Springboks and management made a lot of enemies in SANZAR lately. None more so than the writer of the following article. Spiro Zavos was always a critic of South Africa and after this last 3 weeks we gave him all the fuel he needed.
The loose cannon of world rugby is not the gregarious Brendan Cannon, a Fox Sports commentator, but the Springboks and their coach, Peter de Villiers.
It is now an infamous rugby incident that Cannon was required by the Springboks to apologise for calling de Villiers a ”clown”. Fox Sports was wrong to force Cannon to grovel.
De Villiers and the Springboks are not just clowns, they are dangerous clowns. Their attacks on referees, their refusal to accept the laws of the game or the just punishments handed their thuggish players, their abuse of other coaches and the absurd claim of a conspiracy against the Springboks are part of a sinister attempt to undermine the best elements of modern rugby.
This sinister attack is inflaming Springboks supporters to unacceptable levels of paranoia. Even more importantly, the attack is a direct challenge to changes in the way the tackled ball is refereed. These changes represent the best reform since the introduction of the ”use-it-or-lose-it” principle.
The Springboks want a return to the negative game that rewarded kicking sides and punished sides trying to run the ball.
From being the dominant side in world rugby, the Springboks have become (out of South Africa, at least) an ordinary side. On Saturday night they were decisively beaten on points (literally and metaphorically) by a Wallabies side that smashed them at the breakdown and refused to kick away the ball. The Wallabies kicked 11 times (which must be something of a record in minimalist kicking) and the Springboks 16 times. This high-octane, ball-in-play style was too fast for the monster pack and the ”might is right” system of the Springboks.
After the thrashing they complained about being unfairly penalised at the rucks. They have a policy of illegally diving across the ball at rucks. At Brisbane, it was noticeable how many times Springboks tacklers ended up at the back of the Wallaby ruck where they interfered with Will Genia’s clearances.
The yellow card given to BJ Botha was offered by the Springboks as proof the conspiracy exists. This is nonsense. Slow-motion vision shows Botha deliberately plonking his body over the ball to kill it before cynically raising his arms as if to suggest he had got there by accident.
The Springboks just don’t get it. They insist they won’t change their game to take into account the realities of rugby in 2010. So they are deliberately trying to undermine the new interpretations. The hope is, presumably, that the IRB might restore the kick/pressure/penalty game that was so favourable to them. The IRB must stand firm against this recalcitrance. In my view, if the Springboks get away with their Justice4Boks campaign, the cause of entertaining, skilful, running rugby will be put back years.
This brings us to the Wallabies-All Blacks matches in Melbourne and Christchurch in the next two weeks, to be refereed by South Africans. During the Super 14 tournament, South African referees sometimes were, in a word offered by a New Zealand rugby writer, ”generous” in their decisions in favour of South African sides. For these Tri Nations Tests, though, and the others in South Africa, we want the IRB standard that encourages open rugby, not the Springboks standard that thwarts it.
hugs @ 30
i know hugs, i just know
Husband: “When you die, I’m getting you a headstone that reads, ‘Here lies my wife, Cold as Ever’.”
Wife: “Yeah? Yours will read, ‘Here lies my husband. Stiff at last!’ “.
i got this new deodorant today, the instructions said remove cap and push up bottom, i can barely walk but whenever i fart the room smells awesome!!
@ Ashley:
😆@ Ashley: 😆
We are off the pace.
Rest senior players.
Get consensus amongst the coaches and PDV to please stop being negative.
Vary the game plan slightly, but stick to it and execute it properly.
Work hard on perfecting plan B, just in case we need to bring it out.
We dont have to reinvent the wheel.
The guy who wrote this article hates the Boks and he wont change..let him get on with it, shut them up where it counts…on the playing field.
Dont ask me what plan B is, I’m not the expert, but it does involve a better centre pairing. All we have to do if they are countering our kicking game, is to switch to a running game…in the same match…it will bamboozle them. But we must continue to dominate set pieces and we must get better at the breakdown.
so these few things
100% effort.
Better breakdown ball.
Dont kick all the time if we arent getting it right, but call for a switch.
In the old days we would kill them up front and in the last 15 minutes run at them and we relied on fitness…everyone is equally fit these days…the Boks are currently jaded that is all.
