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, 16:28 pm
@nama1-385: Who is our attack coach? van Graan? Dear agonyfuckingaunty, is this true? Is the backline coach Ricardo L not responsible for any ‘attack’ coaching?
20 Aug 2012, 16:29 pm
@goyougoodthing2-397:
dont forget 2 weeks after that and even more travels from the Sharks that was repeated 
20 Aug 2012, 16:29 pm
@nama1-385: why not, the forwards can mos attack too
20 Aug 2012, 16:29 pm
@Puma-380: @Puma-380: The Sharks showed that we can play that type of game……that is the way forward….the days of total forward dominance are virtually over….it is teams who innovate that are going to be succesful…..the Stormers killed my spirit this year with that type of rugby…..it was terrible seeing the safety at all costs rugby…..it may work at times but I am not happy to win ugly all the time…there must be more to rugby than skop, jag and run into faces all day long…
20 Aug 2012, 16:30 pm
Kallis takes a wicket
20 Aug 2012, 16:30 pm
Nienaber just using the Bulls to get Province to pony up.
Just like Hougaard did last year.
20 Aug 2012, 16:30 pm
@Transformation-394: yip tac was hoping so bad that the bulls will get him#moreloyaltythanvanpersie
20 Aug 2012, 16:30 pm
@Puma-373:
Relax Puma.
We’ll pull it through.
20 Aug 2012, 16:31 pm
@grant10-404: Your are going against what most of you fellow WP supporters have been saying in here?? you will get crusified for it
20 Aug 2012, 16:31 pm
@sharks_lover-405: great stuff! Just 3 more right?
20 Aug 2012, 16:31 pm
Broad gone………..whooooohooooo. Bowled by Kallis.
20 Aug 2012, 16:32 pm
@nama1-408: You know me and the crici bud…hehe. I am always nervous we gonna let it slip…haha. Broad gone now. So looking a whole lot better…
20 Aug 2012, 16:33 pm
@Puma-398:
Look Pooms, we know Meyer rates Kanko – he started him in a Test against England before he showed what he could really do in the run up to the final.
I am not sure this is a Meyer thing… I reckon SARU’s inertia and obsession with the Kings at the moment precluded any thoughts outside the insulated ordinary – like negotiating for a player for the Bok coach…
20 Aug 2012, 16:33 pm
@Sasuke-410: yup
20 Aug 2012, 16:33 pm
@Heavens Game-399: Yesses Fransie played like a REAL MBONGOLO on Saturday! every ball he received he crashballed, useless on the day…what a donkey
20 Aug 2012, 16:33 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-401: Gaving Rich:
“Skipper Jean de Villiers and forwards coach Johan van Graan, who doubles as an attack coach under Meyer at the Boks have both spoken about the progress that was shown with the two excellent counter-attacking tries that helped turn the tide in the Springboks’ favour in the Durban game, plus the 30 minutes of spell-binding rugby produced at the start of the second. And they are not wrong.”
20 Aug 2012, 16:34 pm
@Transformation-361: How the hell can your forwards coach be your ATTACK coach?
Are we the only international team with this luxury?
20 Aug 2012, 16:35 pm
@grant10-404: For sure Grant. The way the Sharks played is the way forward for our rugby. We have most of the starting Boks in our side. If they can do it there they can do it at test level too.
Cheetahs played some attractive rugby too. Sharks were just magnificent in the end. Pity about the massive travel in the end. Anyhow still so proud of my team playing that kind of rugby. The reason watching the Boks now feels like a bit of a let-down.
20 Aug 2012, 16:36 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-401:
I also thought Loubscher was the attack coach untill I read an article by Gavin Rich which said that van Graan doubles as forward and attack coach.
Transie quotes him somewhere on this thread.
@Transformation-403:
Into the nearest opposition player, yes.
20 Aug 2012, 16:36 pm
@Heavens Game-381: Kanko was bloody fantastic…..ja, He should be there with F Louw….great pity he is left out….I did hear something to the effect that HM would try and make a plan to get him back for the aussie and Kiwi tests though…@Sasuke-384: Bulls taken enough of ours already !
20 Aug 2012, 16:37 pm
@Heavens Game-413: Could be just have no idea. A massive pity he went at a time he played his very best rugby ever. Might have cemented that place for himself.
Also remember it is the agents that push these players to go.
20 Aug 2012, 16:38 pm
@Puma-412:
A bit more relax now?
New ball still to come if we can’t bowl them out with this one.
20 Aug 2012, 16:38 pm
@sharks_lover-409: the truth is the truth….I went to every Super rugby game at Newlands and left every game feeling deflated….I am glad we unearthed gems like Kolisi, Kitshoff, etc….but the skop en jag killed me….
20 Aug 2012, 16:39 pm
@Sasuke-407:
RVP is a walking wounded kinda a guy, won’t last 5 games.
Farking backstabber.
20 Aug 2012, 16:39 pm
Okay I am out of here. Cheers everyone. Catch up later.
@grant10-420: Grant, Once again it is very good to have you back. We need all the old timers here.
Go Proteas. Hope we can. We should. Off to the airport now.
20 Aug 2012, 16:40 pm
@Transformation-416: We aretotalllyfucked. And even scarier, is that the majority of Bullsharks/Sharksbulls absolutely refuse to see anything but a new and glorious era in Bok rugby….
