Jake White cut a forlorn figure as he watched his troops getting slaughtered
Sorry, it doesn’t cut it for me to hear people state upon their crushing exit on Saturday from Super Rugby 2014: “Well done Sharks, at least you got to the Semis.”
If they are simply putting it in the context of their superior performance in relation to the other South African sides, my retort is “big deal”.
This was a year, after all, when the collective SA challenge was lamentably disappointing and our teams hogged the basement terrain on the overall table.
Sport24
So yes, the Sharks did punch way more effectively than the rest of the motley domestic bunch… but that’s only comparing them to the year’s rotten apples and bypassing the altogether shinier, Australasian-dominated ones.
Losing Semi-Finalists, and by a humbling margin to the Crusaders in Christchurch, is not a whole lot to write home about when doing a post mortem on a Jake White-coached team who were strongly fancied at the outset this year to be (still so importantly, as highlighted again) HOME Semi-Finalists at least and also potential Title-Winners.
They appeared to have the depth of personnel to fulfil that expectation: certainly they ended the eternally gruelling campaign with the vast majority of their biggest guns in the selection frame rather than sidelined by injury.
Instead the best that can be said, in White’s first year in charge – who knows if there’ll definitely be another from the fairly nomadic-minded character? – is that there was solid improvement on their 2013 effort when they ended eighth in John Plumtree’s final campaign, compared to this year’s third.
Sadly the Sharks just failed to get into the coveted, near-essential top two berths and there was probably some wisdom in the words on Twitter of a former Sharks stalwart in Ollie le Roux when he said they probably botched their assault in the damaging 27-20 defeat to the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein three weeks ago.
Fine margins can make big differences in this competition, although the Sharks were pace-setters for much of the ordinary season and just seemed to go painfully stale at critical times, especially toward the business end.
On that note, the general conservatism of their game-plan warrants intense scrutiny.
It is an undeniable fact, I think, that teams with a notably heavy emphasis on “suffocating” opponents, often being content not to actually have the ball and relying on tactical-kicking accuracy and the enemy’s mistakes, are yet to prosper in terms of the overall prize in Super Rugby – at least since it was greatly expanded and remodelled for the 2011 season onward.
Compatriots the Stormers, who for a couple of years were also used to occupying prime position on the overall log for significant spells, without eventually quite managing to go all the way to the silverware, are probably rueing retrospectively – especially with their ongoing, possibly associated catalogue of injury absenteeism – their low-risk, big-tackling game that didn’t help fill the trophy cabinet.
Super Rugby is not Test rugby, and perhaps fittingly so: a defence-geared approach can work in — and of course sometimes throughout — the nail-biting knockout phases of a World Cup, but it’s been shown to come up short to an increasing degree if you employ it too obsessively at the slightly lower tier of the game.
As the educated Brendan Venter reminded recently, the “strangulation” rather than ball-in-hand method does require peculiar levels of energy and precision, week after exhausting week for the many months of Super Rugby, to be successful.
Former Springbok coach Nick Mallett, not unusually, didn’t mince his words in the SuperSport studio on Saturday after the Sharks’s 6-38 Christchurch hiding: “The Sharks’ game-plan is flawed … it’s not attractive or successful.”
What you can say in White’s defence (and he’s won a World Cup the predominantly grinding way!) is that lamentable execution of intended plans by his charges wreaked havoc with their quest to advance to the showpiece.
In a nutshell, the Sharks’ accuracies in a variety of departments came up way short against the multi-layered, seven-time champions Crusaders for whom this was a 13th year on the bounce of semi-final presence at the very least.
The formula does, also, require a need for staying in touch on the scoreboard to be effective: if you start leaking points you will inevitably have to start scratching around for a Plan B that may not exist to any meaningful degree if your mindset is focused squarely in one way.
By the time the ‘Saders had powered in front by around 10 points even before the break, you just sensed there might be no coming back from the jet-lagged visitors and that things might even turn reasonably ugly: they did.
So, another year of South Africa coming up empty in the conference-styled Super Rugby, and a time for a widespread rethink — if coaches and other strategists are open-minded enough to acknowledge the need.
One silver lining is that several, severely flogged Boks in the Sharks’ ranks have an extra week’s rest before The Castle Rugby Championship…
Morning all RTs across the globe!
I went to bed rather despondently last night, but after having read this article in today’s ”Rapport” I feel hopeful about SA rugby again…it is good to know that SARU is doing something positive about the current state of our national sport, which as we witnessed yesterday against the Crusaders, is far from ideal.
(Apologies to our English bloggers.)
“Kwotaskok in skole
Eduan Roos en Hannes Nienaber
Minstens die helfte van die Suid-Afrikaanse skolespan móét vanjaar uit swart spelers bestaan en dié syfer sal aanhou toeneem.
Die Suid-Afrikaanse Rugbyunie (Saru) het glo verlede week opdrag gegee dat minstens 14 van die 28 spelers in dié span swart, bruin of Indiër moet wees. Dít net enkele dae voor ’n finale ronde van proewe gister in Kempton Park gehou is.
Volgens ingeligtes is dit die eerste keer dat dié kwota amptelik op skolevlak afgedwing word.
Keurders het gistermiddag vergader om die skolespan te kies vir ’n reeks “toetse” teen Frankryk, Engeland en Wallis.