For those who read my post wrong; I never said the I don’t like Bulls rugby or whatever. The Bulls made me a very pride South African this year in the S14 by retaining the cup. And, although I am a Stormer supporter, I said that even the Stormers play kick and chase rugby these days. The Bulls played better running rugga in the final with a higher intensity than the Stormers and for that they were rewarded and they win the trophy.
The Bulls play their pattern and game plan and it works for them, good.
The Bokke try to play the Bulls game plan and pattern because of Victor Matfield’s influence as I understand and this year it didn’t work (shall we say so far).
The Bokke will ALWAYS be a mix of more than one union so they must develop their OWN game plan.
So SuperBul, you never say something tongue in cheeck, but I’m sorry, their will not be 22 Bulls in the team, you wish. Bissie is miles better than Gary Botha and I even think Tiaan is slightly better than Gary Botha, just to name an example.
You see I don’t shy away from admitting and acknowledging the good Bulls players, you unfortunately cannot do the same.
I want to see a Bok team representing the best SA has to offer with their own game plan that keeps ahead of time, like a good business would do.
@11 McLook:
Very good summary, well said.
@ Boerboel:
i know at least NO one else reckons that i want 22 Bulls in a Bok team.
My name must be changed, that bit that says Bul blinds you. So much i say is tongue in the cheek, you wont believe it.
Sometimes i just rattle the cage and wait to see witch animals respond.
RugbyGuru had this to say on his blog
Our existing woes are made worse by a manager under pressure. You know yourself when things are going well everybody is on board and have a united front. Now consider some possible scenario’s the coach persists with Ricky January suddenly the Bulls feel that Hougaard should be playing – Habana is half the player he was but where he was once supported by the Bulls players he is now a stormer. Stormers start to feel that Bakkies is a liability compared to Bekker. The team dynamic is being eroded – when last did John Smit the Springbok captain openly comment on aspects such as discipline dynamics etc and John is no fool he knows the side is falling apart.
Dont ever underestimate the provincialism it becomes an issue when we are under pressure – This Bok side is in disarray and while its easy to say that Spies for example is not at his best is that because he has lost it or because the dynamic with Schalk and Louw is different. Do you think the Bulls in the Bok side believe that Louw is better than Potgieter? The Bulls were better at the breakdown in the S14 final than the Stormers but the Stormers loosies are selected – its not a problem when we are winning but when we lose then human nature kicks in.
Victories unite a team but defeats tear it apart, My point on Div is under these circumstances it is critical that we have a coach who is strong and decisive but he has other problems.
So to answer your question I say this – I dont think we know how good we really are. Seriously this Bok side should win 90% of the games it plays. BUT – politics, provincialism, individual egos whatever is actually destroying the team dynamic.
Superbul, I agree, Politics, provincialism and mainly ego’s are the source of the problem.
When your ego doesn’t allow acceptance of any form of criticism, things won’t change.
There is some humility required by the coach and his senior players. It is now time for the “leaders” to stand up and unite the squad. Question, Who will it be?
goodmorning everyone
..
see that quade cooper’s appeal has failed … see also that their appeal was based on the fact that both jfourie and jdevilliers missed/misses only one test
whilst
their golden boy will miss 2 tests!!
…
poor souls … life can be soooooooooo unfair!!
ashley @ 41
see that an interesting picture has been shown in a few aus newspapers … showing the all blacks’ gameplan! according to the aus coaching staff, they wont even have a second look at that picture, cause its only “training notes”.
😀 lying b*stards, they will definately have a good look at that,
…
now
thing is … i’ve never seen ghenry or any other coach for that matter walk onto the training pitch with such a plan and THAT with photographers around
…
the notes btw, shows the all blacks planning to attack gitau’s channel
but
whats the odds that ghenry wants the aussies to think that way?
maybe to enable them to attack wider?
the photographer btw is a nzealander!!
..
hmmmm, conspiracy theorists of the world unite? 😆
@ Ashley:
Morning Ashley, i am worried about Sharky moveing up to Cape Town, i dont want you Stormer and WP boys trying to corrupt him by encourageing him to prance around on the beach in a pink g-string. Your ways are not our (SHARK) ways.
hugs @ 43
😆 😆 😆
good one!!
@ Ashley:
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