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, 14:52 pm
* BTW, since SA has the world’s largest reserves of “white gold” , we should easily be a top 10 economy. The gold is still there but SA mines are some of the deepest in the world. Investors can mine gold more profitably in Aus, Papua New Guinea & elswhere in Africa
20 Aug 2012, 14:52 pm
@WP-Forever-242: is that why they dont deliver textbooks?
i see kzn has pushed ahead with their policy of throwing all schools open to anyone, from anywhere and be damned feeder areas.
another admission that the anc cant build or maintain schools or anything else so try push millions into the functioning schools.
pathetic.
@viewer-244: i understand all of this buddy. i said as much to nama (my stalker
) last night.
somethings gotta give though.
20 Aug 2012, 14:53 pm
@goyougoodthing2-250:
Ja.
They must have it.
20 Aug 2012, 14:54 pm
@viewer-251: shew, i havent been called that in a while but its nice to know someone remembers.
20 Aug 2012, 14:54 pm
@viewer-251:
What happened to all the black gold?
20 Aug 2012, 14:55 pm
The boys giving Trotty the beans
20 Aug 2012, 14:55 pm
@viewer-251: How much of our gold gets exported in raw form?
20 Aug 2012, 14:56 pm
Bairstow’s a gooner.
Little bit of a creeper but we’ll take it.
20 Aug 2012, 14:59 pm
@g_y_g_t that’s one way to look @ it. Yes the “liberators” are now the capitalists. Its yet another ingredient for a Zimbabwe type eruption, which is not too far off by the looks of things
20 Aug 2012, 14:59 pm
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Shivambu-joins-Lonmin-protesters-20120820
ANCYL
20 Aug 2012, 15:01 pm
Heyneke Meyer has me in 2 minds…..
I have enjoyed the fact he has shown the players that their is only 1 boss….he certainly will not allow the Player Power to exist that PDV allowed the Fat Boys Club ….
I also like the fact he appointed the Captain on a 1 year deal only….far better than the complacency that flowed after these cancerous 2 and 4 year term appointments we suffered with from 2007 to 2011….
I attended the Boks practice last week Monday, it was super professional and structured, no messing about, Heyneke and the Assistants barking out orders and instructions, etc…and the players responding in kind…
So on that front a vast improvement ….
My concerns are his seemingly disdain for the opensider….the dropping and snubbing of Brussow against the Poms was nothing short of criminal in my opinion….F. Louw should be our first choice 6 with Brussow out, although I have heard Brussow will be back on field in 2 weeks…M coetsee is a wonderful talent, but he aint no opensider….no hybrids required Heynehe….not against the big guns….Aussies have 3 and Kiwis have 2 in there respective squads?
M Steyn and Hougaard are the flys in the ointment with that sterile backline….Ruan Pienaar seems far more relaxed and able to generate momentum from the base of that scrum…..I am a fan of Hougaard but I am of the opinion he may be best suited to a role on the wing or as a supersub….Always felt M Steyn is far too 1 dimensional and just cannot take the ball on the advantage line, not in his DNA…..Saturday I had grandstand tickets and looking down witnessed again how , even when it was on, he would rather instinctively kick possession away than trust his backs….
Lambie should be at 10….at least till J Goosen is fit again …..hell that Goosen is 1 exciting prospect !
Why Heyneke is hell bent on retaining J Potgieter is bewildering! He is a poor mans version of Schalk……quite a few players I would choose before him, Elstaht, Deysel, Minnie all far more deserving…
My dream squad of 30 for the Aussie and Kiwi games….
15 Kirchner….Lambie
14 habana…
13 JDV….JDJongh…..
12 F Steyn…
11 mvovo hougaard
10 Lambie….Goosen
9 R Pienaar….Vermaak….Mc Cleod
8 Kankowski….vermeulen…
7 Alberts…M Coetsee [ he is not a opensider imo ]
6 Brussow…F Louw
5 A Bekker…Juandre
4 Etsebeth …F VD Merwe
3 Jannie….pat cilliers
A Strauss….chilliboy….Liebenberg…
1 beast…Guthro Steenkamp…
Bismarck is a monster blow….as is the loss of JP Pietersen….
1 thing I can predict with near certainty is unless we get Brussow and / or F Louw into the mix we are going to done 6 love at the breakdown, Pocock / Hooper and MC Caw will be smacking their lips at the prospect of another SA free lunch….
Dont fall into bad habits Heyneke…..even Jake has seen the folly of his ways….
It will be all over rover goodnite nurse unless we fight fire with fire at the breakdown…..need some finesse and technical nous at the breakdown….enough broad sword, more sabre required…
and a 10 that is more than just a Naas clone…..those kiwis and aussies will ruthlessly exploit ball being kicked to them all day…
lastly….thank heavens for small mercies that Spies is on a break…..long may his holiday last….