20 Aug 2012, 16:40 pm
@Transformation-415: Did you not see how there were about 4 Argies everytime he got the ball…? And then what did Donkey do with extra time and space – sweetfarkall… Cappie hardly passed the ball.
Steyn has a positive impact on the teams he plays for… It is no coincidence the Sharks came right with Frans in the side.
Put a speedy gonzalez outside Steyn and then Boks cooking with gas… At the moment its JdV safety first… But I reckon it aint so safe.
20 Aug 2012, 16:40 pm
@Heavens Game-413: Fark that, the NZRU agreed to foot the WHOLE insurance bill if anything happens to SBW in these 2 matches which is why the Panasonic medical staff were pouring over SBW for a whole day – he missed training on monday last week – after satisfying themselves that he was indeed healthy then he was released.
i reckon SARU said, no we can’t afford the insurance cover, they didn’t pay it when PdV wanted Butch and Frans in Europe.
20 Aug 2012, 16:42 pm
@Transformation-415:
You really are rubbing it in, hey.
The bad thing for them is that they know you are right.
20 Aug 2012, 16:42 pm
poms wont lie down….stubborn fighters….gotta respect that ….
20 Aug 2012, 16:42 pm
@grant10-420: Thats good news and that actually makes sense… But it would have been ideal to get him in now against the Argies
20 Aug 2012, 16:42 pm
@Heavens Game-427: the four Argies killed the ball on the ground or turned it over, so how is jean to blame?
20 Aug 2012, 16:43 pm
@Puma-421: Yup. Farken agents… Real Gunts
20 Aug 2012, 16:43 pm
@willievz-417: heyneke meyer KNOWS best
20 Aug 2012, 16:45 pm
@Puma-425: LOL….Ok…without Plod I may even be tolerable to have around….even more so with Spies gone…..just need M Steyn to get dropped and Brussow back and I may even be downright likeable…
20 Aug 2012, 16:45 pm
@Transformation-428: So it is SARU’s fault… My point exactly, you blaady golo… What you arguing with me for now, umfanawami
20 Aug 2012, 16:46 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-401: how do you feel about jean-luc du plessis being a sharkie?
20 Aug 2012, 16:47 pm
@Heavens Game-436: no arguing, just saying there’s a precedent mbhono wengulube!
20 Aug 2012, 16:48 pm
@grant10-435: Welcome back speedo
Coetzee to 8, Brussel Sprout at 6 and Kolisi off the bench.
20 Aug 2012, 16:49 pm
cheers all
outta here
20 Aug 2012, 16:49 pm
@Transformation-437: Good luck to him. Hopefully he has a fraction of the skillset of Uncle Michael.
20 Aug 2012, 16:49 pm
@grant10-423: Trust me Grant i understand, Etsebeth is another gem, Kids got oodles of talent.
Tell you what i know a few clowns will jump me for saying this???
Next year you will see the Sharks with the best center pair in the country, well BB also have great youngsters coming through
Sharks= 12 Steyn 13 Jordaan, reserve centers, Tim Whithead
I say this because the center pairing is very different and different in types of centers, must say Whiteheaad has been brilliant at the Sharks
this my friend will be the backline for the Sharks next year
15 Ludik
14 JPP
13 Jordaan
12 Steyn
11 Mvovo
09 Mcleod/Reinach ( watch this young scrummy Reinach)
Reserve backs: Whitehead, VIljoen, Odwa, Sbura, Zeilinga, Gouws Prinsloo.
So many more young backs comming through, and of course just to tease you a bit?? Young Carel Du Plessis on his way to the Sharks academy
20 Aug 2012, 16:50 pm
@mikeybrass-439: I Like that …cheers
20 Aug 2012, 16:52 pm
@nama1-429: chap, this was my first time seeing FRANS STEYN live and direct!!! and then he goes and plays that nonsense? i travelled 1480km and paid R450 to see that him crashball….nee fok
20 Aug 2012, 16:53 pm
@Transformation-438: “mbhono wengulube”… Lol…
Nxxxx… Bhembiza!!
20 Aug 2012, 16:54 pm
@grant10-440: Cheers… Out too
20 Aug 2012, 16:55 pm
@willievz-417: EXECUTION OVER INNOVATION” so why are you crying?
20 Aug 2012, 17:02 pm
@Transformation-447: I am not crying.
I said I see this as a luxury.
20 Aug 2012, 17:03 pm
@Transformation-437: WP deserve to lose him. This is a ‘fuckoff’ to the WPRFU, after they invested so heavily in Pollard, when everyone knew he was buggering off up north (well all except the WPRFU it seems….). Jean-Luc is giving the union a huge ‘pissoff’.
Then again, having bought the Jordaan kid and the other young 10, along with Swiel and the rest…..and the possible Jantjies signing, what else was he to do?
I’m actually surprised that Sharks_Lover hasn’t touted him as Bok 10 yet…..along with his call for Deysel to perform fetcher duties for the Boks in Brussow’s absence
20 Aug 2012, 17:05 pm
@Transformation-447: I call it something else. As I said the other day, the Boks are stuck in the missionary position with the lights turned off, while the rest of the rugby world has worked through the Kama Sutra – twice.
Wearesofucked-missionarystyle.
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