Pardon me if I don’t share the euphoria

Crowd figures for the Currie Cup all over the country are looking good and that’s exciting, but there are other numbers in our rugby that, for me at least, have set the alarm bells ringing.

Allow me to mention a few: 98, 83, 70, 65, 64.

Lineout calls? Wish they were.

These in fact are the aggregate scores in some recent matches. They translate into Blue Bulls 48 Elephants 50; Lions 46 Sharks 37; Falcons 32 Pumas 38; Western Province 29 Sharks 36; Cheetahs 35 Bulls 29.

It surely can’t be right that so many points are being scored in matches involving some of our top teams?

There’s a clear indication that defensive patterns as well as the teams’ commitment to tackling is not all it should be.

What worries me is that while the rugby might be spectacular, while we might be reveling in the many wonderful tries being scored there’s a fatal flaw in our rugby which will not become apparent until we come up against the big, driving packs of France and England.

There are other numbers flickering out warning signs – such as penalty counts. Teams are conceding too many penalties; a situation accounting for some of the high scores while also pointing to bad habits that will be shown up in the heat of a test match.

Players either do not know the laws or they simply ignore them, while there is an unhealthy mood of machismo sweeping through the game. High tackles are the order of the day, punches are thrown, opponents are trampled on and everyone seems to think it is all very clever and “part of the game.”

It’s not and unless this truculence is eradicated I see problems ahead.

Players seem completely incapable of coming to terms with the laws governing the tackle ball, they commit foul after foul by joining rucks and mauls in off-sides positions, they are constantly pulled up for getting off-sides coming up on defence while the art of the driving maul or keeping control of the ball through multiple phases is all but non-existent.

Very few tries are constructed with set-piece ball while inventive exploitation of penalties is absent. Discipline is consistently poor.

These accusations would be serious enough leveled at a schoolboy side but for them to be so widespread among professionals is unforgivable.

Seems to me we need to remember that we did not win the Tri-Nations. We won one game after the siren had sounded or we might have ended up with the worst record yet. The Springbok fullback is playing centre for his province. The faults that tripped us up in the Tri-Nations are still in evidence. Some important players are injured, others are in the midst of a form slump and in vital positions such as lock and tighthead prop potential world-beaters are not exactly scattered across the landscape.

Far from elation I’m feeling trepidation. Unless some dramatic changes take place I fear that come November South African fans in London could yet again be making that tube ride from hell after the Boks have lost to England at Twickenham.