Nothing to learn
20 Aug 2012
MARK KEOHANE, in his weekly Business Day column, said the Springboks did what was expected of them at Newlands.
Expected win. Great win. Not a ‘good enough’ win. Just a win?
Why don’t we deal in reality?
Does it scare us? Does it make us think? Does it make us responsible? Does it confuse the escapism of sport because it forces us to be satisfied? And if we are satisfied, does it mean we can’t feel a different sense of satisfaction a week later?
The Springboks don’t lose against Argentina in South Africa. Traditionally they win by 20 points. There was one occasion when they won by a point. There was another when they won by 54. On balance it is 20.
They also don’t lose in Argentina. There was one occasion they nearly did but that was because Springbok coach Harry Viljoen in 2000 did the unthinkable. He challenged a mindset. He told his players they were not allowed to kick the ball and they produced rugby for 40 minutes never played by a Springbok team.
It was a masterstroke, but the point had been made at half-time. And instead of applying logic so the point could be made the next time, he refused to believe in the reality of the situation. The Boks were not conditioned enough to play a match of rugby for 80 minutes without kicking the ball. Mentally no one was conditioned to accept it was possible.
Argentina, who wouldn’t come out of their change room after half-time because of exhaustion in being forced to tackle for 40 minutes, defied the IRB rules and stayed there for 20 minutes instead of 10.
They knew the game could not be called off. They knew they couldn’t play without legs. We forget that. We call it a lucky win. The day the Boks kicked the ball for the first time on 73 minutes and Braam van Straaten kicked a 78th-minute penalty to win the game 37-33. The day it all nearly went so horribly wrong. The day Harry showed he belonged in business and not rugby, apparently. The day Braam’s kick restored sanity, stereotype and allowed our minds to rest.
We won. We should have lost. So South Africans said.
One British newspaper columnist wrote that it was the day the Boks defied the accepted norms about kicking and not keeping the ball; that it was about possession and not field position; and that it was about what we wanted to make it and not what others wanted us to believe it to be.
But he said it would never be remembered for how it all could have changed forever; it would be used as an example of why it should never change. Apparently we nearly lost when the story should have been about a victory of the evolution of the game and the mind of the player.
The Boks, 12 years later, beat Argentina with the tested formula of giving us what we have always had. Now it isn’t good enough. The social networks are a reflection of the comfort in what has always been done and not what can be done. A day before the Test, some feared the Boks could lose. Some said they just had to win. Some said it should be 20 points. And when they won 27-6 some said they failed because they did not score a bonus point.
Argentina said they were happy. They had been competitive. South African coaches were not happy but at kick-off they would have taken a 20-point win. Why not now?
The All Blacks, having beaten the Wallabies 12 out of the past 15 times, won for a 13th time in 16. They apparently had not won; it was the Wallabies that had lost.
Wallabies coach Robbie Deans said his team were not where they wanted to be but they would be there next week. They will be in Auckland, where they haven’t won since Moses parted the Red Sea, but there will be condemnation in Australia when they lose on Saturday and outrage in New Zealand if the All Blacks don’t score the four-try bonus point.
What can we learn from Sydney and Cape Town? Nothing. What should we have expected to learn? Nothing?
The big guy simply strangled the little guy. Why dissect it? Unlike 2000, nothing was produced that shocked, surprised or made us think. And we remember 2000 for the day the Boks nearly lost, when it was the day rugby came so close to winning forever.
Mendoza and Auckland respectively will provide no new insight because it is still a big guy strangling the little guy and applying a formula that allows for the minds to be comforted and not challenged.
This weekend it will be 10 to the Boks in Mendoza and possibly 20 to the All Blacks in Auckland. It is expected, but it will not be good enough.
Rugby, as we want to know it, isn’t ready for the unexpected although too many are never satisfied with the obvious.
653 Comments
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20 Aug 2012, 19:55 pm
@I am a stormer-597:
na boet some of you, definately not the majority 
20 Aug 2012, 19:58 pm
@cab-598:
KP played over the weekend. Went out to bat. Was booed all the way there. Got a first baller. And booed all the way back to the pavilion.
It wasn’t a good week for ‘ol Kevvie.
