Boks ‘All Blacked’ out

Attending a rugby practice of one of the northern teams recently I ran into a prominent Springbok of recent vintage known for his outspokenness.

Naturally we got to talking about the Springbok team and what, finally, was another year of failure in the Tri-Nations and his assessment was a forthright: “We’re bullshitting ourselves.”

It got me thinking and, you know, he may be right.

Certainly when one looks at the Tri-Nations there is compelling proof that the Boks have for too long rested on the glories of winning the Rugby World Cup in 1995.

Our record in the Tri-Nations is dismal, to say the least, and an assessment of our performances against the major teams since re-admission in 1992 does not make impressive reading.

For one thing the All Blacks, our greatest rivals, have been our masters in the post-isolation years.

Since that first comeback test at Ellis Park in August 1992 we have played the men in black 21 times and emerged victorious on just six occasions, with one draw – a success rate of just 28%. In addition we have managed only once to beat them in New Zealand.

Against the other members of the Big Four, Australia, England and France, the record is a little better but hardly acceptable.

We have played the Wallabies 19 times since 1992 and have a record of eight wins, 10 losses and a draw – a success ratio of 42%.

Against the other two we are in the black, as it were. The Springboks have taken on England 11 times, won six and lost five (54%), while against France there have also been 11 encounters with a more impressive outcome of eight wins and three losses (72%).

Added to this the Springboks lost the 1997 series against the British Lions 2-1 which means that while 65 of the 101 post-isolation tests have been against quality opposition the win ratio is a sub-standard 44% - or to put it more bluntly we lose more than we win.

This is born out by our performance in the Tri-Nations, for instance, where the Boks have now completed 24 matches for a record of won nine, lost 14 and one draw. Of our nine wins only two have been achieved overseas – both in the halcyon season of 1998 when we won all four our games and defeated the Wallabies in Perth and New Zealand in Wellington.

Our potential, however, is shown by the fact that while the Australians have consistently had the better of the All Blacks we have managed to beat them 11 times.

Clearly something needs to be done if South Africa’s stated ambition to be the world’s leading rugby nation is to be realised.

One of the biggest problems that needs to be addressed is that Sarfu’s development programme contains an inherent flaw – whereas other countries spend money and set in place structures to produce excellent rugby players South Africa’s focus is on generating more black players and officials in visible roles.

Hold on!, before you rush to the message board to hurl dire accusations of racism at me, it is probably what the game needs right now to right the wrongs of a shameful past, but that does not alter the fact that a concentration on quantity will not produce the quality that is needed to rule the world.

In the not too distant future Sarfu’s game development will have to switch focus to producing outstanding rugby players, of whatever race, or run the risk of having the skills deficiency growing even larger.

Sarfu’s DCM (don’t come Monday) emloyment policy in regard to coaches has also not contributed to any stability (Nick Mallett, incidentally, was forced out in spite of compiling a win ratio of 71% and beating the All Blacks more times than he lost) with each new man in the job introducing his own beliefs and ideas and contributing to an unacceptably high turnover of players.

It is also time Sarfu took a long hard look at the standard of coaching at every level in the game. Judging by the poor standard of play in the recent Craven Week there is a lot wrong and a good start might be to concentrate on the teenagers rather than trying to teach the Springboks new tricks.