Demanding more from awful Boks
19 Nov 2012
MARK KEOHANE, in his weekly Business Day column, says this has been a desperate end-of-year tour for the Springboks, and to criticise them does not make one unpatriotic.
From a distance this Springbok tour has only depressed me. Does that mean the Springboks depress me? No. Does this mean there is no hope? No.
Forget what next year could hold. Let’s deal in real time with the considerable disappointment for those of us who appreciate the potential within South African rugby and the quality of player that makes up South African rugby.
Each to his own, be it in acknowledgment or denial, but I find it an insult to South African rugby that so many are so willing to call a win a win and dismiss any dismay as disparagement of the Bok coach, management, players and just anti-South African.
Why is there such irrational and ignorant investment of energy? I can’t explain the conservatism of the Springboks’ approach — and I am referring to the coaching staff.
I expected more and rightly so. I’ll take an ugly win in the World Cup final and I’ll take an ugly win every time if it is against the All Blacks. There are times a team will win ugly, but very good teams with aspirations to be great teams mostly win with a swagger more than a stagger.
I know the Bok players have character and that they take seriously the responsibility of playing for South Africa and excelling as national players. If you have to applaud them for this then they’re in the wrong profession. It’s a given.
I understand that among the goals of the Boks between this year and 2015 is to concede the least points in world rugby and to concede the least tries. Nowhere is there talk of scoring the most points and scoring the most tries.
Christmas can’t come soon enough, and I hope the gift of introspection comes wrapped with whatever else makes its way to the home of Bok coach Heyneke Meyer and his support staff. Nothing has been gained from this tour. The Boks can tackle. The Boks can maul. The Boks have character.
I don’t want South Africa to be New Zealand. I want them to be South Africa. Good Springbok teams have always played rugby. The good ones have had more than just character, a desire to tackle and an effective mauling technique.
The good, very good and great Bok teams have trusted their basic skills and believed that the true expression of their talent is in scoring tries and points — and not in how few are conceded.
I have never understood the flippancy with which the words ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ are used within the Bok context. To condemn the Springboks’ performance in Dublin and Edinburgh is apparently a negative. To applaud the win is to be patriotic, passionate and positive. Again, each to their own.
I prefer ‘accurate’ and ‘inaccurate’ when assessing the Boks. Is it accurate to laud a win fashioned by an intercept try and supposedly brutal defence in the last 20 minutes against a side ranked 10 in the world who a week earlier conceded 50 points against the All Blacks?
To talk of being the best requires more than a PowerPoint presentation and a Vince Lombardi quote.
Heyneke Meyer, my preferred choice as Bok coach, seems convinced 2012 was always going to be a struggle and survival was a more appropriate ‘go to’ than sensation. I haven’t been floored by this defeatist attitude but I have been dazed and deflated.
Apparently to tackle is to care if you are a Bok. Apparently to attack is to risk despair.
Where’s the cheer been in this tour? Where’s the evolution?
A week ago I wrote of the fear of failure within the Boks and the restrictive approach that rewards no risk and the possibility of a mistake.
The Boks, regardless of who coaches them, should have beaten Ireland and Scotland. Both teams are inferior in every aspect. Both teams currently don’t have the pedigree of player to threaten a side with the player resource of South Africa.
I will always have an expectation of a nation with two World Cup titles. To demand anything less is to not care; alternatively not to know.
The players know it has been an awful tour in performance and quality. Perhaps more applicably it has been a desperate tour.
I won’t apologise for demanding more from the coach and the players.
A week ago I said the players should embrace the adventure. Some pounced on this as results not meaning anything. Of course they mean everything, otherwise there wouldn’t be a score and there wouldn’t be a winner. But to accept the post-match virtues of character and player pride for the Bok jersey is to accept being second best.
I won’t, and the optimist in me thinks neither will those who assess the Bok performance instead of excusing the lack of performance.
427 Comments
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19 Nov 2012, 19:49 pm
@skopdiekan-250: cream puff cheese whirls ?
Go instruct one of your women to make you some tea and sweet meats. Find yourself a nice secret place to watch some p0rn and relax yourself. You are way too wound up.
