The buck stops here
29 Sep 2011
MARK KEOHANE, writing in Business Day Sport Monthly, says Springbok rugby must never again lurch from one World Cup campaign to another. It must become a results-driven business with expectation and accountability.
The Rugby World Cup is a tournament that lasts six weeks. It should not be a four-year excuse for any player or coach.
When you read this, South Africa’s fate at the Rugby World Cup could largely be decided. They may be getting close to successfully defending the trophy – or they could be on the brink of packing up and going home.
There will be arrogance among South African supporters. Alternatively there will be denial when there should be insistence that a repeat of the past four years should never again be tolerated, let alone allowed.
The World Cup is undoubtedly the tournament every rugby nation wants to win. The Tri-Nations is a tougher trophy to win but it doesn’t have the global appeal or the romance of the World Cup. It isn’t quite knockout rugby, even though New Zealand has often won the Tri-Nations in a must-win last outing against South Africa or Australia. Everyone seems to forget that because they have blown every World Cup campaign since their successful 1987 tournament.
I don’t understand the view towards the World Cup when it comes to planning and preparation and South Africa is no exception when it comes to putting all the emphasis on the World Cup. It is a tournament that should form part of a four-year cycle. It should not constitute the four-year cycle. Peter de Villiers’ successor should not be judged on whether the Boks win the World Cup in four years’ time. His successor should be judged on how the Boks perform every season, in every Test and in every tournament.
Give the coach a four-year contract, but include performance-based clauses. Make it reviewable after two years. That way the national rugby union is protected, the coach has a form of protection and a responsibility to deliver and no player has the comfort of a four-year cruise because of an affiliation with the incumbent national coach.
Jake White, in succeeding Rudolf Straeuli as Bok coach, gave South Africans a lesson in building a team and the importance of having experience in the change room. But no player can ever be allowed to control the environment in which he plays – and that has been the curse of the Boks in the past four years. Old players, settled, comfortable and calling the shots, do what suits them and what accommodates them. They don’t encourage change, they seldom celebrate the introduction of youth and they grey the area of playing experience and job security.
Whether South Africa win the World Cup or not, South African rugby, to have sustainability, has to have a new approach to the national team, both in terms of expectation and delivery. The expectation has to be that the Boks win every time they play at home and win more than they lose when abroad. Results must be the priority because if a coach has to get results he invariably picks the form players capable of producing a winning sensation. No player is given a four-year guarantee and a 48-month salary advance.
Giving a coach a four-year cycle is an act of suicide if the intent is to evolve and mature into a team of winners. It allows for four years of excuses, either from a coach who supposedly builds in those four years and sees the World Cup as the defining moment of his tenure or it allows for four years of comfort for a coach and players who have no fear of change.
Bok coach Peter De Villiers has convinced himself and a nation that because he put his faith in the 2007 World Cup winners (back in 2008 and again in 2009 and 2010) it was too late to make a change in 2011. He did this because of his shocking results in 2010, when he said that losing in 2010 was a consequence of the grand plan to win in 2011. Other coaches have also used this argument to justify defeats between World Cups.
It is wrong.
Strong leadership is desperately sought within South African rugby to change this mindset. Decisions must be made that make the players and coaches accountable but also ensure that those officials making such massive rugby decisions have to be judged by the
calls they make.
There should never again be a situation when a group of players two years out from a World Cup inform the coach they have a desire to play in the competition and are effectively guaranteed a plane ticket, regardless of form.
There has never been strong managerial leadership within the Boks since White was thanked for winning the World Cup in 2007 and then told to bugger off. Tough selection decisions have not been made because the senior players won’t entertain such behaviour from a weak coaching staff.
The concept of a national selection committee is outdated in a professional environment. Think of the madness. The coach, whose livelihood should be dependent on his team’s results, doesn’t get exclusivity when it comes to selecting his national squad. Two blokes, who have careers outside rugby, make up a three-man selection committee to determine the national squad before every major tournament, be it an incoming series, the Tri-Nations, the end-of-year tour or the World Cup. It is just rubbish and another example of amateur ideals compromising professional principles.
Rugby is a business. Don’t kid yourself that it is a sport, so treat it like a business – and expect those in rugby’s employ to be assessed corporate-style. In business you survive or fall by your decisions, your choices and you are held accountable for those decisions and choices.
