I attended the end of season press conference where WP had a little look back on the year, and also into  the future of WP Rugby. This was all that was said but for 3 boring and looooooong questions. A must read for WP fans.

A definite stay away if you’re a Bulls and Lions fan. (They talk bout Jacques Fourie)

And a great read if you are a rugby lover anyway……….

I hope you guys enjoy this, although it’s a bit long.

 What emotions did you go through after you came so close to the CC final?

Rassie:

The first thing that comes up in your mind is disappointment, and everyone is definitely not feeling great, but after the first day it starts feeling better and better until pride kicks in for the way the whole team, and Alistair really from having a disastrous S14 at the end trying to shift the focus to the CC and these taking it on and eventually playing against what I think is one of the best teams in the world and coming so close at then you’re proud again, and sometime it brings you down again when you think you came so close, so yes it varies a bit.

You now have more time to prepare for next year’s S14

Rassie:

Yes, I think obviously you got 2 weeks more to do things which are actually more disruptive than anything else because you really don’t plan everything to a tee on that, because you really keep planning your things hoping you will be playing in a final. Having two weeks more there is a positive for planning and conditioning but it is a bit disruptive having two weeks more, but we will work around things and it will be a challenge and the thing that we definitely will try and keep right is it is not the new season starting all over again and I definitely made a mistake last year seeing the transition between the CC and S14 as not being smooth between different competitions. We did it differently between S14 and CC this year and it was all about continuity and I think we will strive to get everything as close the way Alistair did it in this CC. 

Are you comfortable with the progress that was made over the past 3 years.  Not talking about results, but about progress. 

Rassie:

Yes, definitely, we are not happy not to be in the final you know and I don’t want to go back in previous years results to show that we are really improving. I think we must look on the field at how the guys react in certain situations and there were really a lot of setbacks that Alistair had to face. I am talking especially CC, forget about the S14 and all the things that went wrong there, the things I did there wrong there. Loosing Juan de Villiers, Bobo going overseas, and then Mujati, and then Schalk Brits, then Adrian Fondse, then Willem De Waal, then Conrad Jantjes and Conrad Hoffman was struggling with a hamstring. I think this team is growing and growing and not because we reached the semi finals. Again, being 12-0 behind the Bulls, I mean I watched province teams loose 75-12 against teams like the Bulls and it could so easily have happened again, but the boys kept fighting back and they kept structured and kept calm and came back with a good plan at half time so I definitely think we’re on the up and all 3 teams. The u/19’s lost with a few points and the u/21’s were ahead in extra time with 3minutes to go. Unfortunately there is nobody in the finals, but I really think there is growth.

Rassie on the first 20 minutes of the semi final

The first 20 minutes we really did not have cool heads and we were frantically running around and they were getting yellow cards. We really played dumb rugby until Alistair managed to calm them down. If we can get more of our players in more such positions, I mean it is an old cliché, they’ve done it in the World cup, they’ve done it against the Lions and all other teams, and Morné Steyn has done it before.

I think if we can do that, it will be wonderful for us. If we look at a guy like Geo Aplon where he’s been there for a few seasons and how he handles the big occasions and that is where we striving for, just keeping these guys together. We are only bringing 3 new signings in this team. It’s only Lionel Cronje, Brian Habana and hopefully Jacques Fourie now that we can actually talk to him and get him into the mix and finalising the contract. It is really about continuity and we have a lot of young guys coming through the system, so it should be good. 

Is WP talking to anybody else to recruit?

Rassie:

No, I think if you have a team like this and shows against a team that won the S14 by a lot of points, I think you’re very close to a team that can be competitive. If you through together the team that played the weekend and the 3 guys I mentioned, Brian, Lionel and Jacques, and you through in Adrian Fondse, and Nick Koster and Conrad Jantjes and Dylan des Fountain and Morgan Newman and Willem de Waal and all those boys, then it should really be a very competitive team. 

After 3 years at WP, are you comfortable with where you are?

Rassie:

I have learnt a lot not only from the field here in Cape Town. I will be the first one to admit that I made a few mistakes, a lot of aspects in a certain aspects of the game. I surely learned a lot from Alistair especially I think his man management of the players is excellent, maybe it is because he is 10 years older than me, and I’m not sure. (Laughter). Also I think it takes you a while to understand the whole cape town vibe and not only you guys here in the press room, but also the normal fan on the street and the players and that for me was the growth for me personally I’ve made the most.

If you talk about the team and going into the third year, I think we had to make a few interesting moves to get to the management teams and players where we are now. We had to do a few funny things like getting a guy like Johan van Wyk only for a short term, a guy like Jacques Hanekom, because we initially wanted Mathew Proudfoot and it took us a year and a half to get him and we’ve got him here now and he’s doing a wonderful job, getting Alistair in the beginning into a position where he is managing the players the way he is doing now, It took some fine planning and knocks and putting the ego’s back. We are going into the third year, pretty close to where I wanted us to be, going into the third year with momentum and experienced players and a confident team. 

