Hope floats behind sobering stats

The ninth round of the Super 12 brought to a close a sobering passage of failure for South African teams in battles against Antipodean opponents.

The South African sides play against each other for the next two weeks in an exercise that may be useful for Springbok coach Rudolf Straeuli as he composes his Springbok team. But from a nationalistic viewpoint the games will mean nothing in terms of resurrecting the country's battered rugby pride.

When the Sharks lost in the final seconds to the Reds at ABSA Stadium on Saturday it was the 32nd match between a South African team and an Australian or New Zealand combination spread over a period of nine weeks (there was a bye on the Easter weekend).

The try that Chris Latham scored to win the game for the Reds condemned the South Africans to their 28th defeat. Put another way, the South African teams could only manage four victories out of 32 starts, a disturbing win percentage of just 12,5%.

The victories were so rare that they are easily recalled now - the first came way back in early March when the Stormers thumped the Hurricanes at Newlands, the next was just a few weeks ago when the Sharks, playing under Kevin Putt for the first time, beat the Blues.

The Sharks then scored the third victory when they edged home against the Chiefs a week later before the Stormers beat the Chiefs in Hamilton to record the only win on foreign soil in 16 starts.

The two coastal teams were far and away the most successful South African sides. Their 37-30 defeat to the Crusaders in Johannesburg on Friday was the closest the Cats came to winning a game. The Bulls managed only to concede a long sequence of 50 pointers and have not won in nine games.

A glance at the personnel, both playing and coaching, used by the respective franchises makes it easy to understand why the two inland regions are lagging.

When Heyneke Meyer was employed by the Bulls at the start of the season it was that region's umpteenth change of coach in as many seasons. The Blue Bulls coach proved a poor selector, leaving someone like the wonderfully talented Falcon Etienne Botha out until the final weeks.

New Cats coach Frans Ludeke was always going to find it hard to follow in the footsteps of Laurie Mains, who boasted infinitely greater experience and influence. Losing Andre Vos, Rassie Erasmus, Andre Venter, Johann Ackerman and Japie Mulder before a ball was even kicked in anger was a massive blow as all five of those players were stalwarts of the Cats successes in the previous two seasons.

Vos showed with his excellent display against the Crusaders just how much he was missed. And there were other players who were lost - prop Marius Mostert is now playing in New Zealand and Springbok fullback Thinus Delport is with the Sharks.

Although they have started to gain momentum since the appointment of Putt and their return home to ABSA Stadium, the Sharks were undeniably the biggest disappointment.

After contesting the final last year, more was expected of them this year than a place in the bottom three, which is where they will end up unless the Stormers really lose their way in the last two games.

But again the Sharks did have a few mitigating factors that they can point to.

It was inevitable from day one of the competition that Rudolf Straeuli would be lost to them once the new Springbok coach was announced.

And when the Sharks lost to the Stormers in the opening match they faced a monumental battle to get their minds right on the overseas tour. Losing skipper Mark Andrews after the first tour match could not have helped, while the absence for the duration of the nine weeks of Butch James and Trevor Halstead, who were pivotal players in the backline last year, kept them from gaining any momentum.

In the end though the Sharks were competitive enough on their return home to show that they remain a capable team, with or without James and Halstead.

Indeed, the past weekend's action just about summed up the Super 12 season from a South African viewpoint. Were it not for a bit of bad luck here and there, both the Sharks and Stormers could have had a couple more victories on their record.

Latham's late try was the second time in as many weeks that the Sharks were denied at the last. The previous week they were prevented from having at least a share of the spoils against the mighty Crusaders when Andrew Mehrtens kicked a crucial penalty goal.

For the Stormers it was certainly a season that might have been. They lost a number of experienced Springboks to injury before the competition started but their were only two matches where they failed to be competitive - in the clash with the Brumbies in Cape Town and Crusaders in Christchurch.

Even in those two games the Stormers did threaten for a time and they led both matches after half an hour before eventually falling away just before and after halftime.

The Blues match, which they lost 25-6 on Friday, mirrored their season. In the first half there were several scoring opportunities during their period of dominance that they failed to take. Going to the break 6-3 up instead of 18-3 up, which they could have been, was the killer at Eden Park.

Earlier in the season they lost to both the Waratahs and the Highlanders by a solitary point and they were unlucky to lose by three to the Reds in a thrilling opening to their tour in Brisbane. The Waratahs are almost certain semi-finalists while both the Highlanders and the Reds are strong challengers.

What that suggests is that there may not be quite as big a gap between the overseas players and the South Africans as suggested by the overall results.

The Stormers showed in their annihilation of the Hurricanes in March what can be done and all they may have lacked in the end was a few more experienced heads to guide the youngsters through the difficult situations. Ultimately a look behind the stats suggests the situation is not quite as despairing for South African rugby as the cold statistics might suggest on paper.

The Cats pushed the Crusaders at Ellis Park to show what might have been had Vos and company been available all along and even the Bulls did enough with the ball in hand to suggest that they might be a force to be reckoned with if they can ever learn to defend.