Administrators must hold onto the ball

This is usually the stage of the season where everyone with the remotest interest in South African rugby is hanging their heads in their hands bemoaning the inability of local players to hack it with the best of the rest in the southern hemisphere.

Instead we face a situation with four matches to go where having two teams in the semi-finals remains a distinct possibility, and even having three is not completely out of the question.

What is it that has effected this apparent dramatic turn-around? Well, before we answer that question, maybe we should first be realistic: We still don't know whether when the international season kicks off the Springboks will be extricating themselves from their lowly sixth ranking on the IRB list.

Three years ago South Africa had two Super 12 semi-finalists and still failed to fire when those players donned the green and gold. You can take Balie Swart, the Sharks assistant coach, at his word when he points out that his team is not particularly classy or brilliant and relies mainly on an incredible team spirit and passion to succeed.

The Stormers, although well placed in third position, also still manage to play as badly one week as they do well on another, and the Bulls look a long long way from being the potential champions some people in Pretoria might have thought they were earlier in the year.

But lets give credit where it is due - South African rugby players generally have given a far better account of themselves than even the most optimistic critic would have predicted at the outset.

And so we return to the initial question: What inspired the turn-around? It might be several factors, but for my money, part of the reason for this transformation might lie in the ill-chosen words directed by new Sarfu president Brian van Rooyen at South African players at the start of the season. Remember how he said they weren't professional and did not deserve their salaries?

Well, Corne Krige told me a week after that statement that the players were angry and would go out to prove him wrong. They have done that (well, maybe not the Cats), and at this stage there are quite a few players in this country who can justifiably claim to be good enough to have national contracts.

Maybe motivating the players was Van Rooyen's goal all along, but I fear not. While the players have been getting their act together on the field, the administrators have not always been doing the same. Part time officials seem to now dominate the top structures, and there have been far too many dubious appointments to Springbok and other high level jobs that have the whiff of jobs for pals about them. There is too little attention to excellence in general from our rugby hierarchy.

As Morne du Plessis said when he resigned, the Van Rooyen administration does not appear to put rugby considerations first, and the evidence of the first two thirds of the Super 12 season suggests they must urgently over-turn their biggest mistake of all, which is the reintroduction of a 14 team Currie Cup.

Among all the different reasons put forward for the improvement of the South African Super 12 form, perhaps the most important is the raising of playing standards as a result of last year's strength-versus-strength domestic competition.

It is because one-sided mismatches have been removed from the domestic schedule that a young player like Schalk Burger, who made his senior debut in last year's Currie Cup, can so easily now make the transition to Super 12 level. As a result of the higher level of competition, he was better prepared for the step-up than if half of his matches in his debut season had been against the likes of Boland and the Leopards.

There are several other youngsters who did well in a far more competitive Currie Cup and have now carried what they learned onto a higher stage. Because they were playing against players of similar standard, they were not allowed to fall into the trap of falling into bad habits.

Instead of having a situation like a few years ago, when a young scrumhalf scored three tries against almost non-existent opposition when Joost van der Westhuizen was rested by the Bulls, the modern players are having to work hard at Currie Cup level. This makes them better prepared for the Super 12, where they don't encounter the poor defensive systems that we used to see in the 14 team Currie Cup.

Okay, last year's strength-versus-strength Currie Cup was not perfect in this regard, but it was a dramatic improvement on previous years. I think that if the system was retained we would see more of an improvement in the years ahead, which of course was what was predicted by Accencure, the consulting company that made the recommendation to SA Rugby.

But at this stage it looks like we are heading back to the old system. This only makes sense if you believe it is right that big decisions can be made on the basis that the new main man owes a few post-election favours to his friends in the platteland.

With the added evidence of the recent derby matches that South African fans love nothing better than to see the top local sides up against each other, there is no logical reason why we should be moving away from a system which across a number of levels has already shown great promise.

On the playing field it appears South African rugby is up and running, but let's just hope our perennially inept administrators don't again drop the ball.