Rassie on the expectations after the first year of finishing 4^th in the S 14 and how difficult it was.

Yes, I definitely from my perspective in a sense that you know if you maybe struggled a bit more there and people saw from the outside what you were doing, but now you had immediate success and now your 5 th on the log and one point short of getting into the semi final and not making it, then obviously they expect. I always see reality and I knew the next year the draw was much tougher, we were loosing a few players, a few players contracts came up for re negotiations, and a few players were in the Boks mix and I saw they were out of the mix when the coach announced the team, so there were always times we had to motivate guys and with the tough draw I alwys thought the second S14 was going to be very tough. The expectations that came out of the first one, you can’t fault the players and the media. They expect the same in the second year, so yes it was a little bit tougher. 

What can you take from the CC campaign this year?

Allister:

I think a lot. The first thing which is really the most important thing is the way they players respect the Newlands crowd this year and to go out and play with passion and commitment once again in front of the Newlands crowd. That to me is a big positive. A few other rugby aspects I think our tight 5 this year once again proved that t they can compete really with any side since we started against the B&I Lions really, there were the first sort of seeds that were planted. Just on the line out stat I think we were successful with 86% success rate at lineout time. All credit to Rassie and Mathew obviously and if you look at our set piece of scrum, we have a success rate of over 95%. I think that is where the game starts, at the set pieces, and we were so competitive and at certain stages dominated the opposition, so from that point of view also a positive and a great plus we take from this campaign and that’s from a very youthful pack of forwards I’d say.

The second very important thing for me during this campaign was we were sitting between running the ball and kicking the ball and I think we struck a good balance towards the latter part of the competition and I think that that is something that I think we are ahead of other unions so far, but I think the test will come in the S14 again and I think Rassie said it that we had a very close look at last years S14 and that gave us a few things we stumbled upon and it worked in the CC and we have to build on that.

You’ve got the set piece and the youth with us and players like Juan de Jongh, Wikus Blaauw, Francois Louw, Gio Apron, Joe Peterson, a lot of players really matured this season. Last year the were sort of young with potential and this year they matured in a lot of ways so much so that we need to get players to have that composure in tough matches. We lost closely to the B&I Lions and then the Bulls, which both can be regarded as test matches. That is the kind of thing I think is so important for this side to win championships in the future. I think there are just so much positives going forward. If you look at the systems that Rassie put in place here to get our under 19’s, to get systems where we almost think similarly along coaching lines and the type of players Rassie has contracted. Players that really are playing with hart and I think that is something you really can not coach. We have come across the sort of tough players that we really want here for WP and that would help us to be successful in the future if we get it right. 

Is there pressure on younger players if you look at a “freak” like Francois Steyn to perform in the same vain?

Alilister:

It makes it much easier when you’re a youngster playing with a team with that experience. Steyn was fortunate to come into a side where the majority of the players with more than 25 test caps and that is what I am trying to say, we have players like Wicus, a young guy now with the experience, also Brock Harris who’s come a couple of years and he has learned the tricks of the trade and now he is an experienced player. Dwayne Vermeulen is also a very young guy, and so is Schalk Burger and while we are bring the young inexperienced guys through like De Jongh and JJ Engelbrecht and Duvenhage, these young players, they will at least be surrounded next year with experienced players.

Looking at next year and Nr 8. Will it be Dwayne or Schalk?

Rassie:

There we always have the open side flank debate. You get a classic guy Like Brussow that’s only an open sider Then you get a team that is being coached where the whole team is trying to contest on the ground, and we try and mould that kind of thing where everybody practices from 15 to 1 do the same drills to see if anybody can make a difference on the ground. If we play opposition that is very strong in the lineout, it would be wonderful to have Dwayne Schalk and Louw competing in the lineout. If we play against a Brussow, then guy like Peter Myburg or Brits might come into the mix and still a Peter Louw can jump in the line out so it will all differ from game to game. I think overall our opinion is that the guy that play 8^thman has just got to be able to handle the ball at the back of the scrum, that is the only difference form the rest. I think if you can handle it and slot into the defence system, then it is very similar whether you’re playing 6, 7 or 8. At the moment the guy that can handle the pressure of channelling the ball and getting to go forward from a pick up and go, I think there Schalk can do it for us, Dwayne can do it for us and Louw can do it too although he will struggle in the beginning with the handling. It will vary from game to game but it would really be between Schalk and Dwayne. 

The guys that played on Saturday, are they all contracted to WP?