Which CEO would survive not investing in a talent like Bismarck du Plessis? He wouldn’t, because shareholders would not accommodate an excuse that the veteran tasked with making the profit would hit his target only every leap year. The board would demand investment in the individual best suited to get results in that year and the demand would be ongoing post every Christmas lunch. A new year would bring a new expectation.
Rugby is a lucrative business for the best players and coaches but it should be accepted that it also ruthless and if the performance does not match the predetermined budgets, that coach and player should be out.
It would also define the type of individual willing to coach the Boks and the kind of player who wants to be part of the Boks. There would be no guarantee of a job if the match returns weren’t proportionate to the salaries being paid.
Think of the financial and emotional investment of the nation when it comes to the Boks. Rugby and government officials implore the average South African to support the team regardless. Forget the make-up of the side, forget how they are playing and forget whom the coach is selecting. Support because you are South African and it is the patriotic thing to do. What crap. Would you invest in a company where government officials urge you not to question the decision-making of the CEO? Would you accept asking a question that involves your investment being dismissed as unpatriotic? I didn’t think so.
The only way to grow our intellect as a nation is for us to debate issues and to educate ourselves that it isn’t a bad thing to ask questions and hold accountable those who survive on supposed patriotism.
If the South African public is the most important shareholder in Springbok rugby there has to be a yearly plan around the team – and this plan includes officials, coaches and players fronting in return for the R450 a person pays to watch a live Test in South Africa, and the huge amounts sacrificed when following the team abroad or purchasing team merchandise.
De Villiers, a week before the Rugby World Cup, did not blink in telling the media that John Smit was the best hooker in the world – and the form hooker of world rugby. Bear in mind Smit did not start against the All Blacks in Port Elizabeth and played only the last 16 minutes. Smit, to his credit, responded by telling the audience his wife also thought he was the best looking bloke around. Everyone chuckled, but imagine if a CEO of a blue chip company made that statement a week before the financials were due to be made public? The share price would drop. Take it as a given.
De Villiers knows Du Plessis is the best hooker in the world. He knows he should be playing him for 80 minutes but he doesn’t know how to negotiate Smit’s role within the team. De Villiers isn’t equipped technically, intellectually or emotionally to make the decisions expected of one in his position.
De Villiers told Butch James he was his starting 10 for the World Cup and that is why he wanted him back in South Africa and not playing club rugby in England. Pressure from within the squad, by seasoned grizzlies who wanted mates selected and deemed themselves to be untouchables, meant James did not start the World Cup at No 10 but was given a bench role as an insurance policy.
The selection of James on the bench, as one example, made very little rugby sense because he offered so little in terms of versatility. The decision to ignore Du Plessis’ form and pedigree was described by international critics as shameful.
I could cite several other examples in the build-up to this Bok World Cup campaign and the campaign proper once at the tournament, but that is not what this is about.
It is about getting it right post-2011 and ensuring the South African rugby public doesn’t get fed propaganda like Smit is the best hooker in the world on form and Bismarck isn’t.
Smit, a wonderful leader of a team who has achieved everything in winning the World Cup, the Tri-Nations and beating the British & Irish Lions, must have cringed at that statement because he knows where he was once the tutor to Du Plessis he is no longer the master.
In this magazine some months ago I made a plea to support Smit’s captaincy at the World Cup and his starting role ahead of the superior playing qualities of Du Plessis. I did it because of the inadequacies of the coach and his assistants.
Smit had to lead the Boks to the World Cup, but that should never have been a guarantee he should lead them in the play-offs at the World Cup. The best should play. The best should always play, otherwise what is the point?
I just watched Wales lose to South Africa in Wellington by a single point after two of their kickers missed a drop goal and penalty within five minutes of the final whistle. To trail Wales by six points on the hour and then pray for their flyhalf to miss a drop goal from straight in front and their goal-kicker to fluff a match-winning kick with three minutes to play couldn’t have been part of the master plan as sold to a nation of Bok supporters.
This is what you were told to invest in and not question.
To watch a coach describe the one-point win as ‘brilliant’ against a nation that has beaten South Africa once in 100 years was embarrassing. To hear him say everything is on track was simply insulting to the intelligence of every South African rugby supporter.
Accountability! It is the missing piece in rugby’s professional puzzle.
De Villiers has had a four-year excuse from the day he got the Bok job. He has done what any coach would do if given such a free ride. I don’t blame him; I blame a system that allows mediocrity to dwarf excellence. And then rewards the non-achievement with a healthy monthly salary.
Watching Du Plessis play against Wales in the final 20 minutes symbolised everything that can be right about our game. Watching him huddled among the substitutes for an hour before that put into perspective just how much is wrong with our rugby.
