Reason to smile
7 Nov 2011
Schalk Burger, the 2011 SA Player of the Year, should be the cornerstone of the Springbok side in 2012 and beyond.
Burger, who first played for the Boks in a 2003 World Cup match against Georgia, enjoyed an outstanding tournament in New Zealand, exhibiting the same abrasive energy that marked him as a 20-year-old debutant. He also made use of the experience he’s accumulated over 60-plus Tests, as well as some recently acquired skills, to leave a lasting impression.
The next Bok coach will face the challenge of building a new team and a new leadership group. Burger is certain to be one of the pillars, if not a strong candidate for the captaincy itself. Some tough decisions will need to be made by the coach, and the ageing veterans may need to make way for the promising youngsters, but a clever man-manager will realise that Burger is the kind of player he can build his new team around.
Also in the new issue of SA Rugby magazine, on sale this week:
– We analyse the Springboks’ World Cup campaign and rate all the players
– Why the Springboks must adapt their game plan in order to achieve consistent success
– Richie McCaw has a phenomenal playing record, but McCaw the player is even more impressive
– All Blacks coach Graham Henry has found peace at last
– We review all 48 matches of the 2011 World Cup
– The minnows made progress at the recent World Cup despite an unfair playing field
– Jon Cardinelli chronicles some of the World Cup adventures enjoyed by the SA Rugby magazine team during a seven-week sojourn to New Zealand’s rugby-mad North Island
– The SA U18 Sevens’ success at the Commonwealth Youth Games bodes well for the 2016 Olympic Games
Click here to subscribe to print edition
Click here to subscribe to digital edition
791 Comments
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7 Nov 2011, 23:59 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-600: nope, I just see you overreacting big time daily and see no reason to join in with your scape goat making personal name calling bitchin and moanin’. Watching from the outside, it looks and reads pretty childish.
It’s a perpetual torrent of repetitive nonsense. One person is never to blame for a team of 15 losing.
And even if he was somehow to blame, then blame the person or people who repeatedly SELECTED him for all those games!
8 Nov 2011, 00:04 am
The sooner you Saffer/Bok supports get over yourselves and acknowledge that the BOKS lost their 1/4 final against the Aussies because they werent good enough to WIN. Not because Bismark or any other players was not playing….they LOST cupcakes…because it became obvious to everyone else who knows SA Rugby that you lack the key ingredients in the backs to win games. You are shown up everytime in this department. Man, the BOKS had possession and position all game long and what happened, you could only score a try on a forward pass that was rightly spotted. Every other time the BOKS pushed the line they couldnt make it across it…END OF STORY…suck it up guys this constant harping and whingeing is just becoming a broken record….and who wants to listen to it.
8 Nov 2011, 00:07 am
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-601: they selected him on YOUR behests.. on YOU hero worshipers desires and the falsity of this grandiose illusion that he was bigger than the team so bewilderingly sacrosanct as a f’ng ‘leader’ or some such garbage.. or else more important as a leader than Matfield was or vital to the cohesiveness of the unit or some such bullshit jargon.. you FORGOTTEN all your slapstick sentiments of how VITAL John Smit was to Boks success at the world cup and how prone to brainfarts Bismark is or was and how hopeless a captain Matfield is or was.. whereas your piffle little backyard hero couldn’t win a f’ng test in 2 and a half years for TOFFEE APPLES.!!
and in the end his vainglorious cookie crumbled into the dust it so aptly deserved…
8 Nov 2011, 00:14 am
@JohnPaul(JohnPaul)-602: backs could not breach the gain line because backs never got any ball with which to attempt it.. Boks game plan is designed around the blind side flank being the prime operative offense directive and it is shuffled from No.9 to No. 7 from 2nd phase every time for the blind side flank to carry it up to the line and try create some magic.. even though he is NOT trained or skilled enough to carry out the function.. so is he still instilled as the leading go to man in almost 80% of all offense phases… till it breaks down and opposition get to turn it over.. though it should be said that the reffing standard did not aid the ball carrier in this game whatsoever which is what most would think is the primary current IRB statute law around the ball carrier having first right of possession and that defense has to roll away and create ‘daylight”
or was this directive suddenly REVERSED for this game ONLY.?.!!