20 Aug 2012, 20:01 pm
@Neilanate-546: True mate.In Dolly’s era there was an even better player playing the game namely Coetie Neethling.He was a tall dashing player(batsmen)and even more stylish than Pollock.He also went with Dolly to England to play in the Lancashire League but returned soon after because he had difficulty settling into the English lifestyle.On his return he became a teacher.Many stories like that mate.They denied us but they could never defeated the spirit in Basil and those that came after him.
20 Aug 2012, 20:02 pm
@cab-598: Yeah he is an ex Shark, but he is sadly onoe of the arrogant ones, YES EVEN WE HAVE A FEW OF THOSE
but he is a brilliant cricketer just verbal diarrhea
20 Aug 2012, 20:04 pm
@I am a stormer-602:
really, janee, he might as well hang up the bat – there’s no ways they gonna let that one go – i thought he had a previous run in and was talking kak to some old bird on skynews kay burley or some **** and giving a whole sob-story, this is the 2nd one – forget it, they dont want him any more, that is that, might as well go play npl in india.
20 Aug 2012, 20:07 pm
@sharks_lover-604:
yeah guess that arrogance has its strengths and weaknesses, kind of like cantona all the greatest think they are the greatest, difference is cantona would never apologise, hes taken many bowling attack apart including the oz and sa to the cleaners over the years, but its ultimately caught up with him.
20 Aug 2012, 20:08 pm
Strange how things have changed in this country.Today white people want to cry because SAA doesn’t want to admit them to their cadet programme,but back in the days the same old farts refused to select great black cricket players like Dolly and others.
20 Aug 2012, 20:15 pm
@wnbb-603:
I’ve seen Coetie at Rosmead Ave. and Green Point Track and William Herbert grounds a number of times.
These okes here know nothing about Cape cricket(west and east). Names like Neethling, Lambert Dickie Conrad,Lefty Adams and tons more around the country(Tiffie Barnes, Yacoob Omar etc.) mean nothing to them. Let them wallow in the false ignorance but they cannot deny that they owe that #1 ranking to what Philander and Amla have done over the last year, more than anyone else.
20 Aug 2012, 20:17 pm
@wnbb-607: Dolly and Coetie are prize names…. I give you that…. Right up there with Cheese, Bakkies, Domkrag & Pine of Rugga persuasion…
At least those names added a bit more colour (no pun intended, honest) to the bog standard Barry, Vince, Graham and Eddie so prominent of the time
20 Aug 2012, 20:27 pm
@Heavens Game-609: Team of the week.
15 – Andries Coetzee (Golden Lions):
There is a bright future for this young man, who performs well even in a losing cause.
Bubbling under: Louis Ludik (Sharks)
14 – Odwa Ndungane (Sharks):
There are still plenty miles in those ‘old’ legs.
Bubbling under: Riaan Smit (Free State Cheetahs)
13 – Paul Jordaan (Sharks):
The Sevens Springbok was simply in a different class.
Bubbling under: JP du Plessis (Western Province)
12 – Marcel Brache (Western Province):
He has shown promise in Varsity Cup and Vodacom Cup competitions, and now has the ideal opportunity to take his career to another level.
Bubbling under: Meyer Bosman (Sharks)
11 – S’bura Sithole (Sharks):
Showed that he is ready to step from the ‘promising’ category into a ‘Currie Cup star’ for the men from Durban.
Bubbling under: Raymond Rhule (Free State Cheetahs)
10 – Riaan Viljoen (Sharks):
He may have finished playing mostly at fullback in the second half, but it is at flyhalf where he started and starred.
Bubbling under: Butch James (Golden Lions)
9 – Sarel Pretorius (Free State Cheetahs):
He may not have the best boot in the business, but as a running scrumhalf he has few peers.
Bubbling under: Charl McLeod (Sharks)
8 – CJ Stander (Blue Bulls):
The Bulls will only realise what they have lost once he has left for Ireland.
Bubbling under: Warren Whiteley (Golden Lions)
7 – Jean Deysel (Sharks):
Physically imposing. The muscle of the Sharks pack.
Bubbling under: Pieter Labuschagne (Free State Cheetahs)
6 – Wesley Wilkins (Griquas):
Another player who first cut his teeth in the Varsity Cup, leading the Maties to two consecutive competition triumphs, but has now firmly established himself at Griquas.