Rassie:

Actually, if you take our under 19’s at the institutes, we have about 40 players and then there’s a few who’s dads and uncles and so played for themselves to get into the institute, but there is 40 players that gets drafted in and out of that 40 you have to start sifting somewhere so there is about 17 of those guys that get a contract for a year. Of the under 21’s they have already been sifted form institute to under 20 to under 21’s. Of them we contract another 15 or 16. One or two is still outstanding. So we have already 30, 31 juniors, that is going to play under 21 rugby. Of our senior side, we are happy now if we can get Jaques Fourie signed. We have everyone that we wanted to sign.

Is it your plans to play Lionel or Hoffman at nr 10 and will they play in next years S14?

Rassie:

It all depends on how quickly the settle in. Everybody is saying that flyhalf is a problem in SA. A guy like Ruan is playing 9 for the Sharks and Hernandez is playing 10 there and Ruan is like back up for the Boks 10 and a guy like Burton Francis is with the Bulls but the one is moving to the Lions and Jaques-Louis Potgieter is moving back. It is a difficult thing to place why we are in a position in SA where we don’t know whose the nr 1, nr 2 and nr 3 in SA because Earl Rose was in the picture last year. So it’s a tough thing to organise, but if you go through the structures of SA rugby and look at under 19 and under 20 and so on and you say OK we’ve got these two flyhalves here and we need another type of flyhalf to make the picture perfect for us, we want a flyhalf who can both kick and run and defend and can do everything, then I think Lionel Cronje is a good option in that regard. He is a SA under 20 flyhalf where he played above Brummer and Ebersohn and all those guys. He is a nice big guy, but again, how quickly will he settle. How quickly does he make friends with the guys. As quickly as he understands out systems and feel comfortable, all those kind of things, if he does it quickly like a Frans Steyn, he is a big boy, maybe he is ready for S14 rugby already.

I like Conrad Hoffman. I think the important thing that people have to remember, and myself, is that he was a wonderful player and an under 19 and 21 captain where he kicked goals, but that was at 9. For the last 2 years that guy has been injured. I wonder if he has played put together 6 games in the last 2 and a half years. First the hamstring and then the heap, so he has not really played at 9 a lot, so we have to make the transition to get him into a 10. So again, maybe put him into a 7 ‘s set-up, I had a chat with Paul Treu the other day and just to get his confidence up and play a little a part of running rugby and decision making and then bring him into the mix. Maybe play a warm-up game and see how quickly he adepts. Those 2 guys are wonderful talents and we would like to see how quickly they adept.

Hoffman has a contract for the next 2 years and knows exactly where he stands. He just needs to get some game time under his belt. 

Question about the captain again

Rassie:

I think a guy like Schalk should be the front runner here. Just again on Saturday when he came on to the field, he’s a great leader with some of the most caps in the team and he really relates well to the whole management set-up and he understands our system and he’s a province boy through and through. I think nothing is finalised yet, but it would be a really big surprise if we don’t appoint Schalk Burger.

What will Brain Habana bring to the team not only on the field but also off the field?

Rassie:

I think the great thing is where our team is going now and I’m not saying we changed it, it was tough in the beginning and sometimes it came out the wrong way, the way I said it,  the way I try to protect players to much. The one thing in Cape Town that is difficult to handle and to get the hang of it, I think Allister did it very well this year during CC is that it’s very difficult for a player when he starts and he plays here, he is other a hero or he is a zero. There is not a lot of place for players to grow here. You either make it quickly or you don’t make it and the guy must get out of the system and the next guy must get forward and sign or not sign. For me Brian Habana is going to be, well I played against him and I coached a while with him before we went to the world cup with Jake and the guys and the guy is just an absolute professional. It doesn’t go to his head and he always work hard, the way he interacts with the crowd, what he stands for. In this specific province team, where we are now, that is just the final cherry for me on the cake. I want that professionalism and that is off the field. I don’t think I have to say anything about his contribution on the field. 

He will definitely make a difference to the young players around him. Your thought?

Rassie:

Definitely to players like De Jong and now hopefully a guy like Jaques Fourie and even guys like Joe Peterson and Conrad Jantjes at the back, and Gio, I mean it’s starting to make an exiting backline for us. If we pick the right team and coach them well enough. It should not be a guy like De Jongh standing on the field and just having a bunch of youngsters around him, it should be Habana and maybe Jaques Fourie and a Conrad Jantjes. It is starting to look OK at the back. 

Sereli still in the picture?

Rassie:

I have got a real soft spot for Sereli. The last year was just a terrible run for him and unfortunate things that happenned to him. A high tackle is unforgiveable which he did on Saturday and nobody knows this better than him and you know we should not forget the previous 6 infringements. The were also all 3 points, 3 points, 3 points. Sometimes it is just the pressure and the whole Cape Town and the setup of the intenseness of the people in the stands. It is just incredible to work here and it is just a wonderful place, the way the people get involved in the game, but sometimes it can also be a bit tough to perform under that. Sereli is contracted til next year May and will be involved, but he will have to prove that he is worthy of getting into the starting line-up or into the match 22 like any other player making a mistake on the field. He will have to rectify it.