Rugby fans must move with the times
17 Oct 2012
JON CARDINELLI writes that supporters and reporters pushing for an out-and-out attacking philosophy have zero appreciation for the current laws and trends.
You cannot go to a Stormers or Western Province press conference nowadays without hearing the same questions being asked. ‘When is the ball going to get to the wings? Why aren’t we playing rugby like the great Province team of the 1980s?’
Allister Coetzee had fewer grey hairs when he first started as head coach. Every week since he’s had to listen to ignorant and misinformed reporters whining about running rugby. He’s also had to endure criticism and accusations that the Cape side play a boring brand.
Springbok and WP captain Jean de Villiers looked exhausted when he faced the media last week, and perhaps that’s what caused him to forget protocol when answering this question for the umpteenth time.
De Villiers pointed to the Super Rugby competition as an example, where the Stormers had finished top of the 16-team league. Why, De Villiers asked, would they change a game plan that allowed them to win the South African conference? Indeed, it was just a week or so before De Villiers’s return that an experimental and more attacking approach had cost WP in a Currie Cup match.
The Stormers and WP are not the only teams to be criticised in this manner.
Bok coach Heyneke Meyer’s game plan is considered by many to be overly conservative. I’ve watched Meyer closely when he’s been asked about the game plan, I’ve seen him roll his eyes. The reporters have asked him, they’ve begged him, to change tact. Why oh why, they pleaded, couldn’t the Boks play attacking rugby like the All Blacks?
These people haven’t got a clue.
The All Blacks won all six of their Rugby Championship matches, and it was before that final match at Soccer City when Meyer made special mention of the New Zealanders’ defence. Their record in this year’s tournament will show that they’re the best defensive side by some distance, having conceded just six tries. After the game at the Calabash, Meyer again paid tribute to that defence, as well as the game management of flyhalf Dan Carter.
The All Blacks may be the finest attacking team on the planet, but their defence and kicking game has been the bedrock of their success. This has allowed them to win the 2011 World Cup, as well as the 2012 Rugby Championship, and has put them into a position to break the record for the most consecutive Test victories.
The All Blacks conceded one try per game in the Rugby Championship. The tournament average was 1.83. It’s clear the All Blacks were a cut above in this department, but when you compare this stat to the averages of lesser competitions, it confirms that defences are harder to crack at the elite level.
The defence may be weaker as you drop down the tiers of competition, but the common denominator is that the best defensive teams in the respective tournaments either go on to top the log or win a trophy. It wasn’t a surprise to see the best defensive teams finishing in the top six of the Super Rugby league. The round robin phase of the Currie Cup recently concluded, and wouldn’t you know it, the teams with the best defensive records have advanced to the play-offs.
One level down, and it is the Eastern Province Kings who have topped the First Division log, their unbeaten record closely correlated with defensive stats that read 27 tries conceded in 14 matches, 19 tries fewer than the second-placed Pumas.
Coincidence? I think not.
What rugby supporters need to understand is that the current law set prescribes an outstanding defence and kicking game as the key ingredients to any title surge. There may be instances where a team doesn’t execute effectively on the day, as has been the case for a few Cape teams over the past few seasons, but that doesn’t mean that the game plan is at fault.
The fact that teams like the All Blacks and the Sharks have enjoyed such try-scoring success shouldn’t detract from their defensive strengths. The Sharks started to come right towards the end of the Super Rugby competition when they embraced a balanced approach (they altered their previous strategy which had placed too much emphasis on attack). In the 2012 Currie Cup, they have finished the league in first place, having scored the most tries and conceded the fewest.
If you can wrap your head around these trends, you will realise why the Bok game plan is not flawed. I’m not saying the Boks are exempt from criticism, but rather that they should be judged and scrutinised within this framework.
Does Meyer have the right personnel for this game plan? Are the players executing the game plan efficiently? These are the questions the intelligent rugby supporter should be asking, not when the Boks, WP or the Bulls are going to start running the ball from their own tryline.
If you don’t like the way the game is played nowadays, by all means channel your aggression into a strongly worded letter to the IRB. The world’s coaches and players develop their game plans according to the laws. If the rules were tweaked so that the breakdown wasn’t such a lottery, perhaps more teams would take more attacking risks in their own half. There would be less kicking and more running.