Who would invest in a company whose board applauds De Villiers and ignores Du Plessis?
South African rugby’s challenge as a company with national commercial and emotional investment has to be to demand excellence every year and not just hope for it in a play-off match every four years.
To reach this rugby nirvana so much has to change about the way those in rugby do business and we as supporters invest in that business.
– This article first appeared in the October issue of Business Day Sport Monthly, which is distributed FREE with the newspaper on the second last Friday of the month.
673 Comments
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29 Sep 2011, 06:07 am
The 2011 over-the-hillbillies simply can’t last for 4 more years so wholesale change is thrust upon them.
29 Sep 2011, 06:20 am
jake set up a dangerous precedent of fortified coaching contracts.
coaches hold a gun to SARU’s head if they to get fired.
time for them to man up- its the national coaching position, no place for gravy train there.
if the results dont come they should be able to get rid of them. many coached pre JW got the boot after 1 year…. bring it back
29 Sep 2011, 06:23 am
The Springboks, next year, have the look of a very good team. Take out the players retiring (or older ones heading overseas) and replace them with excellent youngsters, and I can see us being very good in the Tri Nations.
Gurthro Steenkamp overseas – In comes Coenie Oosthuizen
John Smit – None needed in smaller squad (otherwise Adriaan Strauss as 3rd hooker)
Bakkies Botha – Flip van der Merwe ??
Danie Rossouw – Gerhard Mostert (hope they keep him involved)
Victor Matfield – Andries Bekker (IMO best lock in world rugby)
Johann Muller – None needed in smaller squad (otherwise Wilhelm Steenkamp or Juandre Kruger?)
Francois Louw – Juan Smith comes back to replace him
Pierre Spies (needs to go) – Options. Nick Koster if he has a break-out season?
Fourie du Preez – None needed in smaller squad (otherwise Dewaldt Duvenage as 3rd scrumhalf)
Butch James – Johan Goosen if he performs like we think he will?
Odwa Ndungane – Johann Sadie. Can play him on the wing also considering many good centres.
If we manage players correctly and have a good coach, we’re in a good position to start playing well over the entire 4-year stretch. Goal should be to get a positive head-to-head record against the All Blacks. They’re pulling away from us at the moment, which shouldn’t be allowed.
29 Sep 2011, 06:27 am
And, added to this is the fact that Stuart D**ckenson has just announced his retirement……thiks will definitely nt harm the prospects of future Bok teams
29 Sep 2011, 06:28 am
I’d like to see what Bryan Habana does in a team that gives him a little more ball. Hopefully the Barbarians pick him for the game against Australia at the end of the year.
He’s still so young, it’s hard to consider ending his Springbok career. Have to get some value out of him in the future, even if it’s only for another year or two while we find a suitable replacement for the future. Bjorn Basson & Lwazi Mvovo aren’t quite test level wingers.
29 Sep 2011, 06:28 am
It’s called affirmative action, Keo, and constitutes shooting our collective selves in the foot.
29 Sep 2011, 06:35 am
@hendrikp(hendrikp)-5: I see Robbie Deans is plamo Samo on the wing….I think Pierre Spies would be a wonderful winger..it would be quite a spectacle having him on the wing, dare I say Lomu like?
29 Sep 2011, 06:36 am
plamo = playing……need coffee, still half asleep!!
29 Sep 2011, 06:38 am
‘ The Tri-Nations is a tougher trophy to win’
Bullshit Keo, the 3N can be won by winning 2 matches with points difference and bonus points playing a factor … fact.
To win a RWC you have to win All of your group matches then win 3 sudden death matches in a row.
29 Sep 2011, 06:44 am
Viva Keo……
The true Keo I respected for calling it like it is , is well and truly back in this great piece of journalism.
Never, ever, never and never again must we allow Player Power [ Fat Boys Club ] to rule the roost.
I long for 2012 , a strong independent coaching / management team, and true merit selections…….
all the very best for Boks in the rest of the campaign……respect restored….this is what makes you a Legend……you have restored my faith.
29 Sep 2011, 06:44 am
A pathetically weak coach allowed the senior players to run the show while he was having a laugh with the ‘manne’ and becoming everyone’s ‘tjommie’. No one respects a person like that when they are supposed to be steering the ship.
