I have been on record many times saying the majority of rugby fans are stupid, and this in part helps aid our underperforming teams a great deal in sustaining a ‘slapgat’ rugby culture.
In writing this article (just the opening paragraph) I had to delete 4 classic rugby or sports clichés, you know, the usual ‘Defeat is not an option’, ‘Playing for the jersey’, ‘Taking every game as it comes’, and so on and so forth.
Why you might ask?
Well, this column deals with an issue most sports teams suffer from, or struggle to maintain or create, a winning rugby culture in which work ethic and general player happiness and enjoyment goes hand-in-hand.
I think over the last two years I have said of just about every South African rugby team (with the exception of the Bulls to a large extent) that they lack a positive rugby culture. Through discussions on this and many other sites of what we all believe most of our franchises need to finally mount a successful Super 14 challenge I again read of some of the problem areas most of you identify of which a ‘happy team environment’ or rugby culture (or lack of it) ranks very highly in most debates.
I am not so sure we all know exactly what it means though.
I mentioned at the start of this column that fans to a large extent aid underperforming teams not to develop such a mindset or environment or culture.
How?
Well it is best answered with another cliché…
“Once a Shark/Stormer/Bull, etc, always a Shark/Stormer/Bull”, or “Whatever till I die”, or… I can go on but I am getting sick of clichés.
What exactly is a culture? Well one explanation or definition the dictionary gives us is that it is the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another.
Most of us believe however that this culture is created and maintained by the team, or a team of whom we are only fans or supporters.
Wrong…
You are part of that culture.
And you pass that culture down to the next generation (of fans) who will continue in pretty much the same vein you did unless we take ownership and responsibility of that culture. Honestly, how can something that affects you so directly (even if only emotionally) not be something you have some form of control over?
We constantly hear these days of professional rugby players who gets caught using recreational drugs or abusing alcohol or hitting women or whatever bull you care to read in tabloids, and we simply write it off as those guys being ‘simply human’ and that we do not understand the pressures of being a professional sportsmen or women…
What utter kak.
These teams and players survive because they created an environment for you to become part of their tribe, their culture, for you to take as much responsibility for the actions of your other tribe members as they do for you on the field every single weekend.
I have said to some players I coached before that if I can only have 20% of the passion of the guys sitting in the stands Saturday after Saturday supporting them, I will never lose a match.
Too often do we accept excuses of mediocrity from our fellow tribe members or leaders and simply write it off as one of those things, that we not only help create this environment of mediocrity or were losing is an option, we support it.
The culture at a team like the Bulls or Crusaders does not guarantee them winning every game, but it also does not allow them to lose the same way twice.
Defeat in any sport is inevitable, but it is never acceptable.
The Sharks, much like the Stormers, Cheetahs and Lions need to create and environment or culture which is healthy, and happy, but not at the expense of hard work and work ethic which to my mind is the biggest thing they lack.
Where they go wrong from where I sit, is that they are not prepared to work hard where it matters most, to want it more when the opportunity comes around. You can fool most of the people most of the time by making them believe you are enthusiastic, hardworking and competitive, but desire for success goes a lot further than what you are prepared to do on a Friday evening or Saturday afternoon in front of the crowds and television cameras.
Real desire, real competitiveness has a lot more to do with the work ethic and sacrifices you are willing to make from Sunday to Thursday when no-one else is watching. You know you have a winning rugby team when your players are happy with a culture of working hard, training hard and playing hard – where losing is never an option.
Just looking at the players available for the for most of our perennial underperforming franchises this Super 14 I see no reason why some, if not the majority of them cannot at least challenge for a play-off spot.
The franchises should learn that a culture of being happy is either a team going out there to enjoy themselves and entertain the crowd, or a team that goes out there to win – guess which team (and its supporters) in the end will be the happiest…
You will get beaten, accept that, but do not accept getting beaten the same way twice.
It is time we stop supporting mediocrity.
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Morne
IMO it all boils down to professionalism, and accepting the fact that Rugby is a bussiness.
If anyone working at our company makes the same mistake twice, they are disciplined for it, why should a (professional) Rugby player be any different.
Playing Rugby is his CHOSEN profeession, yet many do not act like professional people, and are also not treated as professionals by their EMPLOYER(S) the Union(s).
The truth of the matter is that the majority of Rugby Unions in SA are anything but professional companies, and they are just that, companies.
I have had the “pleasure” of reading the end of year financials of one of the big five Unions for the past 3 years, and if the truth is told, if the auditors were auditing a normal bussiness they would have recommended to close it down.
It frustrates me no end that people working for a Rugby company get away with p1ss poor performance year after year, and I’m not referring to the players here.
The professional and winning culture that you speak of must permeate RIGHT THROUGH any bussiness venture.
Do you think it’s professional for managers of a company to release minutes of a meeting 24 hrs before the follow up meeting? (A month later)
Is it acceptable for managers within a company to refuse to answer correspondence because it may cause conflict between a number of branches (read clubs) of that company?
This is the type of cr@p bussiness culture that I have to deal with weekly.
Another of the greater problems (IMO) is that the acceptrance of mediocrity as the norm has become the culture within South Africa as a whole.