Rapport verneem betroubaar dat die groep van 28 wat ná die vergadering aan Saru voorgelê is vir goedkeuring en môre aangekondig sal word, wel 50% swart is.
Dit kom nadat Mervyn Green, Saru se hoofbestuurder van ontwikkeling, verlede Donderdag tydens die Cravenweek in Middelburg die keurders ingelig het dat die helfte van die skolespan swart móét wees.
Huidige en voormalige skolekeurders het bevestig dit is ’n wending en dat ’n raskwota nog nooit so rigied neergelê is nie.
Dié eis het glo ook beteken dat die groep wat gekies is om aan gister se proewe deel te neem inderhaas van 50 tot 55 spelers vergroot is, aangesien dit aanvanklik nie aan Saru se transformasievoorskrifte voldoen het nie.
Die afgelope ses jaar het die Suid-Afrikaanse skolespan nog net een keer “bloot toevallig” uit minstens 50% swart spelers bestaan.
Dit was in 2009 toe 11 uit die groep van 22 swart was. Onder dié spelers was die Springbok-losvoorspeler Siya Kolisi, die Stormers se Scarra Ntubeni en Nizaam Carr en die Bulls-haker Bongi Mbonambi.
Green het Rapport se navrae verwys na Andy Colquhoun, Saru se mediabestuurder. Colquhoun het teen druktyd nog nie gereageer nie.
Jurie Roux, Saru se uitvoerende hoof, het vroeër die afgelope week volgehou die keurproses is “lank en weldeurdag”.
“Ons identifiseer die skolegroep reeds by die nasionale o.16-week en hoewel daar mettertyd enkele spelers bykom en wegval, bly die kern van die groep dieselfde,” het Roux gesê.
“Die dae van ’n flash in the pan-speler van wie ons nie voorheen bewus was nie, maar wat in die Cravenweek beïndruk en dan gekies word, is verby.”
Die jongste kwota-herrie kom enkele weke nadat die land se rugbybase deur die Suid-Afrikaanse Sportkonfederasie en Olimpiese Komitee (Saskok) geroskam is oor die “gebrek aan transformasie” in die Springbokspan.
Oregan Hoskins, die Saru-president, het gevolglik aan die Bokafrigter, Heyneke Meyer, opdrag gegee om meer swart spelers vir verlede maand se toets teen Skotland te kies.
Ondanks die Saskok-kritiek gaan dit egter baie goed met rugbytransformasie. Selfs die departement van sport stem saam.
Rapport kan vandag ook onthul dat ’n studie wat deur die departement van sport onderneem is, bevind het Saru vaar die beste van al die groot sportfederasies – rugby, krieket, sokker, netbal en atletiek – wat transformasie betref.
Saru se “slaagsyfer” van 71% op ’n sogenaamde “transformasietelkaart” was glo hoër as enige van die ander federasies s’n.
Saru werk, ongeag hul relatiewe sukses gemeet aan ander federasies, steeds aan ’n plan om hul tekortkominge reg te stel.
Dit sal einde volgende maand aan die departement voorgelê word.
Die regeringstudie, onder leiding van die sportadministrateur Willie Basson, is intussen uitgebrei tot 12 ander sportsoorte.
Volgens Basson fokus dié studie op die demografiese profiel van Suid-Afrikaners van 18 jaar en jonger om die sukses van sporttransformasie te meet.
“Meer as 80% van kinders in dié groep is etnies swart en die res is bruin, Indiër en wit. Dit word egter nie naastenby in die samestelling van ons nasionale spanne weerspieël nie,” het Basson aan Rapport gesê.
“Die probleem moet op eers op skole- en klubvlak gepak word sodat ons oor 10 of 20 jaar van nou af nie meer op die minderheidsgroepe in ons nasionale spanne staatmaak nie.
“Die plan is om die persentasie geleidelik te laat toeneem op dié vlakke totdat dit uiteindelik in ons nasionale spanne weerspieël word.”
Volgens Basson sal die studie binne die volgende paar weke aan die regering oorhandig word.”
Now this is a pic I really like…should be kept for future occasions to remind the pratt not to get ahead of himself when speaking to the media.
@ Pietman:
I had a T-shirt made; the front reads: “I do not support teams which are not selected on merit.”
On the back I altered the ANC’s “struggle slogan” to read: “No ‘abnormal’ sport in a ‘normal’ society”.
@ BrumbiesBoy:
My T-hemp lees soos volg:
“As die meerderheid beskerm moet word teen die minderheid, dui dit op genetiese mislukking”
@ Pietman:
@BB
Yo gbs, what happened to my emoticons?
@ BrumbiesBoy:
Ah, there they are.
Sometimes on the mobile site these days the “reply to” & “quote” buttons also don’t show on the screen.(This started on Friday.)
@ Pietman:
1
Judge them by results, and we saw already what a quota abides team U-20 did in 2013/14?
(the test against NZ nearly got lost when Theron brought on 3 quotas last 10 minutes) 🙁
We also saw the Sharks yesterday with 5 quotas on the field last 25 minutes, a circus it was to say the least? 😡 😡 😡
@ BrumbiesBoy:
The bottom line is that our teams’ matches became increasingly easy to predict
Bulls’ achieved 92% of their total SR wins under SA referees
Stormers’ achieved 93% of their total wins under SA referees
(since 2011)
The Sharks are better though: standing tall at 72%
😆 😆 😆
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