19 Nov 2012, 19:57 pm
‘p0rn’ wtf for.. are you that far gone up shitcreek..? that what they do in Scandinavia to alleviate irrelevant stress? some real dumb morons in the world of make believe custody of elevated aloof intelligence..
19 Nov 2012, 20:00 pm
@skopdiekan-252: It is just to make you relax a bit. I know you guys love a bit of p0rn on the side. Don’t forget the tea and biscuits.
19 Nov 2012, 20:01 pm
@Dusky-253: who is this ‘you guys’ business.. pray tell oracle of medical observation and enlightenment.. which kinda you guys am I?
19 Nov 2012, 20:06 pm
@skopdiekan-254: The kind that loves a bit of p0rn on the side. And some tea and cakes. The angry kind that needs to relax himself a bit.
19 Nov 2012, 20:13 pm
@skopdiekan-254: I dont know dude. You like to make unfounded insulting statements about everyone else so I am just following your lead.
In short you’re a bit of a c#nt and I suppose human nature dictates that one would like you to see the error of your ways. Oh – and I have some time to waste at the moment.
Do you keep changing your name because you keep getting banned ? Do you have a very thick skin to keep coming back ? You know nobody here likes you right ?
19 Nov 2012, 20:18 pm
@Dusky-255: I never been into p0rn dumbass that must be up your bag of tricks..
@Dusky-256: whats to like fuckface.. is it a prerequisite to blog here to be liked by dumb morons the likes of you and some other idiots who reckon their stupid white snooty arsed backsides smell like strawberry cream cakes…? imbecilic moron schmuck f’ng ******* deluxe.
19 Nov 2012, 20:22 pm
@skopdiekan-257: Just don’t stone me dude !
According to you my backside smells like some pretty decent food items. I am sure you can find that kind of p0rn too.
19 Nov 2012, 20:27 pm
No wonder the good folk of South Africa log on here later in the evenings
It seems one gets the very best this site has to offer.
19 Nov 2012, 20:30 pm
@Dusky-258: that’s where your dumb head is at .. obviously that is how stupidly ingrained your dumb erroneous educated intelligence has gotten you.. shows in the nature of your posts that you are far less intelligent than you like to think you are.. as quite a few others around here are too.. you fit in well, it goes with the territory all this self opinionated self styled trait of idiotic superior intelligence it must be a dumb white mans ingrained idiocy that gets him to even begin thinking like you pathetic arseholes do.
19 Nov 2012, 20:33 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-259: so what the good doctor Freudulein think of all this masculine escapade of bravado and superior wit and intelligence and class doing the rounds in this fake empirical value of self righteousness?
19 Nov 2012, 20:39 pm
@skopdiekan-261: intelligence, education and being white. Your 3 bugbears.
Would you like a hug?
19 Nov 2012, 20:39 pm
@DEE DAH-232:
Seemed you quoted me alright, ya, the fools here don’t realise that this article is just ‘His Masters’ Voice’ gem from Keo who is competent enough to read the EOYTs score sheets since 1994 so he can see that for himself
Good job!
19 Nov 2012, 20:41 pm
@skopdiekan-261: It’s cyber space…. an altered reality for those who truly believe the ‘pen’ is mightier than the sword
19 Nov 2012, 20:44 pm
@Atreides-262: nope absolutely not from snot nosed white self opinionated uneducated (or is that over educated – same f’ng difference actually) arseholes the likes of you poor imbecilic dumbasses.
19 Nov 2012, 20:47 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-259: Hello
19 Nov 2012, 20:47 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-264: its pretty dumb when idiots actually begin to believe they are endowed with superior wit or class or intelligence that is the last outright pit of any human self righteous ideological ingrained idiocy
19 Nov 2012, 20:48 pm
@ryecatcher-266: Welcome to the dark side
19 Nov 2012, 20:48 pm
Hahahahaaaaa!! Yoh, that latest batch of moonshine must doing the trick.