8 Nov 2011, 00:29 am
No no … Smit never deserved the vitriol that was directed at him before 2010 and there was plenty of it leading all the way up to 2007, but he well and truly deserved to be selected and lift that trophy, and as such that is exactly what they did and I thought they would.
This debacle on the other hand was smit going too far, he was ideal as a backup off the bench and squad captain, but instead his ambition and pride got the better of him.
The correct selection was a backup to Bismarck and general frontrow cover with all that experience – not too drop him and also not too start. All about balance and they hot it wrong right at the final hurdle.
JohnPaul – the Ozzies won, no complaints with the Ozzie or ref, I expected they would beat the boks – but make no mistake they were not the better team, it was a rodgering, the Aussies defended like Trojans off slow ball time and time again. But I will always maintain if Bismarck and alberts had been selected fir that game it would not have even been close. The quality of that 80% ball would’ve been far superior.
As
8 Nov 2011, 01:11 am
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-604: “backs could not breach the gain line because backs never got any ball with which to attempt it.”
Now that is absolute twak. In the 1/4 against Aus we had ALL the farken ball, thanks the huge effort put in by our forwards, Smit chief among them. Possession and territory stats were hugely in our favour.
8 Nov 2011, 01:12 am
@JohnPaul(JohnPaul)-602: Wrong! Brycie had a big say too!
8 Nov 2011, 01:21 am
You can have all the ball in the wall, like argy, but if you got no pace injected onto it, makes not he slightest difference. You need dynamic forwards to give you that. Instead we had matfield winning everything in air, a strong scrim and ball retention, but noone ripping into tucks and most important noone able to smash over the adv line. The two players that could give that were not picked. How u think the nok backs looked so much better in 09? There was no difference. With that sort of ball even barabas venter would like like philipe sella.
8 Nov 2011, 02:11 am
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-606:
Don’t confuse the old rabid dog with FACTS!
In the last 30 minutes of the game the Boks had 76% of possession, 81% of territory, there were 56 passes left-to-right and yet there were zero line-breaks!
Boks has several opportunities to drop-kick the ball over, attempt a rolling maul, or tactically kick for touch (winning 30% of Aussie LO ball) when they could not breach the line but they simply continued with ‘ball-in-hand’ and they paid the price!
Guess what… there was no John Smit nor Matfield there during that time!
But let the ignoramus’ keep making excuses.
8 Nov 2011, 02:22 am
@bryce_in_oz(bryce_in_oz)-609:
“Guess what… there was no John Smit nor Matfield there during that time!’
haha i forgot about that.
Anyway majority of the bloggers here do see it the way you see it.
Of course calls didnt go the Boks way in that game, but the territory and possesion was in the Boks favour by alot. Your post actually says everything.
8 Nov 2011, 02:33 am
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-610:
The majority of South African rugby fans if Keo is anything to go by… are emotive, uneducated (in the analytical sense), subjective fools!
8 Nov 2011, 03:13 am
@bryce_in_oz(bryce_in_oz)-611:
Bryce, i was trying to be nice.
8 Nov 2011, 03:31 am
Hurricane is a new zealander who of course wants everyone to believe that the ABs are the best team in the world, maybe they are, but they have still not played the Boks best team since 2009 when they were hammered, and a great many of them including one of the most famous ABs of all time who happens to know something or two about hooker play, also considered it completely berserk that the Springboks did not select Bismarck Du Plessis.
8 Nov 2011, 03:51 am
@cab(cab)-613:
You’re deluded…
As for Bismark… did you watch the RWC exit… he did nothing in his 30 minutes, zero steals, zero line-breaks, missed 50% of his tackles…
Did you watch his 80 minutes in the lowly CC… totally impactless…
8 Nov 2011, 03:55 am
@bryce_in_oz(bryce_in_oz)-614:
Aussies and Kiwi’s simply adapted to and countered that 2009 play as any modern team would…
Springboks just are not that good anymore after 4 yrs of stagnation in the coaching, analysis, evolution stakes… and they’re going to suffer from lack of depth in 2012…
8 Nov 2011, 04:17 am
@cab(cab)-613:
So i am a New Zealander, what has that really got to do with anything.
NZ have the RWC, we have been #1 in world rankings for over 3 years and you still not sure if NZ are the best team in the world?
