Folklore has spoken … Boks by 15
27 Sep 2012
MARK KEOHANE, in Business Day Sport Monthly, writes it will be the Boks by 15 against the Aussies at Loftus on Saturday. At least that’s what history says.
Perception too often is accepted as fact. The perception of excellence in Springbok rugby is an illusion. The fact is the Springboks lose a lot of Test matches and have done so consistently over the last century.
They have a win percentage that has on occasion threatened 65% but is closer to 60%. It has always been this way. There have been some magnificent teams. Equally there have been some shockers, who have taken beatings abroad and been humiliated at home.
Time dulls the memory. Results are forgotten, folklore ensures only the good times are remembered and the good in one era become very good. The 30 metre kick to beat the All Blacks is now 60 metres. The tough men of the early 1900s were man mountains and when the current pretenders deliver a depressing result, the obvious is to hanker back to the days when Bok midfielders were more imposing than town marshalls – all 76 kilograms of them.
The modern player would not survive the amateur era. ‘In my day,’ says a player, who forgets he ever lost a Test.
‘Steak, chips and a bottle of wine,’ says another. ‘That was the pre-Test meal.’ Those were the days apparently when men were men, the Springboks were something mystical and pasta was something only the Italians ate.
And so we romance the game, listen to the stories told by those who were there, who saw the 60 metre kick, although it could have been 70 metres and take comfort that the Springboks, if not today, then most days were destroyers of opposition dreams and the ultimate challenge in world rugby.
‘You win in the Republic. Then you can call yourself a rugby player. The South African public acknowledges you can play … boy then you can play.’
You’ve heard them all …
‘A wounded Bok is a dangerous animal … There is nothing as imposing as a Bok team written off … Beware the mighty Boks … Wait till you get to altitude …’
Then we recall a glory moment when the Boks were given no chance of victory and won; when the world dismissed the challenge of those giants in green and gold and were forced to concede the greatness of those rugby men from the Republic.
The storytelling goes beyond rugby. Historically, it has been a life identity. A Springbok … it is what every white boy dreams to become. Post apartheid it is what every South African boy wants to be.
In sporting isolation the legend rose more than it grew. Mortals were immortal and no team could claim anything until they had proved it in the Republic.
Thus, for 20 years, the Boks were the best team in the world. Our rugby was of superior quality; our players dominated every South African media World XV.
Our boys kicked 70 metre penalties (forget the small matter of altitude). Those blokes overseas, they can’t even knock them over from 50 (forget the small matter of sea level).
The television images don’t lie.
The rugby media, be it in print, on television or radio, reinforce the legend.
‘You can’t call yourselves the world champions until you beat the Boks.’ That’s our response to New Zealand’s claim to have won the first ever World Cup in 1987.
And then we hosted the 1995 World Cup final and beat the All Blacks 15-12 in a final that went into extra-time. Andrew Mehrtens, ironically born in Durban, had the chance to win it for New Zealand with a drop goal attempt from 20 metres out and right in front. His kick, with less than a minute to play of normal time, missed and the game ended 9-all.
It was God’s will, said the older folk. It was written in the stars said the team management. There was no way we could lose, said the players. A greater force was guiding them.
And don’t forget that when a Jew plays for the Boks, that’s even greater confirmation defeat is never a consideration.
The All Blacks, a year later in 1996, beat the Boks four times in five, with three of the wins in South Africa. They won in Cape Town, Durban and in Pretoria.
But when they lost the last of the five Tests in Johannesburg, order was restored and the Boks had again shown the Kiwis and the world just who was the best.
As the legend grew, so too did the belief that nothing but an emphatic victory every Saturday would suffice. A failure to deliver was treated with disgust; apparently such was the rarity.
‘How? We are the Boks … We don’t lose.’
But we do, too often when reality is measured against perception.
‘Not in my day,’ screams a newspaper headline. Another of yesterday’s heroes has given up on the jersey he once wore as symbol of superiority in everything rugby and most things generally.
‘I don’t watch the kids of today. They’re soft. I’d rather mow my lawn.’
The media fuels the frenzy. Another of the all-time greats, with a Test record of nine wins in 17, says he is embarrassed to call himself a Bok if the lot that just disgraced the jersey are still called Boks.