So much of dutch courage
19 Nov 2012, 20:52 pm
I just love it when these snot nosed over educated university graduates come out to play trying to show off all their array of cleverness and wit and intelligence they learned in the halls of academic superiority.. that is when you see the most imbecilic useless idiots to ever parade around in a human skin.. that is when the outright dumbfuck idiot takes on the absolute robe of entitlement he shrouds his self righteous idiocy in.
19 Nov 2012, 20:53 pm
Jeesus, he’s like one of those little strings of perpetual motion ghoens. Ek tik hom eenkeer en hy hou net aan tik-tik-tik-tik…
Skoppie, let’s face it, you instinctively had a go at my post 177 without really knowing what you didn’t like about it. Much like you shoot your mouth off at just about anything here: You know you’re angry, but you just can’t quite put your finger on why. So you just sommer gooi a blanket fuckadillyruntcuntarsewipedoos at anything that moves.
Give it a rest, old man. You’re wasting your golden years on anger and ranting. There’s more to the autumn of your life than that, surely.
19 Nov 2012, 20:54 pm
Eish, Etsebeth Cited, seems things looking good for England
19 Nov 2012, 20:58 pm
@ryecatcher-266: Good evening to you!
The dark side rocks! Ask anyone….
@skopdiekan-267: As I see it…who am I (or anyone else for that matter) to decide that emotional intelligence is any less valuable than numerical or verbal intelligence. Or that a Leon Schuster is in fact wittier than a Coen brothers offering.
The fellow who carves, the fellow with the ability to sell sand in the Sinai or the fellow who manages to magically sort out my car engine, is he any less intelligent than the man with the post grad papers?
Folk who claim to be intelligent, have usually been baptised intelligent by adoring parents (in the same way many adoring parents baptise their kiddies Pop Idols – when the reality is somewhat different
Intelligence is open to interpretation…as is wit.
19 Nov 2012, 21:00 pm
@katman-271: nah you pisswilly little poephol I see little self righteous infatuated punks like you for exactly who you are… a self righteous little snot nosed droll of self righteous obnoxious pomposity .. trying to get the lady of the house to sort out the riff raff from the snob nosed echelons of entitled righteousness on a rugby blog.. and you the spokesperson of the snob nosed entitled goon show of supremacy….
go spin your self evaluated attitude of superiority some place else punk face.. you cannot and will not ever fool or bullshit or evade the clarity and accuracy that I see little self righteous attitudes you spill out so unashamedly and inadvertently..
19 Nov 2012, 21:04 pm
@katman-271: He truly is a bottomless well of unoriginal, banal blathering
19 Nov 2012, 21:05 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-273: Yes.But you have to be a little bit left of being hammered.
Covers a multitude of sins.
19 Nov 2012, 21:05 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-273:
if any one were emotionally intelligent they would not be seen dead parading their self evaluated so called wit or intelligence around on cyber ego ramps as this goon show right here….
this place is for over grown babies who need to show off some supposed show of either intelligence or wit or rugby acumen or something alien to humility ..
and that includes me of course.. else why would anyone pretend to be clever when they decidedly are not?
19 Nov 2012, 21:09 pm
@ryecatcher-276:
@skopdiekan-277: All those who blog are guilty of the same sins.
19 Nov 2012, 21:10 pm
@Atreides-275: and so says the self entitled self enlightened moron of post graduated idiocy… fckng idiot up his own self inflated arsehole… its stupid idiot punks like you who never learn anything.. its dumb pathetic morons the likes of you who are way too clever for your own devolution of non intelligent arrogance, setting you up for the fall that is so graciously waiting to trip imbecilic morons like you up…dumb bloody idiot.
19 Nov 2012, 21:14 pm
@skopdiekan-279: That’s your stock standard reply to anyone who doesn’t seem to like you. Which is pretty much everyone here. What is wrong with you?
19 Nov 2012, 21:16 pm
@skopdiekan-260: I am surprised you didn’t give my a-hole another flavor in your response. I mean strawberry’s and cream isn’t exactly what I would have given it – but you did.
I am heterosexual by the way.
Catch a chill pill. Listen to some readings.