We won the RWC without our best players as well.
Dont give me we havnt beat a full #1 Bok team. How come NZ according to you all have there best team playing all the time yet the boks never do?
One man was not going to win the RWC 2011.
Bismark is good, but hes not going to drop kick goals which what was needed in the QF. He was not going to put the pace on out wide and break open the Ozzie backline…. which what was needed.
Boks forwards did everything to win that game….. Boks backs let them down.
Why think if Bismark was played in the QF,SA would have won the game when the Boks forwards dominated the Ozzies anyway?
8 Nov 2011, 04:24 am
@cab(cab)-613:
Oh so 2009 was your stongest team and best?
Spies,Januarie,Odwa?
These your top players?
That same team was thrashed 21-6 by Ozzie.
NZ was playing Donald at # 12,hardly our best team.
Sorry but your 2009 theory has holes in it.
8 Nov 2011, 04:33 am
@cab(cab)-613:
OH and i am not finished.
2009 Boks scored 158 points.
Morne scored 95 of them. One man carried the Boks that year.
I am sorry but to say thats the best and strongest Bok team is a laugh.
8 Nov 2011, 04:56 am
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-618:
Dude, gloating is not a good look, honest!
In 2009, it does not matter how or why or when but your boys got beat………it’s the same as me saying ….”but you only beat the poor frogs by a point”……not so?
Not a good look hey?
8 Nov 2011, 06:11 am
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/nov/07/world-cup-balls-joke-wilkinson?newsfeed=true
8 Nov 2011, 06:55 am
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-618: As a neutral I would actually say if there was one man head and shoulders above anyone else that year for the Boks it was Heinrick Brussow, not Morne Steyn.
8 Nov 2011, 06:59 am
@Transformation(Transformation)-620: I thought that right from the start. Jonny has also recently slammed the other England players for their lack of hunger and professionalism during the world cup. Not a very happy camper after this world cup!
8 Nov 2011, 07:08 am
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-576: 100% right…..
Pdv a spineless jelly fish that was bullied and conned by the fat boy
may they find solace in there farken crimes ……
but they can expect zero forgiveness from me
8 Nov 2011, 07:09 am
strange how sharkievarkies still wale and gnash there teeth at Teichmann axing but happy to be conned by fat boy and jellyfish coach
8 Nov 2011, 07:15 am
kiwis were minus Carter…..what an opportunity for Boks to snatch the spoils…
well done plod and pdv……
Farken b astards
8 Nov 2011, 07:16 am
i wonder how these sharkievarkies would have reacted had the fat boy been a WP Player?
8 Nov 2011, 07:38 am
@grant10(grant10)-624:
the two are not quite the same though, are they. a better player and captain was dropped for a lesser player and captain in the one instance and a ‘arguably’ lesser player but great captain was kept on at the expense of an ‘ostensibly’ better player who was not a captain.
very different circumstances indeed but with practically the same outcome…we ended up losing what is rightfully ours…
8 Nov 2011, 07:39 am
@bryce_in_oz(bryce_in_oz)-611:
You idiots are bullshitting yourselves and each other
Schalk Burger was the chief ball carry proponent, Smit was supposed to be the lead from the front captain, where the fck WAS he?
Schalk Burger try as he might could NOT breach the advantage line, now you and your SharkieVarkie puppy dog and your Smitty arsecreep f’ng apologists wanna blame Bismark or the back line for the fallout.!
Its a DUMB f’ng strategy having Burger play at first receiver IT DOES NOT WORK. He does NOT have either the smarts or the explosiveness or pace to breach the advantage line, for all his superior ball carry meters he achieved FOKOL! And so did Smit achieve fokol as the lead from the front captain who could NOT even use his huge gift of the gables influence to get anywhere near to Bryce’s conscience to blow the game g’dam FAIR!
BOTTOM LINE, cab is CORRECT. Had Boks started with Bismark and Alberts Aussie would NOT HAVE stood a chance, they would have simply been blown right off the park, which they almost were, yet the strategy to start with Smit, Spies and FdP and have Burger as the ineffective ball carrier battering ram played STRAIGHT into Aussie most gratefully appreciative hands.!!
