Springbok Disgrace!!!

“Shame on you Springboks, shame on you!” I shouted this with passion and vigor on the east upper stand at Kingsparkon Saturday. So much so that I had fellow Springbok supporters chanting with me. If the Springboks had half the passion that I had sitting there in the stands maybe, just maybe they would have had an inclination to play rugby. How does a team go from world champions to world chumps? Very simple our game plan is a right royal balls up. What are you thinking as a coach, when you are given a golden goose that lays the golden eggs and you decide to have it for supper.

Jake White took a group of young men and developed them into world beating rugby players. We had a game plan that worked. We had a game plan that won us test matches. We had a game plan that scored us tries. Now every coach has his own style of coaching. Each coach has to make his own mark and find players that fit his playing paten. But no coach in his right mind would break up a game plan that works to make the game more exiting. Let’s be honest, who is Argentina and Wales. The Blacks and Wallabies would beat them with a B team. Look what they did to France and Ireland and England. Pieter De Villiers, you are clueless and the sooner you start playing players on Merit and not because the politicians tell you to play them you will have a better team. The sooner you get a Captain to lead his charges the better. The sooner you change your game plan to South African rugby were we play to our strengths the better.

Let me ask you as my readers this question and I do have some very knowledgeable rugby people, referees, players and coaches and fans. What has changed in the Australian team since Robbie Deans has taken over. Not much in terms of rugby players, few of the older players have retired or moved onto greener paydays in Europe. What Robbie has done is played to the strengths of the players that he has at his disposal. But watching Saturdays game something looked very familiar about the Wallaby style of rugby but the color of the jersey was wrong, it should have been Red and Black of the 7 times Super Rugby Champions the Canterbury Crusaders. Did their game plan not remind you of vintage Crusader rugby? Yes it has been around from the day that Robbie took over the Crusaders and nobody can tell me they play dull rugby, not even the Stormers or Bulls supporters could say that. Yes Pieter De Villiers, it may be old but guess what, it is a winning style it is an exciting style and let me tell you this, if the Bokshad played like the Wallabies did on Saturday and ended witha win like the Wallabies got we would be singing your praises. Not the “boos” you deserved. Play to the strength of your players; play on the weakness of your opposition.

Looking at the Lions Cheetahs game on Friday night, Barend Pieterse showed why he is the best lock in SA at the moment. Lawrence Sephaka played a storming game and could play in the place of Brian Mujati who again started going backwards when he came onto the field. Baywatch Grobbelaarhad an amazing game stealing balls on every opportunity and carrying his form from Super 14 into the Currie Cup. Yes our scrums are solid and we did not go backwards with our starting lineup, but Henke van der Merwehas to be in the squad. The best two best substitutions on Saturday as taking JP off and bringing Percy on at fullback and removing Spies for Big Joe. Whatever the sports writers who “know” the game wants to say about Butch James, he played with passion, guile and pride. He tackled so hard in the first ten minutes that the Wallaby backline had to move deeper on attack ball to avoid pain. I have another question; can anybody tell me why when a Bok backline payer goes down in a tackle why does the supporting backline players stand back, like Du Preez and wait for somebody else to clean out? No you clean out and secure the ball and set it up for the next phase. The Wallabies set up 6 to 7 phases before swinging it out wide and if that was not successful then they would build up again.

You may say but we scored two tries, yes we did and on attack we looked dangerous just like we did last week against New Zealand. But as it has been all season against strong opposition we tend to loose direction on the game plan. We forget how to play basic rugby. Schalk is still a great player and without a doubt needs to stay in the team. He also needs support from a player like Wikus van Heerden (Captain) and Joe van Niekerk. Victor Mattfield is lost without Bakkies and this has been proved over and over. AD Jacobs and Butch James performed well rating of 7/10 the next best players would be Percy and Juan at 6/10 and the rest did not even make the grade. The front row was brilliant and beast and CJ both get 8/10 for there scrummaging and general play. Bismarckscrummed well, but lineout and open play was not his best 6/10. Andries Bekker had a solid game good in the scum, but was not given enough lineout ball 6/10. Victor Mattfield rated as 5/10 for poor lineout and let’s face it his captaincy leaves a lot to be desired. Juan Smit and Pierre Spies were very poor and it may just be a loss of form 5/10 but I think it is time for them to take a break. Just whatever the selectors do, they must not pick Luke Watson, and he is not the answer for the Springboks.

The bottom line is simple as a rugby fanatic I want to see my team win even if is by a drop goal. South African, New Zealand even Englandwant to see their team win and that is all we demand. Come Saturday 15H00 I will be in front of my television supporting the Boks and cheering them on to victory, because I am proudly SouthAfrican. All I want is for those 15 player to run onto Ellis Park, play with passion, pride and the skill of Springboks and destroy Australia. Nothing less will do!

Quick Round Up

·         On the soccer front, Arsenal lost to Fulham, Deco gave Chelsea a 1-0 win Wigan. Liverpool beat Middlesbrough 2-1 and Spurs lost at home to Sunderland 2-1.

·         In Valencia Ferrari won on the latest street circuit on the F1 calendar. A race I found to be so typical of street races, boring.

·         South African lost by 20 runs to England, why did you send England into bat when you won the toss Graham?

·         Vijay Singh won his 4^thBarclays Classic in the US over the weekend and Darren Clark wins the Dutch Open in Europe.

On a parting note, some very disturbing news has come out of the team SA camp in Beijing. Natalie Du Toitwas not allowed to sleep over in the town where her 10km open swim took place. She was also forced to where the sponsor shoes even though they were not designed for somebody witha prosthetic leg. She and her manager were also not allowed to have a translator as they felt this was not required. I guess they were to busy helping the Team Bosses, Politicians and other Big Shots that were over in China on an all expense paid holiday. As mentioned last week, coming home with 1 silver and ending up 71 is not good enough. Kenya came 1^st out of all the African countries with 5 gold, 5 silver and 5 bronze. The sooner we start to pay attention to the needs to sports men and women in this country by giving them the means to compete with the world’s best the sooner we will start to make a name for ourselves again. Let’s learn from countries like England, Australia and even China. The Athletes are given every opportunity to do what they do best, compete.

On that note, good luck to the Boks and the Proteas make us proud.

Cheers

Onetime