Bubbling under: Cobus Grobbelaar (Golden Lions)
5 – Franco van der Merwe (Golden Lions):
The old warhorse is still one of the cornerstones in the Lions pack.
Bubbling under: Martin Muller (Griquas)
4 – Andries Ferreira (Free State Cheetahs):
One that got away from the Bulls. The product of Affies (Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool) in Pretoria came back to haunt the Bulls.
Bubbling under: Rynhard Landman (Griquas)
3 – Jacobie Adriaanse (Golden Lions):
Those scrums were monstrous and he is emerging as a real gem for the Lions).
Bubbling under: Marcel van der Merwe (Free State Cheetahs)
2 – Siyabonga Ntubeni (Western Province):
It was the late Springbok call-up of Tiaan Liebenberg that gave him his opportunity and he made full use of it.
Bubbling under: Craig Burden (Sharks)
1 – JC Janse van Rensburg (Golden Lions):
He seems to have taken to the captaincy role very well and is incredibly strong in the set pieces.
Bubbling under: Steven Kitshoff (Western Province)
20 Aug 2012, 20:31 pm
@sharks_lover-610: Sarel playing good rugga… Impressed.
20 Aug 2012, 20:33 pm
@sharks_lover-610:
The one guy that really impressed me on the weekend was CJ Stander. Spies is going to have his work cut out when he gets back from Ireland.
I think it is just a short term contract like Kanko and Quin Roux of Stormers – 6 months or so to earn a bit of cash and learn different playing conditions.
20 Aug 2012, 20:47 pm
Frank Roro.
20 Aug 2012, 21:00 pm
During the years of segregation young white South Africans idolised their cricketing heroes from Faulkner and Schwarz to the Pollocks and Richards, while young blacks in the country preferred to identify with Nicholls, Salie, Roro, Majola, Malamba, Ntikinca, Barnes, D’Oliveira, Bhamjee, Ntshekisaand Ebrahim- all black players as unknown to their white compatriots as they were to the cricket world at large. They may not have been national figures but they were local and regional heroes, especially in the Cape Province. All the time many whites liked to assume blacks were not interested in cricket. Meanwhile, the only white cricketers cheered on by black cricket fans were those playing against South Africa. When Neil Harvey played his epic match-winning innings of 151 not out for Australia against South Africa at Durban in 1950, every scoring stroke he made was cheered from the seating area reserved for blacks, not least by a young lawyer named Nelson Mandela.
How good were the black players of those years? D’Oliveira was the only one given the international opportunity to prove himself, but there is evidence that a number of them were worth Springbok places. Taliep Salie was a googly bowler regarded by Clarrie Grimmett as good enough for any Test team in the world. Among the Africans were Frank Roro, who scored 20 centuries in black inter-provincial cricket, Khaya Majola, Ben Malamba, Edmund Ntikinca and Sam Ntshekisa, all of whom showed skills far above average despite adverse pitches and playing conditions. Tiffie Barnes and Baboo Ebrahim would have been stars in any first-class cricket arena, and as wicker-keepers Chicken Bhamjee and C. J. Nicholls were regarded by some sound judges as being at least as good as their counterparts in the white cricket world. So there was a lot to be sorry for in South Africa’s cricketing past; a lot of lost time and opportunity and a lot of wrong to acknowledge and put right as the first-ever South African team chosen consciously on merit only was assembled for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
20 Aug 2012, 21:03 pm
@wnbb-614:
F-ok extraball is back
20 Aug 2012, 21:04 pm
@I am a stormer-612:
> Spies is going to have his work cut out when he gets back from Ireland
I saw a posting on the Bulls site once where someone mentioned Spies is going to France
Please let it be true?
20 Aug 2012, 21:04 pm
BTW the tears on the Dolly Trophy was caused by the spraying of the champers which sent Amla and Tahir scampering too.
20 Aug 2012, 21:07 pm
Officially South African cricket starts from 10 July 1991.Everything before that date isn’t recognised anymore hence all Proteas test caps started from number 1 given to the captain in the West Indies series in 1992.
20 Aug 2012, 21:15 pm
The idiots contributing to Wikepedia still have the date as 1888.All lies in every sense of the word.That history have been expunged from the history books.The feats of Pollock,Barlow etc etc are remembered but they themselves are not recognised as Proteas test match players.Barlow cried about that last fact but he had to accept it at the end of the day.