20 Aug 2012, 15:02 pm
@Dawn, forget about the black gold. You and the Bok physio are what cullert gold looks like
20 Aug 2012, 15:03 pm
@WP-Forever-242: Ain’t that the truth
Keep them poor, you can keep them uneducated. Keep them uneducated, you can buy their votes with cheap posters, a box of KFC and a t-shirt, and they’ll never have the smarts to figure out you’re a lying cheating *******. And if some of them do, just blame the old enemy, apartheid. Oldest trick in the book.
20 Aug 2012, 15:05 pm
@rangerman-247:
I did not say that either.
I asked you to show me where I defended the ANC. Don’t jump to conclusions.
On the Marikana tragedy.
Can somebody help me out here, please.
Don’t all mining houses use the Sanderson scale to determine the salary of workers? Why then the huge discrepancy between the salary of drillers at Lonmin workers (R4000) and that of drillers at Implats (R9500)according to an article posted by Transie last night.
Did not the unions and the mining industry reach an agreement about minimum wage a few years ago?
The reason I’m asking is that I seem to remember that the cleaners were at the bottom of the scale and they were earning something like R5 000 back then.
20 Aug 2012, 15:06 pm
@viewer-259: Animal Farm – George Orwell was right. But it has happened before and will again.
England: got rid of the monarch, ended up with a Lord Protector who killed thousands of people. Reinstated the monarch. Limited the monarchs powers. Had a civil war. Restored the monarchy, limited its power.
France: beheaded the monarchy, ended up with an Emperor, sent him to an island, reinstated the monarchy 3 times and finally became a socialist republic.
Russia: boiled the monarchy in acid, the leader of the revolution ended up killing millions of his own people 5 years later. Still not recovered.
The USA: fought a war of independence over taxation with no representation. Had a civil war based on rights. Drew up a Constitution, changed it. Forbade secular statehood, changed that, forbade private banks – 3 times and yet the fed is very much alive and ******** everyone.
Should I go on?
20 Aug 2012, 15:08 pm
@goyougoodthing2-250: I never understood why companies (whether banks or mines or whoever) need to show billions and billions in profits but can’t pay their skilled labourers better wages
20 Aug 2012, 15:08 pm
@grant10-261:
Welcome back.
About time.
20 Aug 2012, 15:11 pm
@grant10-261: damn, G10 you’re back!
20 Aug 2012, 15:12 pm
@Atreides-266: Mate, it’s the same logic as to why the very very very rich of the USA continue to push for more and more tax breaks, why they own patents to things that would end poverty, why there is enough food produced to feed everyone twice, why we allow private banks to print money and charge interest on it, making the world’s people into slaves.
It makes no sense to me… but then power and greed are very real when you get to their level.
20 Aug 2012, 15:13 pm
my apologies with post 261…
15 kirchner/ aplon
20 Aug 2012, 15:14 pm
Kirchner is a joke, nothing more than window dressing.
20 Aug 2012, 15:16 pm
@Transformation-268: great seeing you guys again Transie….just a pity the rugby was so dire and the crowd a bit quiet….strange Test….left everyone a bit flat….
20 Aug 2012, 15:17 pm
I thought Morne sent the backline running very well on Saturday on a number of occassions, only for Captain De Villiers to kill the move by clinging to the ball, despite a clear overlap on the ocassion just before halftime.
20 Aug 2012, 15:19 pm
@goyougoodthing2-271: who else though? Taute is injured…Joe Pietersen has been poor last 6 weeks….Ludick ?
Aplon would be my 1 st choice but Heyneke has a few preconcieved ideas it seems…
Kirchner was 1 of the better players Sat !
20 Aug 2012, 15:19 pm
@goyougoodthing2-269: Lust for power and greed are diseases of the soul. Once they own you, you can never ever have enough, no matter who else suffers to get you more, and the reality of other people’s suffering becomes an abstract concept.
Im not anti-capitalism, or against being able to enjoy a great lifestyle by working hard. But I am against the ridiculous scale of excess which these huge corporates seem to need so much.Why do you need so much money, when you’ll never be able to spend even a tenth of it?
20 Aug 2012, 15:20 pm
Cape Town: The Newlands’ rugby crowd on Saturday witnessed a low key affair between foreign teams the Springboks and the Argentinians. The crowd did try to get into the match but with the All Blacks playing away from home in Sydney this week, the fans found it hard to cheer on the teams in front of them.
“It’s nice to see rugby but I prefer watching our own teams play” Skopman Skopper from Fish Hoek said after the match.
20 Aug 2012, 15:20 pm
@Tacitus-273: He dies with the ball all the time too. Or runs sideways and kills all the space.
20 Aug 2012, 15:21 pm
@willievz To put it very simplistically, from what I learnt as a student, we sell most of our raw minerals overseas & then buy & import the finished products made from these raw materials. Makes sense because otherwise a company like international luxury jeweller Cartier would be founded & based in SA. We skip an important step by not processing (adding value) most of this stuff & exporting it, thereby creating more industries & earning forex etcetera
20 Aug 2012, 15:21 pm
@grant10-274: In truth, Lambie or as you suggested GONE another wicket sorry I lost my train of thought
6 down
20 Aug 2012, 15:21 pm
@Tacitus-273: M Steyn is a 1 trick pony…..JDV was poor, not sure about him at all….Rather have JDJ there
Great catch Kallis!!
