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, 13:37 pm
@Helen(Helen)-289:
Unfortunately that doesn’t make much sense, Helen old crumpet. I know you said it for effect but you didn’t really think it through.
If Youknowho was the last man in the universe then – even if the Maori with a gun to your head was a femal Maori – you’d still be in the universe, wouldn’t you?
The fact that you’re a sausage jockey who is as camp as a row of sequinned tents doesn’t change the fact that you’re still a man . . . even if you are a pitiful excuse for one.
29 Sep 2011, 13:38 pm
@Gunther(gunther)-297:
A Pogues fan?
29 Sep 2011, 13:39 pm
@Gunther(gunther)-297:
Kitch’s butler has a new pic-up line:
“Excuse me sire, might I push in your stool”
29 Sep 2011, 13:39 pm
@Helen(Helen)-300: Shwooooshhhh…. I think that just went over Lander’s level of comprehension…
Try baby steps with him…
29 Sep 2011, 13:40 pm
@Kitchener(Kitchener)-301:
I might not be a man, but my balls are bigger than yours, old chap
29 Sep 2011, 13:42 pm
this is for tac, who earlier said other rugby unions administrations are’nt half as ffucked up with issues as sa’s is:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jul/10/martin-johnson-england-manager-rfu
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/14763279.stm
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-union/news-comment/thomas-quits-to-plunge-rfu-into-further-turmoil-2311678.html
29 Sep 2011, 13:43 pm
@Rum And Maple(Rum And Maple)-304:
baby steps.
That’s what old Langers takes when he creeps up behind the ladyboys on Stevenge Main Street
29 Sep 2011, 13:44 pm
@Kitchener(Kitchener)-302:
good man.
29 Sep 2011, 13:44 pm
@Helen(Helen)-307: Yip, so baby steps should be a concept he can relate to…
29 Sep 2011, 13:48 pm
@Kitchener(Kitchener)-302:
As opposed to an English Fan, which is a home appliance used to dry laundry during those 11 month rainy spells that the mud patch is so famous for
29 Sep 2011, 13:48 pm
@Helen(Helen)-305:
So you’re one of the Williams sisters?
29 Sep 2011, 13:51 pm
@funkyzoo(funkyzoo)-278:
That’s been my view since after the Welsh game when PDV said if we didn’t have the bench we have we’d “become as normal as the other teams.”
Finally Stuart Barnes and another journo from Aus has picked up on this.
That’s why the moaning and constant call for Hougie/Bismarck/Alberts to start seems so weird to me.
People can disagree with PDV and post their team sheets all day but geez we have to accept that he has his way of doing it and so far it’s working, if it doesn’t come off then his critics will have a reason to crucify him.
But so far no scribe in SA is willing to give him any respect for the way he’s going about managing his team, instead they’re so focussed on the same old stale Bismarck vs Smit, Hougie vs Habana/Du Preez, Spies vs Alberts that they fail to see the bigger picture Div has in mind.
29 Sep 2011, 13:51 pm
@Kitchener(Kitchener)-311:
Kitch, even crickets have bigger balls than you…
Time to go check up on the butker old chap.
Mr Doubtfire won’t give himself a pelvic massage, you know
29 Sep 2011, 13:55 pm
Kitchener of course was a notorious Irish ho mosexual. Order of the Garter, Aide de camp, councillor of the privy, Order of the Bathhouse. He didn’t mind it up him.
29 Sep 2011, 13:59 pm
An interesting sidenote is that Morne Steyn, the tournament’s top scorer, needs just four points to become the second South African to score 400 test points. Even more interesting is that the entire Samoan match 22 has scored 373 points between them, still 23 points short of Steyn’s personal tally.
29 Sep 2011, 14:01 pm
@wpstormerbok(wpstormerbok)-312:
i’ve long said i suspect keo of being a manchurian candidate, placed inside sa by the kiwis. at critical moments they activate their agents in order to sow confusion and cause disorder from within the republic, in so doing they further their cause and aid the all blacks.
29 Sep 2011, 14:01 pm
@wpstormerbok(wpstormerbok)-312: I am with you on this one ,I actually enjoy Divvy when he says all the funny stuff to all the o so serious journos
29 Sep 2011, 14:02 pm
@capebull(capebull)-315:
thats immaterial because butch james is the 1st choice springbok flyhalf.
29 Sep 2011, 14:06 pm
@Helen(Helen)-313: He wishes he had Brokeback Mountain in his back er yard.
29 Sep 2011, 14:07 pm
@reechie maak so lank die pan warm, bakkies bring die wors…(i_love_u_bakkiesbotha)-316:
well he is in nz now,maybe he is a double agent.
maybe a male version of suzy?
