Spare the hosannas

The state of South African rugby is not nearly what it would seem to be after a weekend of super results.

Eleven years and some weeks is a long time to have waited for the kind of weekend just experienced so a word of caution amid the euphoric despatches would seem pointlessly pessimistic, but utter it I must.

As wonderful as it was to celebrate four wins over four overseas opponents plus a draw against a fifth there was still much wrong with the all-round standard of our play.

At the risk of being accused of being intractably negative there is no denying that luck ran with the South African sides and we should be careful of being blinded by joyous victories.

The absence of 22 All Blacks is clearly hurting the New Zealand teams – the Crusaders have seven missing, including Richie McCaw and Dan Carter, and the Hurricanes are sans one of the most dynamic loose trios anywhere in Jerry Collins, Rodney So’oialo and Chris Masoe – while a spate of injuries plus the introduction of the Western Force has severely diluted Australia’s reserves.

It may be that the toil of watching too many games over too many seasons containing too much poor rugby has polluted my outlook but even over this blissful weekend there was much that was wrong.

For instance, the inability to hold and protect the ball for multiple phases, one of the enduring problems of all our teams from the Springboks down, was again much in evidence.

Time and again possession was turned over because of a lack of sufficient support, or because of the ball being put at risk by players calling for it and then being outnumbered or, most infuriating of all, by simply kicking it away.

There were still numerous instances of players going to ground too easily, not driving in the tackle or crashing into opponents rather than looking for those precious centimetres by attacking the spaces between them.

Too many times passes (potential scoring passes) went astray, into touch or to an opponent while injudicious or inaccurate kicks remain a blight.

My notes included many instances of teams falling down on their own strengths (the Bulls being outscrummed, the Sharks missing tackles) while brute power still outweighs brainpower.

South Africa’s forwards are no longer as fearsome as they used to be – although they will always engender respect – but our back play leaves much to be desired. Too often the ball is simply shuffled out to the wing (even the Cheetahs) with most tries coming from fast counters in broken play rather than constructive build-ups.

As with almost any other weekend there was little variation in back play (changing angles, altering the width or depth of passes or alignment, using decoys etc) while it remains a concern that the level of performance continues to be so inconsistent.

It’s good to win, my cheers of encouragement were often the loudest reverberating through the offices of the SuperSport Zone on Saturday, but I’m not convinced that all is hunky-dory with our rugby.

To be right up there it’s time two or three of our teams reached the semifinals of the Super 14 and one of them went on to win it – until then let’s kept those studs firmly imbedded in the turf.