19 Nov 2012, 21:16 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-278: yeah its actually a waste of time.. and a waste of emotional energy
and doesn’t achieve anything worth any level of value in life.. its just a fancy little out ride deviation for the mind to get embroiled in as a side show to what is in any way relevant in life..
but all of us who embark on this little pantomime escapade of illusion are exactly alike.. not a single one is any better or more intelligent or superiority endowed with either wit or class or intelligence than any one else.. every idiot that blogs here is identical in self embroiled idiocy to the next.
19 Nov 2012, 21:18 pm
@katman-280: At least he didn’t say something about your exit hole tasting like strawberry’s and cream like he did mine. I feel like I have been assaulted somehow.
I can just imagine him sitting there with the tissue box.
19 Nov 2012, 21:18 pm
@skopdiekan-282: Its ‘out right’
Just saying.
19 Nov 2012, 21:21 pm
@skopdiekan-282: And I just needed matric for that – not university.
19 Nov 2012, 21:23 pm
@skopdiekan-282:
look the good news is that you can read and write – what else is there to learn?
19 Nov 2012, 21:23 pm
@Dusky-283: Bakkie builder by day, olfactory ****** classifier by night. The many faces of Skoppiefuckadildo.
19 Nov 2012, 21:23 pm
@katman-280: to be ‘liked’ is for you self styled pompous witty fckers to back slap each others ego’s with.. I don’t fit into your little echelon of happy clapping likableness…
I far rather be the outcast in your little snob nosed highfalutin club of witless opinionated cleverdicks.. you can have your little snob nosed show of supremacy status here with bright little cherries on top.. dumbass.
reckon its time I klaar’d out for the night
another time for your next lesson in the superior likeness of being .. f’ng over educated idiotic self entitled morons
19 Nov 2012, 21:23 pm
It also takes him like 10 minutes to compose a reply. All that senseless alliteration and nonsensical sequentially congruent superbly irrelevantly unintellectual adverbs and adjectives take some time to put together.
19 Nov 2012, 21:24 pm
@skopdiekan-279: Hahaha, very insightful old cabbage, except I don’t have a degree.
What I do know is that your keyboard and cyber-anonymity makes you feel far braver than you are in real life. Maybe a life of being smaller and weaker than your peers has created delusional fantasies of bravery? Sure seems that way.
And if you disagree, I would challenge you to repeat your endless stream of filth, insults and curses to the faces of all the people you’ve vented your spleen at on here. Except everyone here, especially you, knows that will never happen. You’re a coward with delusions of masculinity who needs these witless attempts at belittling others to compensate for you own friendless, feeble lack of love or friends.
Your fantasies of relevance are as laughable as your personality. You claim not to care, but you’re just about smart enough to understand how much others pity you and it really gets to you, doesn’t it?
19 Nov 2012, 21:25 pm
@skopdiekan-288: Yes, you go grab your coat, old man. This is no place for your kind.
19 Nov 2012, 21:25 pm
@cab-286: you’ve arrived too late.. class is over for the night for you academically debilitated idiots up each others highfalutin fannies in tandem.
the professor is off duty for the rest of the night
19 Nov 2012, 21:26 pm
@skopdiekan-288: You dont have to be. We would accept you if you had a modicum of human decency. Persecution should be nothing new to you though.
19 Nov 2012, 21:27 pm
@Atreides-290: some people here have met me… they in a far better position to judge than you are… obviously.
19 Nov 2012, 21:28 pm
@Dusky-293: nope its ingrained into the psyche of preservation.. as it is for anyone with any empathy for humility.
19 Nov 2012, 21:28 pm
@Atreides-290: Poor thing is a bitter little pill. Because if he spoke at school anything like he posts here, be probably got f#cked up on a daily basis. And got to lick a lot of a-holes, hence the range of flavors he attributes to the ****.
19 Nov 2012, 21:29 pm
Katman’s ownership of skop continues…
19 Nov 2012, 21:30 pm
@skopdiekan-295: Oh well then – enjoy it ! From the kak that you talk here, I sincerely doubt you have empathy for anything except yourself.
19 Nov 2012, 21:33 pm
Do I detect some bad days at work here???
19 Nov 2012, 21:34 pm
@carol-299: Only from skop. I had a marvelous day thanks. Every day is a bad one for skoppie.
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