The true measure of any coach is what he falls back on when the chips are down.
There is no denying passion and pride plays a massively important role in rugby, and for the most part clichés like ‘having your back against the wall’, or ‘we are at our most dangerous when written off’ are usually confined to the media which is why I pay little attention to it, but when I hear these words uttered by coaches I get extremely worried.
It was a statement from Boks scrumming coach, Os du Randt which caught my attention. He made the statement following the shocking defeat to Scotland over the weekend where the Boks will be looking to use the ‘hurt’ they are currently feeling or experiencing as a motivating factor against England.
With all due respect to the big man, what wins you matches in rugby union at all levels, is using the top 3 inches of the human anatomy, not bravado.
There is an old saying I live by; “Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your biggest fears to come true”.
In my mind, the Springboks are wrapped in fear right now.
The last thing the Springboks need at this time is emotional baggage. Emotion drains you, it makes you lose perspective on matters and it makes you base or make decisions you will never make under normal circumstances.
Building up to the Currie Cup final this year I mentioned that the most important thing for Plumtree was to get his players in the right headspace for the finals. It was a similar warning I made regarding the Bulls prior to the semi-finals where I said that although they are favourites for many reasons, the headspace they found themselves in was concerning.
De Villiers and his management sits in a similar boat this week.
To beat England, you have to out-think England – and that basically goes for any team you are up against.
This Springbok team on paper is good enough to beat any team in the world, but they will not do it on passion, rather brains.
I will refer to another article I wrote in the lead up to the Currie Cup semi-final between the Sharks and the Blue Bulls, and that was called ‘Ugly does it’, and made reference that a win, even ugly (but meticulously planned), is as good as winning by 60 points.
And this is exactly what the Springboks need to take into the game against England.
Pride and passion comes because of winning, not losing.
That is just it Morne.
I have been beating this drum over and over again.
At the highest level we are being out thought.
We do not have the rugby intellect in our coaching to beat the brains of a Deans or a Henry consistently.
These coaches know that and have moved ahead.
Pride and passion are not an extra tactic that we bring to every game, they are a given at international level.
Until we have a coach who has the rugby intellect to match or beat other international coaches, we are just treading water and occasionally winning a game.
We are our own worst enemies. Graham Henry still regards us as his toughest opponents. And so too Deans. We fight like hell against our own team. We are right there in GH’s face with 4 wins against his 5 against us. It was bloody close or we won the game in Soweto, that would have made it 5/4in our favor.
England 260
Australia 25/0 (7.0 ov)
Australia trail by 235 runs with 10 wickets remaining in the 1st innings
Stumps – Day 1
@ superBul:
The game is evolving.
The past does not matter.
How we are playing today and how we will play in the future is important.
Right now the All Blacks are playing a game that is better than us.
We have to change that.
We can do that quicker than we think with the right leadership.
We cannot do it with the current leadership.
I am proudly South African and support the Boks always.
I believe they will beat England on Saturday.
However that will not change the fact that we are not evolving fast enough.
I am so vocal about this because I cannot accept that we should be out thought and out played by the All Blacks!!
The only reason why we are behind is because of the management and coaching of our team.
tight head wrote:
For all the years i watched Springbok rugby we played this way , i am watching the game for about 45 years, whether i understood it for that long is debatable. Now you want the doffest coach in most peoples eyes to change it???
When he tried to play the expansive game and said he wanted to get 60 Springbok quality players he was heavily criticized.
Our outdated game plan is feared by other teams, believe me.
tight head wrote:
That i why i was so furious with the bloody favoritism shown by the refs towards the AB’s. Look call me anything , we can not change the results but we was robbed of a chance to finally pass them in the win ratio. The facts are there for all to see on videos, it is the truth we could have won games that was gifted to them. That makes me so de moer in, PdeV is laughed at but the facts is on TV. We just cant stand behind our man.
@ superBul:
PDV cannot change.
That is why he must go.
It is a mistake for us to simply see the game plan as a choice between our kicking game and an expansive game.
This is just the point that we don’t seem to get.
The modern game is much more than those outdated simply choices.
It all starts with supreme conditioning and player skills like never seen before.
Then it is about decision making, posession and execution at top pace for 80 minutes.
For PDV or anyone else to simply see the modern game as tight, kicking or expansive is part of the problem.
