminded me of cane.
no more hardcore all black supporter on the planet.
29 Jul 2011, 13:39 pm
@cab(cab)-369:
That’s easy.
Try and be brave for more than a month every four years.
That take GutsnBalls.
29 Jul 2011, 13:42 pm
@cab(cab)-370:
It’s going to be interesting to read your comment when your world cup luck runs out. I look forward to that.
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