He is so disgusted at the Boks losing to Scotland he tells the media he is considering giving back his Bok blazer.
‘Scotland!’
Our game is in crisis. Legends want to mow the lawn and give back their prized green and gold Bok jersey.
‘It’s the blacks,’ say some. ‘They’ve destroyed everything and now they’ve even destroyed our rugby.’
Another of those giants of yesteryear is inspired to let the nation know there won’t be a future for the Boks by the year 2000.
The team will be black, they will be called something else and they will play in another colour jersey is his prophecy. But he no longer objects because at least the legacy of the green jersey, the Bok and the King’s crown won’t suffer more embarrassment.
‘This lot … in my day … when the game still had scrums, when a punch sorted the kings from the queens and when players could run, pass, dummy, side step and tackle … In my day.’
Bok rugby is again in crisis, screams another newspaper front-page lead story.
Apparently another legend of yesteryear is embarrassed. He is even thinking of moving to Australia because if he had ever produced such a passionless display he would have fled out of fear for his life; alternatively he would have done what men of those days did and claimed himself unworthy of the jersey and all things South Africa. He too would have fled the country, but the measure of his quality is that it would have been before they kicked him out.
The great grandfather is sullen. The grandfather tells the son it is because of the hurt at the Boks losing to Australia.
The blacks and ANC government are no longer to blame. It’s the cash. Professionalism and money are the evils.
The players are spoilt and greedy. Then the grandfather tells the eight year old. ‘Ah you would have loved it … Victor Matfield (paaaaleeeeeese). He wouldn’t have lasted a minute. Frik du Preez, now that is a lock. A giant of a man. Taller than anything these days, stronger, heavier and quicker than Habana. He could run, tackle, kick and pass. And boy could he scored tries, and he could drink.’
The boy logs onto the internet and wishes it was Frik out there earlier in the day.
The Boks he believed could not lose were not the real Boks.
The headline demands change. The coach must go; those imposters in green and gold must go. Alternatively, rugby in South Africa, as it was once known, will be dead.
Another of yesterday’s heroes says he fears the rest of the world thinks of us as Wales. He says there is no future for the game and he gives his 10 point plan to restore order the next week. It involves kicking out half the team and replacing the coach.
‘In my day,’ he tells the reporter. ‘Doc Craven would not have tolerated this. That guy’s career would be over. Those were the standards Craven demanded. This legend then boasts about the physicality of the Boks of his era and the brutality of the tackles and the magic ways of the wings and the length of penalty goals our flyhalves used to have to kick … in the wet, with a heavy leather ball, into a wind (not the breeze we get today … a wind) and in conditions that were mudbaths … not the carpets you call a rugby field.
Oh, and in those days you played for 80 minutes, he adds. You got up after being knocked out and you played. You broke your collar bone and you played. That was what the jersey meant to him and his teammates.
Now guys last 50 minutes and even that is too much because it is so easy to play club rugby in Japan for outrageous sums of money. It’s rugby’s blasphemy.
This legend too is thinking of heading to Australia where rugby union’s not even the first choice sport; yet those okes still beat us. What next?’
The national coach fronts the media, as if on trial for treason. A nation has been lied to, betrayed and insulted.
The coach promises the players will work harder, restore credibility and be true to the history of the jersey.
We hold our breath, we pat ourselves on the back that even in these foreign and dark times we can show such loyalty and we vow to watch the Boks the following week.
The grandson asks the grandfather if we can win.
‘We are the Boks,’ he says. ‘We don’t lose.’
And the grandson smiles. Order has been restored.
The legacy of the Boks is not dead. The game apparently is no longer in crisis and we will not be the Wales of rugby.
He logs onto the Internet and smiles even more. The legends of yesteryear won’t be going to Australia after all and one of the finest legends has laughed off reports that the Boks are a team that historically loses 40 percent of their Tests.
‘Not in my day,’ he has told the reporter. ‘And definitely not on Saturday. Boks to take it by 15 because we never lose.’
– This article first appeared in the October issue of Business Day Sport Monthly. The magazine is distributed free with Business Day newspaper on the second last Friday of each month.
703 Comments
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27 Sep 2012, 10:44 am
“And better skills than Jacques Potgieter, that’s for sure.”
Not setting the bar very high there, are you?
27 Sep 2012, 10:44 am
Okay Keo….