20 Aug 2012, 21:41 pm
@victoriabok-615: i don’t know why he is ranting when he doesn’t even support the Proteas, he was shouting for India in the 50 over world cup…
20 Aug 2012, 21:43 pm
@Transformation-620:
He’s a doos that’s why
20 Aug 2012, 21:48 pm
Congratulations you Saffas, you beat us fair and square!!
lol
Thought we would get you this time!!
20 Aug 2012, 22:06 pm
@David-543: Well there was a baited hook in that statement David. The operative word was “cricketer”. Selected with a purpose. Because I figured someone like yourself might raise those two gentlemens’ names. Richards and Pollock were indeed SA’s greatest batsmen but neither had JK’s allround skills and I’d venture the latter could hold their company in the batting department too. That will always remain an unquantifiable debate as to who’s best. Different styles. different techniques. Like comparing Amla with AB. But where Kallis comes into his own is his quality bowling and extraordinary catching abilities. Arguably the best we’ve produced. Ever.
Forgot about Bunter. Criminal omission.
20 Aug 2012, 22:11 pm
wnbb you have these black and white performing minstrels in a tizzy, a state of confusion.
They think they are cricket or rugby or whatever life. And now you show them that their are Neethling and Adams and Ebrahim and Majolas and Barnes.
These selfsame minstrels will deny that Lonmin is a direct result of apartheid/racism, even today. Do they ever ask who set those pay-structures decades ago and even pay those appalling wages to this day? But they do not want to accept the “savage” or the “barbaric” responses of the poor and the still denied?
Do they not accept that if you treat ‘humans’ to sub-human conditions of life for decades that you spawn such vicious inhuman responses? Surely those off-spring only understand having nothing and no chance in this life.So what is there for them to lose other than a hell’s life on earth?
20 Aug 2012, 22:34 pm
@wnbb-607: what I find odd, is your gloating at racism like it was always the acceptable thing to do. Aren’t there too many coloureds in the Cape, according to one knowledgeable source in government? I think he would argue that you and your kin were better off than he and his and therefore not entitled to stand at the head of the same queue as our darker brothers. Sound about right to you? Because its my opinion it smacks of racism which bedevils your community’s(and mine) to rise to the top of their abilities. Your idea of a fair and just society hey? Drop the chip and maybe people will take you more seriously.
20 Aug 2012, 22:37 pm
@TASSIES-625: we must be having it NOW!
nothing like a satisfied hypocrite to show what “principles” mean to the people who didnt actually stand up for themselves.
20 Aug 2012, 22:42 pm
@wnbb-614: “Chicken Bhamjee”…. Classic name
20 Aug 2012, 22:46 pm
@Neilanate-624: what a lot of tripe. Squat to do with Apartheid and a lot more to do with greed, flouting of the rules, poor administrative policing by government and out of control power-obsessed trade unions. Lonmin, government and unions collectively responsible for those poor miners miserable existence. You will probably find that most, if not all the other mining houses have similar issues. What about some laws governing work conditions. How about some policing thereof? Do these basic responsibilities take longer than 18 years to implement like everything else in this (blame it on history) country of ours?
20 Aug 2012, 22:46 pm
Ou driebal is ‘n reuse poepol onder enige naam.
20 Aug 2012, 22:48 pm
@katman-629:
Ons moet vir hom ‘n date reël met Caster
Hulle kan ‘n nuwe golfterm verteenwoordig
Vyfbal
20 Aug 2012, 22:50 pm
@rangerman-626: ag these two manage to yank my chain…. every time. No bloody self control. Best to ignore but easier said than done.
20 Aug 2012, 22:51 pm
And let’s not forget the stone-age muti vendor who convinced the miners (with AMCU’s blessing) that their R500-a-pop sprinkling of goat’s piss and dassie dung would stop the bullets. Combine that with some power-hopped-up union leader who has the gall to speak on behalf of a bunch of illiterate youngsters, saying that they’d rather die there than leave empty-handed. How many union leaders exactly died?
20 Aug 2012, 22:57 pm
I’m chickening out of here Mr Bhamjee. A good book and/or a cuddle with the missus strikes me as a better option that a meaningless political war of words with two halfwits.
