Where does one begin, in 2009 PDV led his charges to a series win over the Lions and to the Tri Nations trophy, during this time there was a lot of criticism for the way they played and also a couple of controversial issues raised in regards to on the field “fouls” commited by Schalk Burger (alleged eye gouge), Bakkies Botha (clearing out the ruck with no arms), this continued into 2010 with Bakkies Botha (head butt) once again in the frame. There were also a number of spear tackles which saw Jean de Villiers and Jaque Fourie receive bans for these dangerous tackles.
During this period South Africa received 7 yellow cards and only had 3 yellow cards by opposing teams.
Prior to the Autumn internationals in November 2009 PDV had a win rate of 75%, since then he has played 13 tests and only won 5 of which 3 has been against Italy bringing his win percentage to 30% against first tier opposition.
His win percentage has dropped to 63% in the last year and is slowly becoming worse by the match.
Below are his results against major opposition since the Tri Nations in 2009.
South Africa 13 France 20 Toulouse 13 November 2009
South Africa 10 Ireland 15 Croke Park 28 November 2009
South Africa 34 Wales 31 Millenium Stadium 5 June 2010
South Africa 42 France 17 Newlands 12 June 2010
South Africa 12 New Zealand 32 Auckland 10 July 2010
South Africa 17 New Zealand 31 Wellington 17 July 2010
South Africa 13 Australia 30 Brisbane 24 July 2010
South Africa 22 New Zealand 29 Johannesburg 21 August 2010
South Africa 44 Australia 31 Pretoria 28 August 2010
South Africa 39 Australia 41 Bloemfontein 4 September 2010
It is clear to see the wheels have come off, and there seems to be no one around to fix it.
The most obvious reason is the players who have not been available due to injuries, bans, compassionate leave and residency permits.
But the question is how much of this can be put down to these unavailable players because most of the new players that were tested over the winter can be commended for playing well enough in the international arena, Juan de Jongh, Francois Hougaardt, Gio Aplon, Francois Louw, Flip van der Merwe have all done enough to prove that they are worthy to wear the Green and Gold.
It is true that indiscipline has cost us, but then again South Africa has proven under the tenure of Jake White that they have improved their disciplinary record and did shake off the bully tag and had been complimented on their on field and off the field behaviour as ambassadors for South Africa after their world cup success in 2007.
Why then have we gone back to the ill disciplined and dirty play that Jake White has worked so hard to eradicate? Is it down to frustration, or perhaps unhappiness in the dressing room that no one is permitted to make public? Is it perhaps just down to the individuals themselves?
The next issue that has been branded about many times is the inability of South Africa to change the way they play, we have often in the past year been kicking possession away only to be attacked from deep and rather often due to our visibly poor defensive structures leaked very soft tries.
In just the last two matches we conceded 8 tries within the first 30 minutes of the first half, only to then start controlling possession and coming back scoring well worked tries by keeping ball in hand.
The real question here is how can the Springboks be so incredibly poor in one half only to outscore their opponents in such a manner that they have complete control, but then have the ability to simply switch off and revert back to school boy errors and inept defence.
My summation is that this team is poorly coached, their technical deficiencies are clear for everyone to see, they simply do not show cohesiveness in the way they attack the rucks and mauls. Their communication is woefully inept, there combinations work in stops and starts and overall as competent as they can look one minute they can be completely outplayed the next.
They seem lethargic during the match and do not look match fit, their concentration levels seem to dip and rise inconsistently and in International rugby this inconsistency is punished severely.
Player management seems absent to say the least and players who are completely out of form continue to run on to the field with what must surely be very low confidence.
It is fair to say that South African rugby is falling behind and has shown very little or no progress at all in the past twelve months.
Being a Springbok supporter becomes very hard when there is no proof or reason to believe in the effectiveness of the management team, and I for one is now advocating that PDV, Dick Muir and Gary Gold seem to be completely out of their depth and should there for be removed.
There is not much time left to turn this sinking ship around and if anyone is going to be brave enough to make changes, now is the time.
Political correctness aside, it is time to appoint coaching staff that will have the ability to make the hard decisions, remove those players who are hanging in there because of their past glories and reputations, and bring a fresh perspective on a flailing game plan.
The simple fact is, this coaching team and players is not going to win a world cup, there is no doubt in my mind that if we continue with the status quo, we will come back with our tails between our legs and write this part of Springbok history in very small print on the back page of our rugby annals, to be forgotten and never to be remembered.
I know this is drastic, but we might as well accept that even though change may not bring us the desired result next year, at least it will bring back hope to this passionate Springbok supporter.
Puma wrote:
Wonder if Paddy will punish that assistant Ref
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@ superBul:31 – Super,
Don’t think anything will happen to the Assistant Ref. Nothing ever really does. Also watching “All Out Rugby” They don’t even mention it??????????????????? Why do we have a show like that? When we the rugby lovers are waiting to see if they picked up on mistakes like that?? So if they don’t don’t expect anything will happen with that. Though if it was a world cup those decisions will cost teams huge. Or any big tourney if you only needed a win from it. Refs have to be scrutinised far more than they are. We want the best and only the best from them will do. Remember the forward pass in the ABs/Bok game at FNB that never got picked up? Well those sort of things by refs should be picked up. Use the technology if we must but let us pick up all the mistakes and have a far more fair game.
ABs went out of the 1/4 of the last world cup cause of a Ref error too. Just not good enough in a huge tourney like that.