8 Nov 2011, 07:41 am
@au revoir mon tout noirs, au revoir…(i_love_u_bakkiesbotha)-627: Plod and PDV screwed the nation….showed a huge in our face fark u toffee to all of us.
Fark them for all eternity…..I will simply never forgive or forget.
B astards that the 2 of them are…
8 Nov 2011, 07:42 am
put nothing past these kiwis.
we’ve seen time and again the depths they’ve gone to in order to advantage their precious all blacks.
i wont rehash the usual stuff again but we all know this.
8 Nov 2011, 07:48 am
@grant10(grant10)-629:
yes, but so did mallet and pretty boy bob.
why no hatred?
8 Nov 2011, 07:50 am
Morning All,
I have been out the country for a while. So has Smit and PDV had exnetsions of their contracts? Seems like we are carrying on as if they have.
Furthermore, Hurricane, the AB’s are the best this year, and the past 2 years. Why are you whinging? Is something the matter?
Hongkongslong – I dont think that Brussouw was that great. He was totally outplayed by Pocock when it mattered. Complain all we want about the ref, Pocock adapted, Brussouw did not. That said, he will learn from that and be a better player. He is certainly the right man for the future.
G10 – Boks could not catch the spoils versus the AB’s cause we never beat the Aussies. Did you watch the cup? I dont think that the sharkievaries would have cared much had Smit been a Province pup. Probably a good thing he is not, as he would still be the best province front rower there at this stage, hence still in SA rugby.
8 Nov 2011, 07:52 am
our 2 best ball carrying players were Bissy [ prime of his career ] and Alberts……
Tnhey sat on the farken bench while fat boy and Spies done sweet fanny adams niks!
FDP was stuffed with that shoulder…..Hougaard sat on the bench…..
It was weak leadership, ego driven self desire and a spineless HC that stopped us….
We could of,, in fact should of , at the very least , been in semis against a vulnerable Kiwi team…..
Instead we equalled our worst ever WC record…..going home like beaten dogs at quarter finals….exactly as Skop and I been saying since begnning of 2010 because we are not farken blind sentimentalists, rah rah pom pom girls but actually understand that this game is farken dog eat dog not tiddlywinks man!
It was a damn disgrace what happened since 2010….a damn farken disgrace of the highest order…..
I am absolutely convinced had we selected on form and merit and not on childish sentimentality we would have thrashed aussies……and then it waas game on in semis…..
But no….we folded at the whim of a fat boy and a spineless jelly fish coach……and 99% of bloggers are so accepting of the aura…..
farken deluded sheep….
8 Nov 2011, 07:52 am
Starting Smit over Bismark was one MASSIVE f’ng mistake ANYBODY STILL thinking it was the right thing to di are ABSOLUTELY FCKD in the head and know NOTHING about winning rugby principles.. That, and starting Spies over Alberts to less extent, was a cop out COMPROMISE and was THE FCKUP that killed Boks chances in that 1/4 final and I betcha even Pdv KNOWS that by now!!
Exactly as Mallet COMPROMISED with De Beer over Honiball in 99 and LOST, so did Pdv and Rassie et al COMPROMISE to CARRY Smit over Bismark, and the NET RESULT was a deserving LOSS
Because cop out COMPROMISES do NOT deserve to WIN!!
DUMB fck SharkieVarkie Guppieyuppie Smitty arselick Compromising cowardly chickenshit schmucks united in LOSING, long as they back their f’ng LOSER to the hilt!! F’ng IDIOTIC morons supreme!!
And this Aussie wannabbee SharkieVarkie Smitty arselick Bryce the pathetic little Myce from Melbourne is the absolute Epitome of that blinded COMPROMISING disease.
8 Nov 2011, 07:53 am
@au revoir mon tout noirs, au revoir…(i_love_u_bakkiesbotha)-631: because if truth be told Teichmann, as much as I respect and admire the man, was kept together by elastoplast…..
Plod was just plainly inferior…..
8 Nov 2011, 07:55 am
BTW – I also agree that Bismark should have started ahead of Smit. I am just over it already. Seen this script too many times.
Skinstad over Teichman
De Beer over Honniball
Smit over Bismark
I simply dont care anymore
8 Nov 2011, 07:56 am
@G10 635,
Your argument holds no water. McCaw could barely walk and clinically should not have played. He played, they won.