20 Aug 2012, 15:22 pm
Superb catch from King Kallis.
Cheers Trotty.
20 Aug 2012, 15:22 pm
@viewer-278: Too true. The gold mined in SA and exported over the last 150 years has in effect robbed South Africans, all of them, of their entitled riches.
20 Aug 2012, 15:23 pm
What a catch, great dive!!!
20 Aug 2012, 15:24 pm
Biff almost stands on Kallis.
That would have left a mark.
20 Aug 2012, 15:25 pm
@grant10-280: I’d love to see Goosen playing outside Pienaar, with Habs and Hougaard at wing and JPP and F Steyn at centre…..
Ruan;s super crisp service and Goosens creativity, two big centres and 2 tricky wings…..with Taute at fullback….
20 Aug 2012, 15:25 pm
@Atreides-275: You and me both. It is SAD.
South Africa is in the process of making it illegal to harvest your own seeds – as has happened in NZ, the USA, Australia etc. What this means is that Monsanto basically owns the rights to all food production. They also own G4 Security – why would a company that makes food need to own the worlds largest private army?
With their GM crops, it also means that farmers have to buy their fertiliser for the sterile crops to produce food… it is a crime against humanity which we all stand by and watch
20 Aug 2012, 15:26 pm
@gunther-281: Game set and match now. So much for the ‘feared’ English team. Now lets knock the rest of these a holes!!
20 Aug 2012, 15:27 pm
@grant10-280: M Steyn: if you can’t put FSteyn into space once in 80 minutes then you are a muppet – I have to agree – and he was no man of the match either.
20 Aug 2012, 15:27 pm
Get Prior and we can put the Appletiser on ice.
20 Aug 2012, 15:28 pm
@gunther-289: Number 1…..we must have it
20 Aug 2012, 15:29 pm
@Tacitus-273: You also think Spies is an international quality 8, and that the sun always shines on tv.
Doesn’t mean your thoughts are fact.
PS: So Morne rocked, Frans Steyn rocked, and Jean Div was the fly in the ointment?
@grant10-272: YES! Exactly what I said on here this morning. The procession out of the stadium was almost funeral like – very very quiet, with the shoulders of Bok fans hanging in despair. Not the usual Newlands test atmosphere at all.
20 Aug 2012, 15:29 pm
@grant10-280: Mr Saturday night fever?….eish.
20 Aug 2012, 15:30 pm
@WP-Forever-241: You feeling a bit challenged, oh Captain, my Captain….?
Just a few last coupla points before I let you off the hook:
Uncle Cyril’s involvement with Lonmin goes deeper than simple arithmetic of 50% of 18% = 9%. Notwithstanding shareholder agreement complexities, you assume that there is a hierarchy/path of Shanduka–> Incwala—>Lonmin… However have you not considered that Shanduka and Lonmin may be partners in Incwala?
Also Uncle Cyril and the Shanduka/Incwala/Lonmin relationship is not just about Incwala’s 18% holding in Lonmin Ops. Incwala (and Shanduka) also have a larger stake in Lonmin Akanani and Uncle Cyril also happens to be a non-executive director of Lonmin.
Unnerstand?
20 Aug 2012, 15:31 pm
@gunther-289: We are going to win this test. whatpleasurethatwillbring
20 Aug 2012, 15:31 pm
@goyougoodthing2-288: Same old drum the whole day. Now go jump off a farking building or start commenting on anything other than a Bulls player in the Bok squad and how kak they are.
20 Aug 2012, 15:32 pm
@rangerman-237: “I also dont understand why the owners pay such shite salaries for such a dangerous and specialised profession.”… Nailed.
20 Aug 2012, 15:33 pm
@gunther-284:
The beginning of the end for the English.
Prior, Broad and Swann will frustrate our bowlers but will they be able to hold out till the new ball at least? Still nearly 30 overs to go before it becomes available.
20 Aug 2012, 15:33 pm
Gary Kirsten will take this team to another level.
This defeat will break a few pommie hearts.
20 Aug 2012, 15:34 pm
@goyougoodthing2-288: And after your post, read @Tacitus-273: .
Unreal how people can watch the same game, and yet provide 100 variations of the truth of what went down on the field. Why people are desperate to protect and talk up Morne Steyn is beyond me.
20 Aug 2012, 15:35 pm
@KWAGGA ROBERTSE-295: Ok then, I thought our locks were poor, especially Bekker. I thought Hougaard was slow, I thought JDV was as selfish as ever. I thought that the game plan lacked imagination. I thought that losing Bismark highligted the need for a fetcher. I thought that Jannie continued to be a tool and give away penalties. I thought Habana looked good, despite what I think of him personally. I thought NikNak was okay but not great.
Keegan was forced to play it tight and disappeared and this was due to the lame locks IMHO.
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