THE Springboks returned home Sunday night after a crushing defeat by the All Blacks in Christchurch. With two games to go in the Rugby Championship, rugby writer Jacques van der Westhuyzen tries to unpack the sorry state of Bok rugby right now.
Who is at fault?
Where does one start? It’s easy to blame the coach, in this case Allister Coetzee, but he didn’t appoint himself late, he didn’t tell experienced players to pack up and go overseas or retire. He also didn’t drop balls on Saturday, knock on, throw poor passes, kick badly, miss tackles, miss line-out jumpers. The players need to take a lot of responsibility for the poor performance on Saturday, and to be honest, most of this season. Elton Jantjies is supposed to be the general of the side yet he has failed to lead the team forward or in the right direction. Others, too, have failed to fire or made the most of the chances given to them ... Johan Goosen, Faf de Klerk, Francois Louw, Vincent Koch, Beast Mtawarira and so on and so on. The fact is too many Bok players have performed poorly.
But what about the coach?
Coetzee also needs to accept he has made mistakes and errors of judgment. Some of his selections and decisions remain questionable, like that of Louw ahead of Jaco Kriel, like that of Lood de Jager ahead of Pieter-Steph du Toit (before De Jager got injured), like not throwing Morne Steyn into the mix earlier on Saturday. Surely the coach could see Jantjies was having a howler and had lost confidence, again. Sadly there continues to be no clarity on what type of game exactly the Boks are trying to play ... the one minute they’re kicking up and unders, the next they’re running from out of their 22m area.
Also, one’s got to wonder what on earth is going on with the backs? There’s just no creativity or flow to their game and is Coetzee not the man who handled the backs between 2004-7? Or is it rookie coach Mzwandile Stick’s fault the backs look so out of depth?
How do we fix it?
There is unfortunately no quick fix ... and the problems are far and wide. Our Super Rugby teams, bar the Lions, were fairly average this year, the Currie Cup is in a poor state because so many players are missing and the sooner we ban overseas players from representing the Boks the better.
There’s little competition for places so strengthening our competitions would help, but so would getting a few specialist coaches or consultants in to the Bok set-up. Sadly, our skills need drastic work, and so too our defence. Pat Lambie needs to play at 10 as soon as possible, and getting a big powerful 12 in as well, maybe Rohan Janse van Rensburg, is also not a bad idea.
The Boks are battling, and losing, with experienced players in the ranks so picking them is making no positive difference so why not rather go with the youngsters and back them to come good.
But there is a problem
A major issue is the lack of continuity from 2015 ... just too many players have moved on or are no longer available for the Boks. No matter who the coach is he would have to rebuild. And that, of course, is going to take time.
Right now who is better than Goosen at fullback? Who are our best wings, our best centres ... is there a second choice scrumhalf who’s as good as the first choice? Who really is a better No 7 flank than Oupa Mohoje?
Our depth is depleted and not helping matters is the fact we’re sitting with several experienced players sidelined with injury ... Frans Malherbe, Julian Redelinghuys, De Jager, Siya Kolisi, Duane Vermeulen, Cobus Reinch, Handre Pollard, Ruan Combrinck ...
So what now?
Coetzee needs to make some tough calls. He’s given a number of players a fair chance to show what they can do at international level but they’ve let him and the country down. He needs to cut out the under-performers and let them play some Currie Cup rugby.
Also, Coetzee needs to think properly about the type of rugby he wants his team to play. And, he needs to get in some specialist coaches, especially an attack coach, and someone who can help the players with their kicking.
Itâ’s hard to accept, but patience is what’s needed. One or two key changes in the line-up may make all the difference.
The Star