29 Sep 2011, 06:45 am
@Siyavuna(Siyavuna)-7:
I like it, but it won’t happen. SA coaches haven’t got the balls to do something like that, and we all know that in Pretoria they think Spies is a fantastic nr. 8
For me, he’ll never be suited to the position (number-8) because of those chicken legs. He’s fast because all that muscle is in his upper body, but he has no leg-drive, so he’s never going to be a ‘through-the-middle’ type.
If Habana goes, I think Johann Sadie is our best option on the wing. After him I’d look at Gio Aplon (short-term solution), Lionel Mapoe, JJ Engelbrecht or Danie Poolman as options.
29 Sep 2011, 06:45 am
@grant10(grant10)-10: last para
Respect and faith restored in Keohane….it was a bit unclear.
29 Sep 2011, 07:00 am
Keo
Long story, you punt Bismarck and Butch James
I agree that the RWC should not be the coaches measurement
29 Sep 2011, 07:02 am
@grant10(grant10)-10: Back to your self-imposed exile? You might as well stick around…make yourself at home. You know you want to. Btw, the Fat Boys Club aren’t doing too badly
29 Sep 2011, 07:04 am
The Barbarians (almost?) always pick an uncapped test player who they deem promising in their starting-XV.
If it’s a South African player, I believe it should be Jaco Taute.
29 Sep 2011, 07:04 am
Hi Grant. How was rehab?
29 Sep 2011, 07:05 am
Bloody hell but Mark Keihane can be a patronizing little pr*ck. Even if somw of what he says makes sense, he is still going on about how he uis so bright and the nation as a whole needs to “grow its collective intelligence” to get to the level of enlightenment that he supposedly already occupies.
And the Butch James bit, well, you have to look no further than the book being advertised on this very site to understand where that comes from.
29 Sep 2011, 07:18 am
@grant10(grant10)-10: Glad I could restore such faith … never knew it had gone anywhere … that is the faith
29 Sep 2011, 07:23 am
Keo – some points i have to stem saam.
But punting Butch – sierieaaaasly mate….. daai ou is average…. imo.
It’s like dusting off your 1974 VW Kewer to race today…
29 Sep 2011, 07:26 am
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-18: Come now boet. If you interpret the article as patronizing then that’s your own insecurity coming to the fore. You have a view on Morne Styen and why he should start – and it is a very good one if that is how you believe this comp can be won. I have a view (as per my col in SA Rugby Mag a couple of months ago on Butch – and it is a good one for those who share a belief system that he offers a team that much more as a 10. Whether we publish Butch’s book, did publish Smitty’s book or feature Bismarck on our cover (as he is the form player) has no relevance to my view that I’d start Bis and Butch. But I get the argument for starting MS and Smitty. Debate the issues. You insult me and a player like Butch (and his achievements) to think I’d punt him cos we publish his book. I punt him cos he is bloke I’d play. Just like I punt FH to start ahead of Habana cos in my view he is a better option. So what does the latter make me anti Stormers and pro Bull or anti colour and pro white? Tell me if you agree or disagree as a passionate Bok supporter whether any Bok coach and players should be held accountable to yearly results and performance or if Bok rugby is about a hit or miss result once every four years? Your thoughts
29 Sep 2011, 07:27 am
Keo when you do a good analyses of the state of Springbok rugby it is a pleasure to read. Excellent article and most rugby supporters will agree with the sentiments expressed.
Well done!
29 Sep 2011, 07:35 am
where is that champion cutter and paster (Transie)… i wish he could get my post of 2009 regarding the players for WC2011….
all i can say now is: i told you so! maar julle willie luister nie!
29 Sep 2011, 07:44 am
Haha! En daar kry ou Tac op sy moer van iemand wat nog minder van rugby weet as hy!!!
29 Sep 2011, 07:56 am
@keo(keo)-21:
yes, but you conveniently leave out the fact that you, (it amazes me to say this) if this is true, had played a part in the supposed process / campaign to get pdv hired as springbok coach. so, in truth a large part of this four cycle of marginal / average results with a focus overall on the wc can be blamed on you and whatever your involvment had been.
its funny how enlightenment always comes after the fact of having caused a moerse ffuckup on one’s own part.
i’m curious, the article ‘end of an error’…was that an apology on your part for your involment in this debacle?
29 Sep 2011, 07:57 am
This was a great team that was mis-coached into trying to play like Australians and French (exactly the mistake Ian McIntosh made in trying to force us to play as Kiwis) in its early years 2008, before the ‘palace coup’ of the older players restored sanity – as evidenced by by the 2009 season.