But the pre 1992 stats against the All Blacks reads
37 games played
SA wins 20
NZ wins only 15
2 draws.
That’s good enough for me to know that the Boks were better than the All Blacks head to head for 71 years of rugby since the very 1st Test match between these two countries in 1921.
Perhaps NZ had better winning percentage against all the other nations in that time period but not against SA.
Nuff said
27 Sep 2012, 10:44 am
@Tacitus-144:
Pedrie could play a bit.
Was bagged by other provinces mostly because of his weight & drug habit.
27 Sep 2012, 10:45 am
@Tacitus-139:
@CharlesM-141:
arno botha is pure class.
came on as sub in the cheetahs game to show potgieter how tries are scored.
no frills no fuss
just straight hard running
there is the line, go over it
27 Sep 2012, 10:46 am
@katman-143: its an emotional rationalisation but i agree, its pretty tenuous.
we know JPP and chili would be there.
we know kolisi will get his chance.
as for JdJ and aplon, toughies imo.
aplon is not gonna replace JPP, Mvovo, kirchner or habs anytime soon so where exactly does he fit?
(never mind the fact that he is being touted to replace another POC).
now rhule from the cheetahs is a player who will make it imo, and he bleck! imagine that.
27 Sep 2012, 10:46 am
or was it stander?
27 Sep 2012, 10:47 am
@Taahirah-151:
I’m comparing him to the current “big, hard man” in Pedrie’s role at the Bulls. Potgieter doesn’t cut it, in my view.
@wpstormerbok-153:
Yes. That was in the latter part of his career.
27 Sep 2012, 10:47 am
oh well, it was one those two
and it was a good try
27 Sep 2012, 10:47 am
@katman-143:
Relax Katman, its just a view point that it doesnt seem to be a high priority to get players of colour to represent the boks, nothing more. If you dont agree I dont mind. I always forget to add the ‘IMO’ at the end…
27 Sep 2012, 10:47 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-154:
It’s also about timing, reading of play and running lines. Potgieter has little clue of any of that.
27 Sep 2012, 10:48 am
@Tacitus-126:
I’m sorry but i have to disagee with you.
Greyling played his first full season of superrugby.
Kruger, I read has played 76 superrugby games on the bounce.
If we miss something in the frontrow it is gary bothas scrummaging power, chilli is light in this regard.
I rate our locks but they both need to start turning in some dominant performances more regularly. Our backups are kak. How we miss Danie.
Our backrowers, stegman and potties are only 25/26. They are not to old but need to shake off their recent spates of injury. We have some good backrowers coming through.
Scrumhalf is a position that is still up in the air for me and will be interesting to see what happens at 10.
Our outside backs will be awesome though with a very young group with plenty of size and pace as well as steppers in jj, blommetjies and mastriet.
I would be very concerned but many of the games we have lost this year we have dominated field and possession and as we see, morne being below his best cost the bulls as well.
Some slight tactical rethinks proper rehabilitation and pre-season could be all that is needed.
27 Sep 2012, 10:48 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-156: I think Botha started at 8 with J Potgieter 7 and Dewald 6. Stander came on as sub
27 Sep 2012, 10:49 am
@wpstormerbok-149:
eye of the storm, boet… eye of the storm….
27 Sep 2012, 10:50 am
@Jeez-159:
Probably because the priority is to get the Boks to win.
Any other considerations, such as a pretty style of play, more fashionable looking jerseys, the colour of the team bus, or the ratio of non-white players in the team will get attention later.
27 Sep 2012, 10:50 am
@Tacitus-157: Pedrie was a big hard man amongst bigger, harder men.
Danie Rossouw. Jacques Cronje. Bakkies.
Those were the days…
27 Sep 2012, 10:50 am
@rangerman-155:
Hougaard and Steyns selection ahead of Mvovo and Jantjies probably the best example of wasted opportunity for players of colour to represent the boks…
IMO IMO
27 Sep 2012, 10:50 am
While everyone goes happy bejaysus about Meyer’s new selections I sink further into despair about Coach Meyer and his vision for the Boks…
It is quite clear that Meyer is a supremacist…
His Boks are a vision of brutal superiority in the name of Afrikanerdom… The new Voortrekker Monument incarnated on a rugby field in bottle green and gold…
His Boks are a neo eugenic exercise in exclusion… exclusion based on size, “family attitude” and language… However these exclusionary principles are never static – they morph when his hypocrisy is exposed or when a player is needed for a time to dissipate public pressure.