As a Nation (for the most part) we accept mediocre service in shops, restaurants, by Government departments, municipalities and yes, our sporting teams.
The process by which this happens is unfortunatelty a process not unlike cancer slowly creeping through the body undetected. By the time it’s discovered, the corrective action is painful and drawn out.
I sincerely hope that the majority of readers here on RT read your article carefully and consisely, and that they think before posting nonsense in relation to the teams / Unions that they support.
As the saying goes, “There are non so blissfull as the ignorant”.
Guys, what morne is trying to say is, if you wanna be happy…
ditch your team and join the Bulls family 😆
Hi Ruda !!!
Scrum,
I have read for years now on many blogs and mediums how supporters believe they ‘own’ the game, or the team they support because of their emotional and financial (merchandise) investment in the unions (and also of course that rugby essentially is owned by clubs who own unions etc etc).
Well if that is the case, then people need to take ownership or responsibility of their ownership in it.
But yes it applies to a much broader sense than just rugby specifically in SA but I concentrated on rugby specifically.
Myself and TH and many others have been on about professionalism in sport for years now, and how I believe 90% of supporters live in a dreamworld and that in fact, we actually allow for all this continue.
Years back when Francoise Pienaar held a gun to Louis Luyt’s head and forced professionalism into the game Luyt then knew what many of us know now, that rugby becoming professional itself was not a mistake, it was inevitable, but how it was done meant that rugby did not take a step forward, but 15 steps back.
Luyt like most unions worldwide was forced to appoint or acknowledge the positions of many rugby administrators in crucial decision making positions in unions who for the most part, were/are ex-civil servants who has/have no clue how to run a multi-million rand sports franchise.
It is my believe that rugby will run a 25 year cycle before we actually see a shift from amateur administration in the sport, to professional – and again not only in SA, but worldwide.
And yes you rightly mention that it is not the players, or not their fault, they operate within the structures provided to them and if that induces or compliments an amateur approach to the game, then that is what you will get.
It is why I feel sorry for a Pedrie, or even a Solly T. These guys suddenly found themselves in an environment where they are celebrities, where they have lots of money, but received zero guidance on how to conduct themselves or their affairs.
Rugby for the most part in SA (and worldwide) was and is being run by individuals (amateurs) forced into positions (professional) to which they were not qualified to handle or manage.
I find it ironic that the only privately owned franchise, SWD, who became privately owned under Stag Cronje, an ex-banker (who at least knows something about money and working with it) has now been fired/suspended (by the amateur arm of the union) and are embroiled in court cases because their way of life (amateurism / read gravytrain) is threatened.
There is a place for the amateur values and ethics in rugby to remain, but not at the expense of becoming professional. Golf, an amateur sport controlled by amateurs is arguably the best example of how a sport can become one of the most played, most watched, richest sports in the world operating fully professional, with the core of its amateur values still in tact.
Hehe, ja Blouste!
Morne @ 4
It would be interesting to do a comparison between Rugby League administration (probably Australia) and Rugby Union here in SA to see where the fundemental differences lie.
I actually know a club chairman who was previously a player and later administrator at a League club in the UK. Maybe he could shed some light. Mind you he has a very low regard for our local Union’s capabilities.
Good day Morne, Scrumdown.
You guys have said it all.
It all begins and ends in the boardroom.
You just have to look at Hoskins to understand that!!
What particularly bothers me is the bigger unions [Sharks and WP] who are apathetic with their mediocre performances.
Loose,
This article was originally written with the Sharks as the subject matter.
I for one think there is nothing wrong with the supporters rugby culture in Durban. Lions have a problem though.
Flok Morne,
Jy praat baie ma se niks….
Jokes
Nee wat manne, moenie oor die haaie komkommer nie, hulle en hul supporters makeer niks. Julle verstaan net nie die haaie se kultuur nie, so bepaal julle maar eerder met julle eie spanne en hul kulture.
Scrum down,well said,you summed it up perfectly,everybody needs to stand together and accept mediocrity.. Not only in sport but with service delivery in general..
Snoek,
This was actually not a dig at Shark supporters… Anything but.
Maybe read it again and imagine yourself as a Bulls supporter 😉
Dit is waansinnig om te dink die game behoort aan ons, dit doen nie. Die regering het die game lankal van ons weggevat. Wys my die ou wat ‘n verskil in SA kan maak.
Nee wat, ons verbeel ons net dat die game aan ons behoort.
Jy klink amper soos n klomp regse mense wat ek ken wat alle kak wat met ons gebeur op die regering blameer, maar ek lees jou posts al van lankal af so ek weet dis nie waar nie.
Excuse me if I switch to English…
I could remind you on how organisations like Amnesty International was created – but it would mean little…
The reality is, we do own the game, we just do not realise it or actually give a shit about it.
If this game meant nothing to us, why bother going to stadiums, watching on TV or even commenting on blogs like this?
Without us, the game would not exist, but I do agree, our idea currently of ownership is warped, which essentially is what this article was all about.
I am unfortunately calling ti a night here.
I reckon it is about 25 degrees out at 21:00 at night which makes for a nice cocktail and some good steak.
Night all.
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