Rugby is a highly emotionally driven medium, but Springbok coach Peter de Villiers will do well to apply some sober thinking as he plans to fix what has gone wrong in the last 10 months.
We have heard from just about every expert in just about every field of what the possible cause for the problems are Springbok rugby has experienced since to European tour in 2009, but like going through the birth of your first child and learning from your mistakes as a parent, Peter de Villiers will be well served to take note of all the advice and opinions, but only take forward what he will need to be a more successful coach from now to the World Cup.
As a first-time parent you are flooded with information and opinions from anyone or anything who regards themselves as an expert in the field of parenting. Of course not really knowing what you are doing at first, you try and read and listen as much to guys out there but you also quickly figure out that only certain aspects of parenting apply to you and your child, and although there are some hits and misses in those initial months and years, you pretty much know and trust yourself to know what the best way forward is for both of you.
As far as metaphors go this is about as close as to what I can imagine De Villiers is feeling right now albeit him being the stepfather in this instance ‘adopting’ Jake White’s baby.
You want to be the best you can be for your ‘baby’ and do all the right things but you are also very consciously aware that not all tips and information applies so much to you and that sometimes, the risk of doing the not so nice things now will pay dividends in the near future which means you have to bear and grunt through the bad times knowing it is for the greater good of your ‘baby’.
Emotionally De Villiers has invested quite a lot in certain individuals when he started out, in many ways those investments paid off but since this baby, the Springboks, have grown and matured he also has to be very honest with himself if those same individuals and investments applies to his child which has now grown and matured a bit in the last 3 years.
These investments include his support staff as much as it does certain players and given where this team finds itself now, Peter will do well to honestly assess if those individuals still add the value, or are as necessary as they were in those initial months and years he took charge.
I also figured out with my own son that as he grew older I could not let him get away with as much as I did in those initial months and years and as he got more mature and wise, I had to be more disciplined with him.
This could also very much apply to Peter and the Springboks to not only make him become a better father or coach, but also let his babies or players benefit from a much harder stance and more disciplined environment to ensure they also develop.
As with your child, you will never be able to totally detached emotion from your method of guidance and parenting, and the same applies with rugby. For a sport so driven by emotion it is one of the key ingredients of the game but it also should never override logic and the obvious no matter how tough it sometimes is or will be.
Now is the time for Peter to take away those freedoms and toys he allowed his ‘baby’ in those initial years and introduce mediums, objects and a more disciplined environment to stimulate this team to better things and not allow them to become stuck and limited to all those things that works for a 1-year-old team.
Pretty soon when it comes to being schooled, he will realise that his ‘baby’ already 4 years old still has the mind and mindset of a 1-year-old and that all his friends has moved on leaving him behind to join the ‘Sonskyn’ class, and no tantrums or fighting will be able to allow him to catch up to his peers.
Being a parent like being a coach is tough, you don’t always get it right, but the reward of seeing your baby or team grow and mature makes all those tough times and tough calls you had to make worthwhile.
All this makes the old cliché of not throwing the baby out with the bathwater take on a whole new meaning doesn’t it?
“don’t tell me the sky’s the limit when there’s footprints on the moon”
@ J.M.E.: lol ja
28@ bos_otter:
Flok, dink net wat sou met Selebi daar in N-Korea gebeur het…. eina, flok!
@ grootblousmile: Yip….hulle sou hom seker voor n vuurpeleton plaas….of stretch met perde 🙂
Guys, the important factor here is this.
No one, not even PDV and his assistant coaches can deny the fact that they are being out thought, outwitted and outplayed.
A player such a Heinrich Brussouw was brilliant in his first season as fetcher, but when does he become great? Only when he can prove in successive seasons once his opponents know him, that he is still effective.
PDV should have already started last year, as Morne says 10 months ago, to show what he can offer or improve to SA rugby.
As much as i am trying to support him and be positive, he is making it damn hard to do.
33 ja wonder of hy ooit gaan sit, R20 000 bail en leave to appeal hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
#35 that being said, I wondered in “my onkunde” why PDV didn’t replace Brussow with another fetcher like stegman? It rather baffled my small mind!!!!
Tripples, I can only assume he doesn’t have enough technical knowledge to reason that way.