He values creativity, but only creativity in obedience… Unity is and will be his watch word, “family” is and always been his mantra. But this unity is NOT in DIVERSITY, this unity is in sinister SUPERIORITY.
Meyer actually might succeed with this… He has been successful in the past… But byGod almighty I no longer want him to succeed… Not this way. Not with a definite anti soutie slant… Not with an anti creativity slant… not with a sinister new agey classification of player psyche or body type..
No, for the first time I really do not want to support the Boks… They are exclusionary… For the first time, I am considering ditching my Bok jersey and donning another Green and Gold jersey for my trip to Loftus…
Fuckthis.
27 Sep 2012, 10:50 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl-161: Greyling needs to get his head inside the scrum and not on the outside of the opposing tighthead: whenever he is struggling, look where his head is.
27 Sep 2012, 10:51 am
@Tacitus-164: ” more fashionable looking jerseys”
So its not just me then!
27 Sep 2012, 10:52 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl-161:
Put aside loyalty for the moment. That’s what’s taking us under at a rate of knotts.
Werner Kruger can’t scrum. He has never been able to scrum. Greyling is a strong ball carrier, but an average scrummager and his handling is seriously suspect, decreasing his primary strength- his ball carrying abilty – dramatically.
Potgieter and Stegman may not be old, but they have a ceiling, and they’ve reached it. They are hard grafters, but they are never going to be Richie Mccaw’s, Ruben Krugers, Andre Venters or Juan Smiths.
Time to cut our losses and admit the facts.
It’s that or ploeter aan for another few mediocre seasons.
27 Sep 2012, 10:53 am
@Tacitus-97:
Interesting.
I assume you say Morne lost all those games because of his poor kicking, particularly the ones aimed at the post.
If that is the case I have no sympathy. A one trick pony can’t be expected to win the game for you day in day out.
Has any of his coaches actually tried to expand his skills?
27 Sep 2012, 10:54 am
@Tacitus-160:
agreed.
potgieter needs more coaching
lots more.
@CharlesM-162:
yes, sorry.
stander came on for botha and scored in about the 75min about one or two movements/phases after potgieter had attempted the same thing and gone to ground in contact short of the line.
27 Sep 2012, 10:54 am
@Heavens Game-167:
You could have saved all of us having to read through that long piece of drivel, by just coming out and saying you’re p*ssed that he hasn’t picked Lambie.
27 Sep 2012, 10:55 am
@rangerman-148:
hehehe
my only concern is on whether we have any jews in saturdays team..?.
27 Sep 2012, 10:56 am
@Horings-95: I hav been saying for years that Ludeke is kak – now here is a Bully admiting that the Bulls are shitee without Meyer and his support team that he built.
27 Sep 2012, 10:57 am
@Heavens Game-167:
Furthermore, seems like your precious Plum has an “anti-Soutie agenda” then as well, because other than Lambie, I count precious few “souties” in the team from the so-called last British Outpost.
Face it, lots of the souties have left, and of those that remain, precious few are playiing rugby these days.
27 Sep 2012, 10:58 am
@Heavens Game-167:
come now hg, supremacist is a rather strong turn of phrase i think….
pedigree was right about you
(rolling eyes smiley)
27 Sep 2012, 10:58 am
@Heavens Game-167: Shame, het Keegan en Pat by jou kom kla?
27 Sep 2012, 10:58 am
@RL-175:
Ludeke is not involved in the Currie Cup.
My concern is the Bulls full team, because the Boks we have at the moment are average Boks for the most part, and even when they’re back, we aren’t world beaters.
We need to sort out our recruiting fast, instead of recruiting just talented youngsters who will be of no use at senior level for 3 years.
27 Sep 2012, 10:59 am
@Tacitus-173:
classic tac
back with a bang
27 Sep 2012, 10:59 am
@CharlesM-168:
i agree but there is no reason why these players will not improve.
27 Sep 2012, 11:00 am
@Heavens Game-167:
didn’t read to the end…but it is about lambie,isn’t it?