The modern game is ALL of the above, but done with good decision making and the points I have made above.
Like i said we feel diferent about PdeV. I have not written him off.
Lets talk about Saturdays game.
I am worried that we are playing a injured Beast. I am happy that Pierre Spies is back, think he was missed last Saturday.
backs
Scrumhalves- Either one would be good, the thing that i feel must be sorted out is who runs the game , who is the pivot. I would say that they must reinstate Morne Steyn as the decision maker. Ruan can not do the kicking and Morne the same. OK sometimes the no 9 must do it but we must try passing the ball more to a player with a better vision of the game. Naas would not accept this situation.
Jean is a problem too. Nothing coming from him, how we miss Juan and WO. Frans is just as useless at outside center. I would have liked Zane there , he did well in his first test there. Off course we must make a place for Gio so he will be wing and then i would have tried Lambie at 15. No place for FS in the starting 15. great bench player?
@ superBul:
Super, I have been impressed with the scrumming of our front row and I think that Beast and Jannie are working very well together.
Jannie is now starting to look like a competent tight head and this comes with age and experience.
I agree with you about the half backs.
I think the centres are a mess and Frans looks terrible!!
I am quite close to the Lambie situation and would only like to see him play fly half and in that sense he should be under Morne.
I do not think England are world beaters and if we play the right game in the conditions I am confident that we can beat them.
I also hope that we are mentally right for this game, if not we will get a klap!!
@ tight head:
TH
When and If the AB’s out think us and prove tactically more advanced than us I can accept. The New Zealanders have always been at the forefront of adapting and advancing Rugby Union to new levels.
But when we are out thought by SCOTLAND, and potentially England (on Saturday), it really must start the alarm bells ringing in the SARU offices.
Let’s face it, Northern Hemisphere (and more particularly the Home Unions) Rugby has not exactly moved with the tactical times, perhaps due to weather / pitch conditions for much of the year, and is still very much forward grind dominated. A tactical approach condoned and encouraged for the most part by their top coaches.
The Premiership this year is a good example with low scoring, almost boring matches. (At least the ones I’ve watched.)
So, why have we regressed? Because Scotland have certainly not evolved IMO.
@ Scrumdown:10 – Scrumdown, Very good question. Why have we regressed? With two of our teams being in the S14 final, how did it get to this? One would have thought Boks would dominate against opposition.
The Boks since the Tri-Nations have been just terrible and now on the eoyt we have been actually worse, just rubbish and we are playing teams that are not at the level of AB’s or Wallabies. Forget the games we won against Ireland and Wales. We never played good rugby there either and only just, just mangaged to hold onto a win. Then we go and lose to the Scots. Can’t see us beat England, if we do it wont be great rugby either, probably by a point or two, but think England will beat us. We hardly looked like WC Champs, very far from it.
Could our injured players make a difference? I think not if we keep up this kinda rugby we playing. Can it be our gameplan? Coaches? Cause I fail to see how we can get two teams in the final in the S14 and fail with the Boks.
I
@ Puma:11 – typo meant managed.
@ Scrumdown:
Exactly right.
We have gone backwards faster than we realize.
I don’t think England are great and did not think much of Ireland or Wales.
Scotland should never beat us.
The All Blacks have won comfortably in the NH and done it playing entertaining rugby despite the conditions.
Before you even begin to talk about game plan and tactics on the day, we appear to not have their conditioning, pace and skills.
These are the very basic building blocks which we should consider non negotiable.
Puma wrote:
Puma why not , think of it this way. We have The Beast as impact player available because G Steenkamp is there, 50 full out work by Gurthro followed by The Beast.
We have Andries Bekker to rest Victor a bit.
We have Brussow, Danie Roussouw and Schalk to add to Alberts, Juan, Spies and then in a lesser degree Dewald Potgieter, Stegman, Kanko….
Fourie du Preez relieved by Januarie(laugh at what is coming my way now) and then Hougaard and Ruan.
Butch is also there
Our best centers are at home JF, JdeJ and WO. Our most experienced Wings are all at home , JPP, Odwa and Habana. ……..
Really i can not understand the panic.
@ superBul:
And the most experienced captain awaits. I think that JS must be more a mentor in the squad but imagine him there to be followed by Bismarck.
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