For now, that remains a pipe dream. As long as the rules remain as is, teams will continue to place an emphasis on kicking and defence. It’s something that rugby fans must learn to accept: that there are no prizes for losing beautifully.
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270 Comments
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17 Oct 2012, 11:01 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-133:
Yeah,balance is the key. I think Cruden is yet to play a whole game where i am happy.
Its amazing when Carter comes in the whole team relaxes and starts toplay. I dont know whether its just Carter being there or it is actually him doing this but there is a change in the team.
Now the Boks, we can see where they are headed and if they get that same consistent accurate kicking and defend the opposition into mistakes,2009 will happen all over again.
Forwards are a scary bunch but the backs lret the team down. As you, balance actually is what the Boks are looking for….lets hope they do not find it
17 Oct 2012, 11:02 am
@sharks_lover-150:
lol
ok i was only kidding.
17 Oct 2012, 11:02 am
@RL-22: Is that what Bryce said? I thought he said it probably made him “freeze on the biggest stage”. Which would explain why he had a shocker, not just for the Saffers but the Aussies too. It might explain why he didn’t allow O’Connor to retake his shot at goal after Habana started his charge early. And why he didn’t pick up on that last line out penalty, needing the AR to spot it.
But it was just Bryce that froze was it? Forward passes that needed to be backwards. Smit had a brain **** and turned down a shot at goal after 30 minutes. And PdV subbed his captain off after, what, 50 minutes? In the biggest game of the year.
17 Oct 2012, 11:04 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-146:
lol
Computer says no….classic
17 Oct 2012, 11:07 am
@gonzo-153:
Yeah PDV and silly mistakes by the Boks did not help the cause at all.
As the Ozzies said, Bryce missed calls for them as well.
We can say Bryce froze and blew what should have been a cracker of a match. I mean it still was a good game, Boks played at times awesome rugby,probably some of the best rugby they played all year.
But Bryce blew it….not a good look either.
I can see where some of these guys are coming from. I too would have felt cheated if it was the ABs.
17 Oct 2012, 11:08 am
@Hurricane-154:
17 Oct 2012, 11:09 am
@Hurricane-155: nah got what they deserved..
no drop kick?
dropping passes with the tryline open?
just not good enough on the day, like the ABs in 2007
17 Oct 2012, 11:10 am
@Hurricane-126: That you should have played us in semis and not Wallabies, and it was YOUR ref that ensured that was the case due to the real criminal O’Neal! We said it all along and you guys said we were whingers. Your ref of the year admited it in black and white
17 Oct 2012, 11:11 am
@Sharksgirl-158: “ensured that was Not…”
17 Oct 2012, 11:13 am
@Sharksgirl-158: like Englands ref in 2007 doing our game when the winner played his team in the semi?
we were told there was nothing wrong with Barnes, and he was just as bad as Bryce in how many infringements he missed..
harden up
anything else is sour grapes, and you guys make a damn good whine
17 Oct 2012, 11:16 am
@Sharksgirl-158:
Admitted what?
He never admitted to cheating and he sure as hell didnt say Boks were suppose to be in the semis, you people saying that..
And this is the problem here. Plenty of people got in his head. Refs are only human and for a game that was so important it overcome him and he blew a bad one.
And he is not my ref of the year… i cant remember voting. Stop blaming NZ fans it was the NZRU.
We dont blame the SA fans for the rubbish SARU spewed out years ago…..well i dont
17 Oct 2012, 11:19 am
@poppa69-157:
One way of looking at it Pops.
We were told that the ABs were not good enough in 2007.
But as we have said, NZ were ripped off by Barnes….who is a Pom. His team was going to play the winner of France and NZ. We all know what team he would rather get through….setup dont you think?
17 Oct 2012, 11:21 am
@Hurricane-151: Reading this post, I’m actually (may Bakkies help me) humming the VERY old Depeche Mode number…’Get the Balance right…’. …
I don’t see much changing for us EOYT, as Meyer will certainly play Morne at 10 – using the heavy conditions underfoot and the weather as the perfect opportunity to advertise his 10 man game. Count on it.
17 Oct 2012, 11:21 am
@poppa69-160:
I believe Henry counted over 30 missed infringments that should have gone ABs way.