29 Sep 2011, 14:08 pm
Can’t wait to see what we have planned for Samoa’s Tuilagi (who’s just been fined $10 000 for wearing a branded mouthguard?).
He came in the tournament being hailed as Lomu’s second coming, which is so far from the truth considering Jonah was a mere 18 year old when he set the Cup alight yet Tuilagi is going on 30?
He’s very direct unlike Lomu who could move sideways as well as running straight through opponents if that was the only way through. This will help the Boks as well struggle against players with good footwork (Shane Williams, Dagg, Giteau).
So far Samoa have failed to properly use him and teams have stopped the ball getting to his wing, and when he’s received it he’s had little space to do anything.
Instead they should’ve been using him as 1st receiver from set pieces and attacking the 10 channel as he can be as good as Jamie Roberts in doing that.
If they do this tomorrow they could use this to set up quicker ball than what they’ve been enjoying so far which could allow them to run at us with speed instead of plodding from breakdown to breakdown like they’ve been doing til boredom comes.
29 Sep 2011, 14:11 pm
@reechie maak so lank die pan warm, bakkies bring die wors…(i_love_u_bakkiesbotha)-318: Ek sien Keo sluit Morne so stil stil in sy span in al is Butch die beste
29 Sep 2011, 14:11 pm
@reechie maak so lank die pan warm, bakkies bring die wors…(i_love_u_bakkiesbotha)-318:
I’m sorry but it’s just monstrous to say that the Butcher is our first choice 10.
29 Sep 2011, 14:12 pm
@willievz(willievz)-143:
Wow 85% winning ratio??
Yep i would have that over any RWCs.
Remember just cos you were not invited to a party, still makes it a party.
Now run along idiot
29 Sep 2011, 14:15 pm
The Bulls can go past Wp this weekend , I must admit WP has a terrible run with injuruies this year, worse than most others
29 Sep 2011, 14:15 pm
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-324:
Having a party and saying all the hottest birds are there whilst they are not does not make it legit either…
29 Sep 2011, 14:16 pm
@reechie maak so lank die pan warm, bakkies bring die wors…(i_love_u_bakkiesbotha)-316:
In return England sent one of their one, Marc Hinton, to rile Kiwis up he’s their own Keo – Kiwi with English heritage. (Keo – SA with Kiwi blood)
@capebull(capebull)-317:
Div’s toned it down this year and his detractors can’t find any ammo to shoot him down with, they can’t even credit the man for getting the Boks within a very realistic shot at defending their title.
29 Sep 2011, 14:16 pm
@Fern is not a stud,he is merely no19(Fern)-320:
yes, but fortunately for us the boks have long ago sniffed him out for the little manchu he is. hence his continual angry little ‘i dont like you anymore’ tirades against them.
he’s no longer in the circle of trust…not for a long time now…
29 Sep 2011, 14:19 pm
speaking of idiots….
29 Sep 2011, 14:19 pm
@wpstormerbok(wpstormerbok)-201:
” 2011 – TriNations we forfeited with the view on RWC… ”
Now if any of you think this is correct, you really need to slap yourselves in the face.
Now i was under the impression that France threw the game against NZ and there was a big ole moaning thread on here about it. But yet this guy is saying you threw the 3 nations.
Is this what rugby has come to. To win only 6 weeks every 4 years and be happy?
I say stick the cup, if NZ went down this road of throwing games just to try and win the elusive RWC, rugby to me is dead. The ole timers would be rolling in there graves listening to garbage some of you write
29 Sep 2011, 14:21 pm
@reechie maak so lank die pan warm, bakkies bring die wors…(i_love_u_bakkiesbotha)-328:
Ja,he won’t be getting many interviews from them.
29 Sep 2011, 14:21 pm
@Fern is not a stud,he is merely no19(Fern)-326:
Fern, all the top teams were there. SA didnt even make the top 20. Not mine or the worlds fault but really your own. About time you accept it.
29 Sep 2011, 14:22 pm
this site seems to have become a bit untoward, dunno if helene is an oke but god verdompt she either got a very wierd sense of humour or rougher than a bear’s arse suggesting putting pastry in the old twatty watty. as for kitchener being a ****, par for the course, they were all into man buggery.
29 Sep 2011, 14:22 pm
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-330:
How old is the youngest all black with a rwc gold winners medal?
29 Sep 2011, 14:23 pm
@capebull(capebull)-322:
presies so my ou vriend, presies..met eish ja en al….
@Gunther(gunther)-323:
ja, i’m just being facetious or ironic or paradoxical or whatever the right word is.
remember, ryan and keo have ‘little birdies’ talking to them and they, after all, know the ‘real’ strory.