Smit was the liability in 2010 and he was the one old-timer who should have retired; it was a hiatus season. In fairness he is improving and a case can be made for a game of two halves – the first where our physicality wears them down, and the second when our playmakers, led by Bismarck, run rampant.
I’m not saying I agree with that but a case can be made.
The fact is this – this team is actually stronger than it was in 2007, according to the Fiji captain who played in the last World Cup, and I believe him more than I believe on this blog site because he was at the coal face instead of istting in his armchair criticizing, like the rest of us. Which completely vindicates the selection policy, which your article decries Keo. They bought in Butch because Morne was playing badly and no other fly-half could do the business. This team can blame mis-coaching, mis-managment of talent like Frans Steyn, and the dumbest bench changes in the history of the game, for the lack of success in 2009-2011.
I believe the Fiji captain, and now Marc Livremont who also rates the Boks the team to beat, long before I believe your left-wing political rants Keo – particluarly when you make monstrously stupid statements like the Tri-nations is a more diffucult contest. In other words what you have just said is that the ‘team that is better than it was, should have had different faces’.
Dummy.
The WC is the toughest contest and hardest to win for the obvious reasons that a) the World Cup is a knock-out competition, and b) the PRESSURE is highest. Because of this second point you are not going to see blemish-free Super 14 style rugby, which so many idiots, including the feature writers, lament. We are going to see pressurized human-error rugby for much greater stakes, which I personally find a lot more intriguing. Everybody remembers Joel Stransky’s drop goal in extra time (which they don’t have in Tr-Nations) in 1995 – who remembers who even won the Tri-Nations in, say, 2001? Who even cares?
Go Bokke, go.
29 Sep 2011, 08:01 am
@Rugbyprof(rugbyprof)-24:
a very movable force, meets a very stoppable object…?….
29 Sep 2011, 08:02 am
@keo(keo)-21: whats your best impression of NZ at this moment keo? and the worst?
29 Sep 2011, 08:03 am
@grant10(grant10)-10: Welcome back!
29 Sep 2011, 08:03 am
agree with some things but not with others…
jake white had a horror 2006… same as PdV had in 2010… and they both reacted the same way sticking with what they know…
would also like to see more accountability… obviously and like the midway waypoint idea which gives two years to change should it be necessary…
but keo you’re calling for the best guys to be picked and not old favourites… but then insist butch james should start when in fact morne steyn is the best bet for winning the world cup… in the game that butch played he did his usual borderline tackles and anyone but wayne barnes would penalised or even carded him…
world cups are won on kicks… fact… morne is simply a have-to-have… and to be fair… his first game was a shocker (as it was for many other players) but he has (and most of them) recovered to perform quite well…
the fact that you wrote this before the world cup reveals your agenda… which is to sell his/your book… which maybe you have ghosted for him… (haven’t seen who wrote it for him yet)…
but if you did write it for him… your agenda is pretty shameful… parading your personal income as the interests of south african rugby…
who wrote the book…?
29 Sep 2011, 08:08 am
Hey Grant… Good to see you blogging again…!
29 Sep 2011, 08:12 am
@keo(keo)-21: Thank you Keo ,for providing a great site.As a kiwi i appriciate the great range of opinion that is Keo.com.
29 Sep 2011, 08:12 am
So John Wayne is dead and the world is corporate and results driven and we should all be about the money, inspiring stuff that, awesome what real legends are made of. So to escape all that b.s. by tuning into a rugby game is actually no escape at all, in fact I should just go sit at the office and watch my co workers kick it and it would amount to the same thing eh.
Cant fault Keo’s logic, but come on dude is that really why anyone watches rugby. I would prefer that instead of viewing them as illusions we be left to our traditions concerning rugby. And yeah, lets just contemplate this from a marketing dynamic, an old “aging” team written off by everyone with a written off coach manages in consecutive weekends beat the two best teams in the world and win the world cup. Wow gotta be a Hollywood deal in there somewhere, in fact sound like every sports movie I have ever watched.
anyway Keo is right, its all about the benjamins, eish. eish. eish.
29 Sep 2011, 08:17 am
@reechie maak so lank die pan warm, bakkies bring die wors…(i_love_u_bakkiesbotha)-27:
couldn’t have said it better myself!
29 Sep 2011, 08:19 am
“When you read this, South Africa’s fate at the Rugby World Cup could largely be decided” – keo
Again, another article that was written in 2010.
Yesterday his video said that by Habana will score 5 tries against Namibia.