So he did a Bakkies but difference is GH actually knows what he is talking about.
17 Oct 2012, 11:22 am
Defence smench…
Attack smack…
Allow players to ******* think for themselves on the field playing within the damn structure and stop barking on-field orders through your walkie-talkie from the comfort of your box.
If you don’t trust the players to execute on the park, they won’t trust themselves.
17 Oct 2012, 11:25 am
@Sharksgirl-158: The only thing here in black and white is that he froze. He had been accused of over-reffing the Oz/Ire game so apparently got scared to blow his whistle in the quarter final. This talk of who NZ should have played in the semi, sorry but Oz were tri-nats champs, #2 in the world, and had made the Boks their b*tches. Just go back to the pre-RWC threads on here and check out the complaints about PdV, Smit, Steyn. The only two players people agreed on were F Steyn and Brussow and weren’t they both injured?
And about ref of the year, well we kiwis don’t spend as much time thinking about refs. I for one know I couldn’t tell you who should have been nominated besides Bryce because I can’t recall the name of any other international refs that year
17 Oct 2012, 11:26 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-163:
Yeah i can see that as well.
I think Morne has been over played and has hit a stale part in his game. It happens to alot of players. He has never been a great runner but he was the most feared kicker around. I remember back in 2009,as soon as he walked up the kick for goal you knew it was going over. The guy is a freak.
Shame SA didnt trust any other #10s to help and fill in once and a while or given him a break at the Bulls, i am sure SA would be better off.
17 Oct 2012, 11:37 am
@PissAnt-165:
17 Oct 2012, 11:39 am
@poppa69-160: @poppa69-160: Look Poppa, 1. I agree with you as far as 2007 is concerned, I also shiver if I see Barnes on as a ref for my team. 2. I have never really got involved in these scuffles, but as far as Bryce is concerned I am sorry I have watched him screw us too many times to believe that it was a mistake. I honestly believe that he blew that game leniently (moderate word) for Ozzies because of the politics going on behind the scenes, being presurised by the criminal.
I would point you to two of the most galling instances that have convinced me that Bryce did not blow in an unbiased manner, remember the “dangerous engagement” when he was so eager to blow against the Sharks that he blew the whistle giving the penalty to oposition, and neither pack had come nowhere near engaging yet? pathetic! When asked what penalty was for “dangerous engagement” lol! Or the game against the Brumbies in 2008 when he blew the Sharks off the park and even yellow carded Francois Steyn for “cynical play” when he wasn’t anywhere near the ball! There are more but I am blogging in between making payments so would take too long. Nope this guy planned who would win and who wouldn’t!
No Hurricane he did not admit to cheating, who would? he did admit to having blown in a certain manner favouring the Ozzies because of pressure from O’neal and politics going on off the field. sooo….
17 Oct 2012, 11:43 am
@PissAnt-165: twins bru?
17 Oct 2012, 11:45 am
JC your logic is all over the place in this one.
Paraphrasing…
“NZ and Sharks are great attacking teams”
“NZ and Sharks are also defensively strong”
“NZ and Sharks are balanced teams”
then…
“If you can wrap your head around these trends, you will realise why the Bok game plan is not flawed”
but what about the Bok attack JC?
17 Oct 2012, 11:49 am
@PissAnt-165: Coaching 101.
The notion of player empowerment.
17 Oct 2012, 11:50 am
and if Meyer’s gameplan is centred around defence and kicking then why did they concede 4 tries at home and miss 35 points at goal over two tests against NZ?
It’s a mess.
17 Oct 2012, 11:53 am
@willievz-172:
Like Barry Johns famous remark in his first game for Wales, when Gareth Edwards asked him where he wanted the ball passed; “Just throw it and I’ll catch it!”
17 Oct 2012, 11:55 am
@gonzo-166: I am sorry but nowhere am I suggesting that Bryce was blowing favouring Oz to suit NZ, he stated that it was pressure put on him by the Ozzies, O’neal to be precise. That made him “freeze” So I personally am not casting any doubt on your eventual win. However, if you have read my response to Poppa, there is nothing that will convince me that that match was an error!
17 Oct 2012, 11:56 am
@PissAnt-165: barks? No he is honking to Rassi who is hiding somewhere pressing buttons to light up the LED advertisment boards.