The same principal applies to his combinations.
You have Jean de Villiers who has been our number 1 inside center, but he plays wing.
You have Juan de Jongh who has been a very solid combination with Jaque fourie.
So these would be my first logical choices.
But he goes for Wynand Olivier.
It just doesn’t make sense.
ons raak nou al hoe verder en verder agter NZ…
http://www.irb.com/rankings/full.html
My sentiments exactly, trying to be too fancy, rather stick to the tried and trusted combos and just perfect their interplay
@ biltongbek:
PdV think he must play Christmas Father, remember in year 1 he gave a lot of WP players Bok colours because they did well in the first part of the S14, last year and this year also to other players. Sort of reward for their good S14 play. Well he said that in so many words.
But that is where he is wrong , rather pick combinations. The Sharks does not help him, they play everyone wherever they find a gap.
So in other words raiseing a child is much like training an animal lolololol and coaching a rugby team 😆 :Lol: 😆
Oh and good post Puma
so what needs to be done is this, send the bok team to me i will have them behaveing and fit in no time.
@ Puma:Puma, to me, its one simple thing….combinations and style of play…a Stormers and a Bulls or Sharks player will not automatically play well together as they are schooled in different styles of play and game plans. PDV has got a lot to do…not least being that he should get the team together 3 months before the world cup and sort out the combinations finally. With the combinations played in the NH tests and the last 3 tests, there hasnt been consistency in playing players together. Now the Sharks have the habit of playing people in different positions and its about versatility, but for some players it clearly doesnt work…eg Ruan, he hasnt been happy for some time now…so one also has to find the balance. But at this moment in time I could not tell you who the Bok coach is going to select in the backrow and the back line, because it is inconsistent….this screws up players heads no question.
It sometimes seem to me the only way PDV has a chance to get the right combinations is when players are injured and he has no choice.
Miskien moet hulle maar bietjie die dolosse gooi en hoor wat die bene te se het….mens weet nooit 🙂
Die dolosse!!!!! ha ha ha….nee wat, lets leave the witchdocotors out of this….there are already enough “cooks”
Flok, jy’t n’ beter kans om die dice by n’ casino te gooi en hoop jy wen iets.
Then just before coach Frans Ludeke walked out to face the media the news came through that errant lock Flip van der Merwe had only received a “strong warning” for a wayward punch in last weekend’s game against the Lions.
Jis maar dit is stil hier vandag…kom ons start a fight of iets sodat ons so bietjie lewe in forum kan inblaas
50@ bos_otter:
Bosse, druk jou kop in jou hol… dan fight jy vir asem…. hehehe
@ 4man:44 – 4man, Have to agree you spot on there. Selection is key like we all know too well. Now without our 6 players that were missing we need to have selected far better.
Did WO, Flo, Zane, Ricky (JdV on wing and Danie at 4) fit in well? I think not. None of them really. So in comes JdV at 12, De Jongh at 13 (Fourie still has a ban for the ABs game) Hougaard at scrummie (Ruan out injured) Juan back at 7 and JPP back on wing, Flip at 4 and Frans Steyn has to be brought back for FB. I think there would be a massive difference with those players playing. We miss Brussow the most and FdP. Spies will play a lot better too with a out and out fetcher. So I would have played Stegmann but think he is injured. So why not Botes or Deysel there? They both fetch a damn lot better than Burger. Burger to the bench. He had a brilliant S14 but not doing well with the Boks. Flo for me is not quite there yet for the Boks. Was not impressed with him in the Boks, but was very impressed with him during the S14.
The team has to be training for a much longer period together too. You are correct there. Though last year we slotted in far better. Was it cause there were more Sharks than in the Boks team last year than Stormers???? …hehehehehe 😀 (Only joking Stormer supporters..LOL) Well we did win just about everything last year.
These players are also tired phyically and mentally. After the Tri-Nations they all need to take a rest and NO cc for any of them.
@ grootblousmile:nee dankie GBS…met my paar ore kry ek my kop nooit weer daaruit nie 🙂
Puma, I think Deysel is a lot more physical than Botes. I we want Pierre Spies to perform better, we need will need to up the physicality in the back row.
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