@ Puma:
Puma, I agree that line out was illegal, did not go 5 metres. I think it was Pocock who was throwing in. So the refs missed that. On watching the game again they also missed a neck tackle by Peterson on Cooper & some stamping by Hougaard on Burgess which led to a minor handbag incident. I can understand the field ref missing some things but both assistant refs too? Why have them if they don’t do their job? Or was the field ref ignoring their calls? Barnes is inclined to miss too many calls IMO but then I’m English & biased. 🙂
This must be scary, i have never felt a earthquake in my life. I dont mind , i will miss that one, please.
AS THE All Blacks arrived in Sydney yesterday for Saturday’s Bledisloe Test, they made no attempt to camouflage the horror that those among them experienced in the Christchurch earthquake.
The quake, which measured 7.1 on the Richter scale, struck Christchurch in the early pre-dawn hours of Saturday. Eight players in the 27-man squad are from Christchurch: Corey Flynn, Ben Franks, Owen Franks, Richie McCaw, Kieran Read, Brad Thorn, Sam Whitelock and Colin Slade. All of them made the trip to Sydney, as did their Auckland-based head coach Graham Henry, whose 94-year-old mother lives in Christchurch and also survived unscathed.
But All Blacks assistant coach Steve Hansen and some team management staff from the South Island city did not arrive due to the extensive damage on their houses. They are due to arrive in Sydney today.
Read says the ordeal won’t disrupt the All Blacks before a match that will take their unbeaten run of Tests to 15 should they win – added to the Bledisloe Cup and Tri Nations titles that are already theirs.
“I don’t think it will be a distraction. A lot of the guys have gone through it,” the back-rower said yesterday. “It’s nice to talk about it and I know it’s a lot scarier for the guys with kids at home, especially us with partners. It’s scary, but I suppose you just have to get on with it. You think it’s not going to strike twice, so that’s probably the feeling we have got now.”
Read, who lives near the city centre in Richmond with his wife Bridget, who is six months pregnant, said their house had little damage.
But he described the quake as: “pretty freaky experience, pretty terrifying. So we just popped under a doorway and tried to ride it out.
“The house was moving a lot. We were calm and quiet. But when it stops you kind of realise how big it was. Because it was still dark, it was hard. It wasn’t until the sun came up that we realised it was a pretty big thing. Because the power was out, [it was not] until we heard from family up in Auckland that it was a pretty massive earthquake.”
Read smiled when he said his wife was the one he looked to to understand the gravity if the situation. “She is a geography major and kind of knows about these sorts of things,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t know if that was a good thing because she was pretty scared. A lot of people went outside right away, but we felt safe under the doorway and wanted to stay there. She moved like a cat. She was pretty quick. I was just following her.”
Did he question leaving her in Christchurch while he flew to Sydney?
“The aftershocks weren’t as heavy as they maybe could have been,” he said. “The big issue is the water and the fact we don’t have clean water and the sewerage. She is going to have a cousin come and stay so it worked out fine for me to come over.”
Slade, called into the squad in the absence of five-eighth Dan Carter, who is having an operation, said the house that he and his partner Emma share in St Albans, also near the city centre, sustained damage that included the chimney falling off.
He said seeing the devastation “was like that movie ‘2012’, going out there … police everywhere, everyone just walking around. There were cracks and water spurting up through the ground.”
Die dag wanneer die Bokke ‘n afrigting en bestuurspan kry wat beplan om ELKE toets te speel en te wen asof dit die WB finaal is, dan sal ons weer vorentoe gaan.
Al wen ons volgende jaar die WB (hoogs onwaarskynlik, maar ‘n mens droom), maak dit in my oë nie op vir al die sirkus kaskenades wat ons die jare tussen die WB jare moet deurgaan nie.
Ek sal graag weer ‘n afrigter daar wil sien wat nie net WB koors het nie, maar elke jaar die beste wil wees, soos die AB’s die afgelope 15 jaar ons oorheers (behalwe vir ‘n hick up hier en daar).
Nee wat, ons mense is blind vir hoe sleg ons eintlik vaar teenoor die AB’s. Tot en met 1995 was ons die beste rugbyland in die wêreld, en was ons nog die AB’s se baas. Daarna het die politiek oorgeneem, en die res is geskiedenis: die AB’s het in tussen ons omtrent seker 15 keer meer gewen as verloor, as dit nie meer is nie ? En, as ons hul wen, dan is dit met ‘n gesukkel, hulle wen ons gereeld te gemaklik, bonuspunt drieë by dosyne.
As jy uit ‘n gat wil kom … moet jy eers besef hoe diep jy in die gat is, en dit lyk vir my ons bok afrigtingspan en sommige senior spelers is nou in die ontkenningsfase van rugby depressie.
Gelukkig ‘begin’ die CB nou weer, en is daar weer iets om na uit te sien: wie gaan die spelers wees wat na 2011 met ‘n (hopelik goeie) nuwe afrigter ‘n dekade kan ingaan wat daarop gemik is om heeltyd die beste te wees, nie net so nou en dan nie.
@ bdb:
ek het my frome om volgende jaar die wereldbeker te wen op my maag geskryf, SARU is te slapgat om die regte ding te doen, dit is die probleem wanneer iemand aangestel word “nie vir rugby redes” nie.
Dit beteken dat as ons dan nou ook ons naam gat maak, en die trotse tradisie van Springboks rugby skade aan doen, dan is dit nou maar so, want SARu kan dan se hulle was polities korrek.
Ek is al so keelvol vir die inmenging in sport. Die Aussies en All Blacks lag lekker in hulle moue, want hulle is bewus van ons “handicap” en stilweg hoop hulle die status quo bly soos dit is.
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