17 Oct 2012, 11:59 am
@trupisero-170:
Twins boet, two girls…
17 Oct 2012, 11:59 am
@RL-176:
you ae on a roll this week I see!
17 Oct 2012, 12:02 pm
Lance Armstrong…
Marion Jones
Hansie
Italian Football rigging
the list is endless……
poor Joe Public, paying all the hard earned bucks for DSTV…..match tickets, et al…..
Farken criminals tainting sport across the board, farken criminals…
17 Oct 2012, 12:05 pm
@willievz-172: @PissAnt-165:
PA exactly, I been saying for how long now, SA players have their natural skills coached out of them by our local coaches, I know i will get castagated in here for using the Sharks as an example of where it now seems players are allowed to thin k for themselves, Of course they are a long way off from where they need to be, but it seems to be one area of the game they are getting right.
Again their good defense and lots of tries scored by them as leading try scorers show this to be the case.
Our coaches and players need to stop having a afraid to lose mentallity, but have a losing is not an option mentallity. They must have a desire to win at all cost mentallity,
17 Oct 2012, 12:08 pm
@Sharksgirl-169:
hehehe sharksgirl, he didnt say he blew it anyones favour.
Here is the breakdown of the match from a UK paper.
As you can see Bryce got it wrong with the Ozzies as well. Infact Poms believe that Bryce was told by the IRB to calm down on the whistle as he made the Ireland vs Ozzie game a stop start affair.
Deans, though, cannot rely on stress and fear. Australia spent most of the quarter-final against South Africa in their own half, defending with a mixture of zeal and desperation. The Springboks played with ambition but lacked the skills to match. They conceded a soft try when Schalk Burger ran from a lineout near his own line, lost the ball after the prop Ben Alexander’s inadvertent steal, and the Wallaby captain, James Horwill, shrugged off Morne Steyn’s challenge to score after 11 minutes.
It was the only try of the match and came against the run of play. Burger atoned two minutes later when he made a try-saving tackle on Stephen Moore after Kurtley Beale broke from his own half, but when Heinrich Brussow was penalised at a ruck James O’Connor made it 8-0 after 15 minutes and, with the sun on their backs, the Wallabies seemed well set.
Then Australia’s possession dried up. Victor Matfield started stealing their lineouts and the Springboks kept the ball in hand. Their problem was that, once Brussow went off at the end of the first quarter with a rib injury, sustained after Dan Vickerman had entered a breakdown from the side and dropped his knee on the flanker, David Pocock took control of the breakdown.
South Africa complained long and hard that Australia were slowing down their ball but the referee Bryce Lawrence took the view throughout that, unless he saw a blatant offence, he would give both the attacking and defending sides latitude. The Wallabies did take advantage but the Springboks were not averse to entering a breakdown from the side and off their feet and Burger once got away with diving into a ruck off his feet and grabbing Pocock’s head before twisting it.
South Africa were also fortunate in the second half when Steyn body checked Digby Ioane as the wing chased his own chip into the Springboks’ 22 but was not even penalised for a cynical offence that merited a yellow card. For all their complaints about the anarchy at the breakdown South Africa created enough opportunities to have won comfortably.
All they had to show for playing 84% of the first half in Australia’s half was a late penalty by Steyn. The fly-half kicked South Africa into the lead after 59 minutes with a penalty and a drop goal after Matfield snaffled another Australia lineout.
But Fourie du Preez twice lost control of the ball with the line beckoning, three promising moves ended after forward passes were thrown and the Springboks, despite fielding their most experienced side ever, lacked composure.
They knew what they were about in 2007, a team that were at their most dangerous when the opposition were in possession, but the more they moved the ball on Sunday the less likely they looked to score. It was a triumph for Australia’s defence, led by Pocock, in what was a stereotype reversal with South Africa doing all the running.
The Australia fly-half Quade Cooper, who is returning to the city of his birth this week, had an evening when nothing he attempted came off. But he did make a try-saving tackle on Du Preez and, like his team, he kept going. When Danie Rossouw tipped Radike Samo to the ground at a lineout, O’Connor kicked the winning goal from 40 metres with nine minutes to go.
17 Oct 2012, 12:08 pm
@grant10-179: Kit KAt?????