27 Sep 2012, 11:00 am
@Heavens Game-167: Just pinched myself!!!…I never thought this day would come, were such an explanation of the obvious is made so obvious, WELL DONE HG, give this man a Bells, no, park the Bells, this calls for Lagas…
27 Sep 2012, 11:01 am
@Tacitus-173: Yes I am p*ssed he hasn’t picked Lambie… and discarded Daniel…
Not only that, I am p*ssed at the manner he has done it…
A fundamental dishonesty, which I see as light as day…
But the non selection or discarding of the above players due to nothing more than their differing soutie culture and outlook is not the only reason
I am as disgusted with myself, as an anorexic in a mirror, with how I really was a supporter when he was finally made coach… I lied to myself.
Fuckthat…
27 Sep 2012, 11:01 am
Interesting that Warren Brosnihan admires Meyer as he is both a soutie and not the biggest loosie ever.
27 Sep 2012, 11:01 am
@Heavens Game-167:
LOL
I nice addendum to the anonymous quotes in Keo’s article.
27 Sep 2012, 11:01 am
@Horings-178:
hehehe
hy’s die einste hensopper
27 Sep 2012, 11:03 am
@Brads-171:
personally, kicking wise….Morne was in even better form in 2010. holds the record for test kicks at goal. 40 something without a miss.
and to think how many he has missed lately.
27 Sep 2012, 11:04 am
@Heavens Game-184:
look, we can’t just make all the sharks boks,right?
especially shortarses like daniels. And,yes….I am english speaking.
27 Sep 2012, 11:05 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl-188: whats this about a wp/sharks cabal?
27 Sep 2012, 11:06 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl-189: keegan should have been given a bit more of a shot imo.
but i am actually pretty happy with the team at the moment.
27 Sep 2012, 11:07 am
@Heavens Game-184:
get over yourself,
lambie is not rated as the top fh and daniel is not rated as the best no.8.
where did you get this idea?
besides, they’ve both had chances to prove otherwise.
27 Sep 2012, 11:08 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl-161:
That’s what I’ve observed since the end of 2010 season
With Gary Botha the Bulls pack was dominant and destructive, even if they carried a fairly light weight in Derrick Kuun,
27 Sep 2012, 11:08 am
@Dawn-122: you mean vulcan and equilibrium? nothing to tell….
27 Sep 2012, 11:09 am
@Heavens Game-184: Not to mention JJ Engelbrecht ahead of both JDJ and Aplon, yet JJ Engelbrecht left WP because of these 2 players who were better than him either at center or at fullback.
JDJ made his international debut against the biggest center in world rugby Jamie Roberts and scored a brilliant inside center try on debut, now he finds himself behind Taute?, WTF??, there can never be logical justification for that other than the Afrikaner superiority mentality, Taute and Engelbrecht offer NOTHING better than JDJ and Aplon in their respective positions.
27 Sep 2012, 11:09 am
I’ve been pretty impressed by Vermullet.
Now Duane, don’t go and make me eat my words by having a shocker on Saturday, please.
27 Sep 2012, 11:10 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl-188:
I don’t know about the 40 in a row, that seems obscene. However, I don’t know, so you may be correct.
However, what has occurred is an awareness by opposition teams (at least by those capable of such a discipline) penalties should be avoided inside the mans comfortable kicking range.
At test level for sure, the important kicks have been outside his comfort zone, and with each missed kick, that comfort zone has shrunk.
27 Sep 2012, 11:11 am
@rangerman-190:
cabal = a group of people united in some close design together, usually to promote their private views or interests.
wp/sharks = the collection of shark and wp supporters who find solice together on this blogg.
what part is tripping you up?
27 Sep 2012, 11:11 am
Keo Article is spot on… we seem to always remember the wins and not the losses..
To everyone saying Morne should have been given another chance.. WTF!!!? Becasue it is Loftus? So whenever we play at Newlands should we not give Aplon a chnace then? And in Kings Park give |Daniels another chance? How Many Fakkin chances do you want to give him? I know bulls supporter are contend with only winning at home but geese!! You need to perform no matter where you play mate!!
Morne should not get anymore more chances than any other player in the boks squad. Let him play CC and kick consistently 90% and then get him back.. not before then!! If ever again
27 Sep 2012, 11:12 am
@Brads-197:
its true
a can vouch for that.
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