29 Sep 2011, 08:20 am
JWhite will be shown up at the Brumbies for the limited coach he is.
29 Sep 2011, 08:22 am
@keo(keo)-21:
when did you write this article?
when did you make yesterday’s video that predicted Habana will score 5 tries against Namibia?
Are you a real person or are you an automated article dispenser that got its dates phukked up with the Y2K bug?
29 Sep 2011, 08:23 am
Hougaard will beat Banana’s try scoring record in 3 years or less
29 Sep 2011, 08:25 am
@Rugbyprof(rugbyprof)-36:
Jake is tactically one of the top 5 coaches in world rugby. As for man management, he’s probably in the top 3. As for track record, he’s the only coach to have won a world cup and still coaches top level rugby.
He’ll get the Brumbies to a final within 3 years.
Couldn’t happen to a better man
29 Sep 2011, 08:28 am
@Helen(Helen)-39:
“he’s the only coach to have won a world cup and still coaches top level rugby”
he couldn’t get a job for four years…? and is only now just about to start his first coaching job since winning the world cup…
29 Sep 2011, 08:28 am
Imagine a team to confuse Murray Mexted:
9 – Francois Hougaard
10 – Derek Hougaard
12 – Francois Steyn
15 – Morne Steyn
4 – Bakkies Botha
3 – BJ Botha
2 – Bismarck du Plessis
1 – Jannie du Plessis
11 – Odwa Ndungane
14 – Akona Ndungane
29 Sep 2011, 08:30 am
@ufo(ufo)-40:
Hmmmm….. that’s a stretch.
He could’ve taken any job in the world. To say he only got a job now is no reflection on the offers he would’ve received
29 Sep 2011, 08:32 am
@Helen(Helen)-42:
“no reflection on the offers he would’ve received”…
dark if that’s not stretching it… what the hell is…?
so why did he not receive any offers…?
he wanted and pitched for several jobs and not one came through till now…
keep it real dude…
29 Sep 2011, 08:33 am
dark = FARK
29 Sep 2011, 08:33 am
Unbelievable and hilarious!
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/impostor-stephen-the-16th-man-in-dubs-celebrations-288570independent.ie/national-news/impostor-stephen-the-16th-man-in-dubs-celebrations-2885703.html
29 Sep 2011, 08:47 am
It seems like Keo is batteling some personal demons, because he is constantly talking about the Div and how it should never happen again etc. But boet you were involved. What you should say is this,
“Never again should a rugby journalist be involved with the bok job selection.”
The last four years have not been that bad; Keo you are talking like we lost every game, it was in no way like the years of Struali, we beat NZ three games in a row, we won a Lions series and a tri-nations.
Kap a chill pill and relax, just because the coach doesn’t listen to YOUR rational doesn’t mean it’s all wrong.
29 Sep 2011, 08:50 am
Your very own Jake White started this by saying he should be judged on the world cup.
If i remember well, you were quite a fan of his long term development programme which included talent identification and technical development of the players’ skills set.
I do not know what has changed now. We were inconsistent for much of 2010 and 2011.
2009 was a different story.
The incoming bok coach has a different mandate altogether. Whether we defend the cup or not, the new coach has to start a new process.
Unfortunately, with all south african sports codes the focus is on the national team and not on lower structures. If the new coach has to introduce a new approach to our playing style, this cannot be done from the top.
Harry Viljoen tried it, abandoned the plan as soon as the results went dry.
The only people to have won the world cup are the ones who emphasised South African strengths.
Whoever comes in must have the ability to influence SARU and the unions of the need to incorporate new elements in player development, elements which will get us to this open rugby we crave.
Now, we have a chance to start afresh at franchise and bok level. This is where we can adopt the Cheetahs approach. Reality is a different thing altogether though.
My conclusion is that PdV was probably naive to suggest that boks would play expansive rugby when he came to the bok set up. When he got there, he met world cup winning players who were used to a certain approach which had helped the bulls and boks respectively.
29 Sep 2011, 08:50 am
@BreakdownBoy(goodstuff)-46:
Well put.
The world needs more people like you!
29 Sep 2011, 08:55 am
What is more important? An 80% win ratio and only one WC trophy or a 65% win ratio and three WC trophies?
29 Sep 2011, 08:57 am
@Wakefield_and_quotas_killed_WP_2011_currie_cup_like_samoa_cannibals_kills_tourists(p0ppa69)-38:
not as a scrumhalf.
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