17 Oct 2012, 12:09 pm
@sharks_lover-180:
The main problem is that coaches are trying to play the game for the players.
17 Oct 2012, 12:10 pm
@Sharksgirl-178: Hey good lady!!! you well??
You going to the game??
17 Oct 2012, 12:13 pm
@David-183: Also very true Dave,
I know Plum talks all the time about empowering the players?? maybe he is right.
If we had that attitude in the country with all the teams and all the top players surely we would get it right more often then not??
I am not saying for one minute the Sharks have it all right, but surely when looking at their play etc and now results, things are heading in the right direction?????
Can you Imagine not only Sharks players but all our top players playing this exciting brand and also being very strong defensively??
BUt it will never happen whilst we are svared to lose, the mindsets have to change to start with.
17 Oct 2012, 12:17 pm
Province by 10. Sharks by 5.
Final………… revenge.
17 Oct 2012, 12:22 pm
@PissAnt-177: Geluk tjom…..jou kak is geboek!
17 Oct 2012, 12:22 pm
@Hurricane-181:
I guess on Mr Bryce we will have to agree to disagree 
@sharks_lover-184: Hiya SL am very well thank you. Yes am going to the game although getting those tickets is a real mission if you are not in Durban! But I posted a suggestion on the Sharks official site, and they were very prompt in replying. Very soon we will be able to purchase tickets on line! Apparently, they assure me this is at an advanced stage so by start of SR we should be able to buy tickets on line. Murphy’s law as I have already set money aside from 13th cheque for season tickets
17 Oct 2012, 12:24 pm
@PissAnt-177: Baie geluk
17 Oct 2012, 12:26 pm
@Sharksgirl-188:
lol
I guess to a point, but we both agree he messed up a good quarter final.
17 Oct 2012, 12:32 pm
@sharks_lover-180:
Not at all man, most would agree the Sharks have the blueprint for how the Boks should be aiming to play.
Many saying now the coach (HM) should let the players make important decisions for themselves on the field and yet when I pointed out how Jantjies had the ball removed from his hands by his captain who didn’t have enough faith in him to execute a simple line kick (this after he’d already slotted 2 vital kicks) was indicative of a poor team culture many said I was overreacting.
17 Oct 2012, 12:33 pm
@Hurricane-190: on that point we agree
17 Oct 2012, 12:34 pm
@Hurricane-190:
Cane, the Boks had a ton of chances, but…..
If Bryce had blown a good game, the Boks would have won. Finished and klaar.
End of discussion
If O’neal really did put pressure on him, is this not the reason why O’neal quit? Just asking.
17 Oct 2012, 12:35 pm
@wpstormerbok-191:
You think JDV will make the squad for the EOYT?
I wouldn’t pick him, but the captaincy will probably save him.
17 Oct 2012, 12:37 pm
@Sharksgirl-175: Look, you’re much more polite (although not any more correct) than Bakkies when put across your conspiracy theory so I’ll let it rest. But that is in no way an admission that Bryce was biased, just cr*p
I just noticed we missed the one year anniversary of the match last week. A pity, Keo could have given us a look back at the game and some of the blogger highlights since
17 Oct 2012, 12:39 pm
@Sharksgirl-188: Awesome hun, will give you a call when i am there, not sure yet where i am sitting as my ticket is through the PTA Sharks supporters club, so hopefully will get to see you and hubby.
17 Oct 2012, 12:40 pm
@londonshark-194:
JdV is done but Heyneke’s stuck between the past and the future so will tag him along.
The brave decision would be for Meyer to cut the dead wood, proceed with the youngsters, implement a more balanced game and I’m sure most would give him much more room to develop the team even if we suffer some close losses on the EOYT.
17 Oct 2012, 12:41 pm
@londonshark-193: It probably has more to do with Deans than anything else. He didn’t want to be there when the ABs beat the Aussies again
17 Oct 2012, 12:44 pm
@londonshark-193:
haha
If he blew correctly Steyn would have been binned as would burger.:-)
Anyway all gone now,O’Neil,POB and Bryce.
By rights these guys were in the way of South African dominance.
Maybe next year
17 Oct 2012, 12:45 pm
@wpstormerbok-191: True mate,
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