20 Aug 2012, 23:00 pm
@TASSIES-633:
You’ll lose, they’ll bore you to death
20 Aug 2012, 23:02 pm
@TASSIES-631: its like reading the ramblings of a pair of farmhands who want to run the JSE.
it would be funny if it wasnt so pathetic.
@katman-632: what i dont get about the whole muti thing is that poor suckers have been getting gunned down whilst “protected” to the hilt for centuries.
hell, it isnt restricted to race or region even, from American Indians to bloodthirsty scots, its a common thread of ignorance.
really puzzling until you realise that the people believing in it havent really had access to all the case studies (punctuated by bodies littering a field somewhere) that have pointed to the failures of this approach to charging at modern weaponry.
20 Aug 2012, 23:06 pm
@katman-632: not forgetting our little bundle of joy Julius, popping up to find a lens to advance his profile. I think it was he who, after a breakie of double Jonnie Blacks, encouraged ‘his’ miners to a miserable death on behalf of his cause, in the name of theirs. Nice one JuJu. Our president in waiting.
20 Aug 2012, 23:06 pm
@rangerman-635: There is always a disclaimer afterwards that anyone who gets shot despite the muti must have done something sufficiently bad to nullify the magic. These statements were made on Thursday. Along with more craziness about how bad the numbers would have been had it not been for the strong muti.
Just sad.
20 Aug 2012, 23:08 pm
@katman-637: ja, well that muti man better get running because i think he may get lynched.
20 Aug 2012, 23:09 pm
@victoriabok-634: afraid you’re right. Now I’m off to bed. Cheers guys.
20 Aug 2012, 23:09 pm
@TASSIES-636: Plus he waffled on at them about how much of the mine’s wealth was enriching people in Britain, forgetting to mention that he himself had just jetted in from the very same Britain where he was “meeting businessmen”.
He really does a very bad job at pretending to be a socialist.
20 Aug 2012, 23:10 pm
@katman-637: must be off bud, keep well.
20 Aug 2012, 23:11 pm
@rangerman-641: Ciao.
20 Aug 2012, 23:16 pm
@katman-640:
And he and his buddies like Cyril all have shares in the mine too
Cyril might even be a director?
20 Aug 2012, 23:27 pm
Toffees 1 – Manure 0
yeeeehaaaaa this day JUST gets better & better!
20 Aug 2012, 23:52 pm
And Apartheid had nothing to do with “greed” and “flouting of the rules” and “poor administrative policing by government and out of control power-obsessed” Afrikaners and pinkies in general? You can only fool a black minstrel like ……. (fill in your blank he was here often today)
God bless you poor ‘verkrampte’ pinkies! You better not believe in heaven or hell.
None so blind as those who do not want to see and a handful played “Commie Capitalists” here today?
Only in the pale mind!
21 Aug 2012, 01:07 am
@Neilanate-645: “Pinkies” eh? I take it you are a goeffel. Why do some goeffel have the biggest chips on their shoulders about race? Not black enough, not “pink” enough eh?
21 Aug 2012, 05:20 am
@wnbb-618: Not true. The Proteas began then, but the caps issued when the SA players were called the Springboks are recognised throughout the cricketing world. The stats are in the record books and every country that played against SA records those tests as caps in their records too.The Proteas are only one incarnation of SA’s national cricket team.
21 Aug 2012, 05:28 am
@wnbb-607: So your point is that nothing has changed.
21 Aug 2012, 06:03 am
Fok man. Let’s leave the politics out of the thread. I was born in 1975 in District Six. My early years were littered with memories of uprising in Mitchell’s Plain where I stayed. I played schools cricket and made the WP Schools team in 1993 and then WP B team in 1995.
I felt nothing but pride to be selected for those teams. My early cricketing heroes were Peter Kirsten and Adrian Kuiper. I idolised those guys at the height of Apartheid and I still do………..just like I do Philander and Hash today. I knew of the difficulties at the time but I made peace with it and channeled my energies into the sport I loved and to an extent it paid off.
I am Protea and Bok through and through and I get goosebumps everytime the national anthem is sung! We need to move on guys. This team out there today contained five players of colour. That’s half the team. Be proud.
21 Aug 2012, 06:22 am
@W.P-649:
Good post bru!
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