@wpstormerbok(wpstormerbok)-327:
exactly, the boks have pushed him out long ago for good reasons.
29 Sep 2011, 14:24 pm
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-332:
My mom missed out on the Olympics because of the sporting boycot so it is very real to me and painfull to her.
She was innocent yet suffered.
Water under the bridge,onwards and upwards.
29 Sep 2011, 14:26 pm
@Fern is not a stud,he is merely no19(Fern)-334:
Again, you seem to forget we have won the RWC juniors about 3 times now isnt it. Lets say he younger than any of your guys.
But again, you seem to be one of the few i speak of, are you really happy winning the RWC and throw games leading upo to it?
You have under 65% winning ratio, and it is not going up at all.In fact it is heading down. You sure you want to hit losing 40% of the time?
29 Sep 2011, 14:27 pm
this site seems to have become a bit untoward, to which i will just add the following:
helen, u are either a bloke or rougher than a bear’s arse suggesting inserting pastry into the old twatty watty,or u got a veey wierd sense of humour, either way i’ve had to swallow my regurugitated lunch on a couple of occassions now. as for kitchener being a ****, par for the course, i saw all those old boys were into an awful lot of man-buggery.
29 Sep 2011, 14:28 pm
Samoa’s still kicking themselves for letting the Wales game slip.
I said at the time they let destiny slip through their fingers with that loss as they were effectively playing for a QF against Ireland and potentially SF vs NZ.
They got their planning wrong as they should’ve pulled all their big playmakers at halftime vs Namibia, instead they lost their place kicker Pisi then went on to lose against Wales because of missed kicks at goal and fatigue setting in, on top of their overly structured approach.
The Manu simply won’t have the legs to will their minds into stepping up against a snorting Bok pack with a superior tactical approach, they’ll get schooled in the art of structure much like Argentina got a lesson in RWC2007 SF.
29 Sep 2011, 14:28 pm
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-337:
I am reffering to the grown up version.
Just give me the age please.
We all also know that a sherpa was the first to summit Everest and not hillary…
29 Sep 2011, 14:29 pm
@Fern is not a stud,he is merely no19(Fern)-334: John Kirwan. He’s about 40 now.
29 Sep 2011, 14:30 pm
@Fern is not a stud,he is merely no19(Fern)-336:
Sorry to hear that ferny.
But you will find that she wasnt the only innocent one to miss out, and thats a real shame as well.
What i dont like is that the 1987 is classed as a non RWC to people here. I see why some think like that but it was and a damn good one as well, if i say so myself
29 Sep 2011, 14:30 pm
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-330:
why is it such a bad thing to throw a 3n title in a wc year? of course we want to win it all and you can be sure that we damned well want them in the years inbetween so well done to your lot for denying it to us.
a world cup in a tri nations year is sweet enough to rub off for even another 1 or 2 therafter..you know this…(well at least i hope you finally do…do you?)…we know this…everybody knows this…
29 Sep 2011, 14:31 pm
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-324: A party it was in 1987.
But not a WORLD cup.
The best in the world were not all invited.
And you have to live with this chip on your shoulder.
29 Sep 2011, 14:31 pm
@stormersboy(stormersboy)-341:
More like 44.
29 Sep 2011, 14:34 pm
@Fern is not a stud,he is merely no19(Fern)-340:
Why?
Have you got a point to all this?
As for Everest,next our gonna say it wasnt a real climb cos SA wasnt invited.
Bit of respect to Sir Edmund at least.
29 Sep 2011, 14:34 pm
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-330:
Forfeit was maybe the wrong term to use Hurricane, but you know what I meant.
We chose to nurse our first choice players to full health after a grinding season and this allowed them to R&R. This meant we effectively had a next to nothing chance of beating either NZ or Australia with our dirt trackers.
Ironically NZ did what we did in nursing Carter, McCaw, Thorne, Kaino, Mills – key players through the TriNations with the view on the RWC. You could’ve won the title if you sent these players for the PE Test, but Henry was smart and was okay with losing the battle as the war was still raging on.
Deans had no choice to play his best team after his dirt trackers get smashed by the Manu, and right now his team are feeling the effects if you take a look at their injury list and decline in performance.
29 Sep 2011, 14:34 pm
@willievz(willievz)-344:
We had the crucial vote that made the world cup of rugby a reality although we knew we would not be allowed to compete.
It is called vision.
29 Sep 2011, 14:34 pm
@Kitchener(Kitchener)-301:
“The fact that you’re a sausage jockey who is as camp as a row of sequinned tents ….”
Must admit, that one had me giggling like a english virgin on a carrot truck
29 Sep 2011, 14:35 pm
yep we can beat NZ, but bakkies and bismarck will need to start, as will alberts.
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