8 Nov 2011, 07:56 am
@BULLET(BULLET)-632: plod is a con man and a statue should be made of him and put on the Grand Parade as a reminder of what selfishness and ego achieves…..
Farken cnut that he is….
8 Nov 2011, 07:58 am
anyway, in other news, while i do think its nice that the pumas have finally been allowed to run with the big dogs, i also think its just going to be a sh version of the italian story more or less. basically expect solid hammerings and undisputed wooden spoons for the next forever.
8 Nov 2011, 07:58 am
Waddup swamp donkeys?
8 Nov 2011, 07:58 am
G10 – 633,
Why did Bismark and Alberts not get over the advantage line in the CC semi versus the Cheetah’s and the final against the Lions?
Not trying to be funny, want your serious opinion. The CC is a third rate competition (after RWC & S15), yet at this 3rd rate compo, they were quite ordinary.
8 Nov 2011, 08:00 am
@whatever(whatever)-619:
In my post i cant see where i was gloating.
I was only stating on a post by Cab saying we havnt beat a full strength Bok team yet.
2009 as he suggested was when the best team was fielded i thought that it wasnt but in fact MS having a great series. He scored over half there points. In fact he scored all 31 or 34 points to beat NZ in 2009 3 nations.
What you might be talking about about is when i said NZ having the RWC and #1 ranked team in the world, yet Cab is still saying maybe NZ is the best.
This is not gloating but pointing a fact out that we are the best. Cab shouldnt be saying that we are not seen as the last time we faced a best bok team we lost.
8 Nov 2011, 08:00 am
@G10 – 638,
I agree. His statue should go right next to Skinstad’s.
8 Nov 2011, 08:01 am
@BULLET(BULLET)-637: you and your blogger mates were conned….by a fat boy and a spineless jelly fish……
you guys are the victims here
suck it up everytime a kiwi takes the p iss …..for next 4 years….because all you farkers deserve every jibe and cheap shot….because you okes are a weak bunch of sentimental rah rah pom pom girls!
8 Nov 2011, 08:02 am
@Hurricane 642,
I would not take that post from others seriously. Blacks have a far superior winning record to the Boks in the last 10 years, and have emphatically beaten us over the last 2. Bottom line is that you beat the best Bok teams we could have produced at the time we played.
8 Nov 2011, 08:05 am
@BULLET(BULLET)-641: I would not of played any boks…..
Hearts were farked after the disgusting early flight home…..
You really think mentally those okes were up to it?
Did you see Schalks performance….or non performance …at openside in cc semi?
The okes were emotionally farked up ……get over it…..
Lions were great…..but then again they have a HC with a backbone…..not a farken spineless jellyfish…
8 Nov 2011, 08:05 am
Boks’ Championship fixtures – 18 Aug vs Arg (h), 25 Aug vs Arg (a), 8 Sep vs Aus (a), 15 Sep vs NZ (a), 29 Sep vs Aus (h), 6 Oct vs NZ (h).
8 Nov 2011, 08:06 am
@G10 644 – dont throw punches cause some of what you say is exposed for being emotion rather than rationale. (After all – you claim to be the most rationale blogger in the world)
I am hurting just as much as you. I also believed that Smit should have stepped down for Bismark. You are right, the kiwi’s have the next 4 years bragging rights. We have to live with that.
8 Nov 2011, 08:06 am
@BULLET(BULLET)-643: Bob was 1000 times the player that fat boy ever was ……
Anyway….work to do
Outta here
bloody pom pom girls
8 Nov 2011, 08:06 am
you talking sh’t Bullet and you know it.. Smit is your f’ng hero Boytjie who fckd the Boks out the WC with his me first f’ng vainglory seeking ambitions.. And if you gonna deny it you are one f’ng screwball liar!!
Brussow shouldn’t have started that game, if it were Louw on Burgers shoulder when they went to ground to set up a ruck in front of our posts I doubt they would have coughed the ball straight into Aussie appreciative hands, it was an out of sorts Brussow who was strapped up against rib damage even before he took the field, Louw, Bismark, Alberts, Hougaard should have started that game. Smit, Spies, FdP should have been on bench and Aplon should have replaced Habana at 50 minutes we would have CREAMED Aussie by at least 20 points.. Absolutely without ANY doubt!!
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