Search for alternative solutions must resume

Three wins in four starts was probably more than many people were hoping for when the Springboks left South Africa with a squad depleted by injury.

So at worst you would say that winning the last test against England, given that no Bok team should ever lose to Scotland, meant the Boks break even for the tour. There were two good performances based almost entirely around the pack against Ireland and England, and two poor ones.

Was it enough though to keep the vultures from the door of the much maligned Bok coaching staff? South African Rugby Union president Oregan Hoskins seems to think so, for he has been quoted back home saying that there is no plan to change the management before the World Cup.

This in spite of a Sunday newspaper story saying a technical committee was going to be appointed to give the Bok coaches direction.

If there is veracity to that story, and if there are indeed moves back home to bring about some sort of change, then I would fully concur with the necessity.

While the Boks held their noses up, we mustn’t forget where they were when the international season started following a Super season dominated by two South African teams. That after a previous year in which the Boks underlined emphatically that this country does have the talent to rule the world.

Since the end of May, when New Zealand rugby writers, on the evidence of the Super season, were speaking in awed tones of the ominous threat posed by South Africa to any thoughts of the All Blacks winning the World Cup, the Boks have plummeted – and so it seems have the expectations of the administrators and some sections of the public.

The Bok players showed good attitude on this tour, but you wouldn’t say their game was without fault-lines and major blemishes. No, not even at Twickenham, where the forwards were awesome, but a look at the video the next day showed up some quite shambolic rugby at times off set-plays.

There was none of the organisation and innovation we have come to expect from the provincial and franchise teams, and in the end the Boks got home through the old South African recipe of bludgeon and grind. It was good enough against England, but in the Tri-Nations season it was nowhere near good enough against New Zealand.

The All Black quick-paced game and the skill with which they got the ball away from the contact areas meant that the Boks lost by 20 points in Auckland and a similar score in Wellington a week later. Yes, 20 points – a big margin of defeat at test level, and it wasn’t much better against Australia.

So have the Boks improved since then? Some might argue that at least the Boks were more competitive in the home leg of the Tri-Nations, but that is clutching at straws if you consider the All Blacks played in front of 100 000 rabid Bok supporters in the Soweto match, Dan Carter (as he had in Wellington) missed almost all his kicks – and yet the Kiwis still won.

Australia in their two matches on the Highveld, where until this year they hadn’t won since the 1960s, also at stages cruelly exposed the Bok vulnerability to the Kiwi/Aussie approach.

Forget the injury excuse, for the reality is that the only areas there would be a definite improvement in a full-strength team from the side that played at Twickenham is openside flank, scrumhalf (where Ruan Pienaar excelled anyway), outside centre and maybe fullback if Frans Steyn is moved there.

There have been some improvements in specific areas, such as the scrumming, and the defence was a lot better at Twickenham. But the people who run the game should have the rugby knowledge to figure out that this tour, from an overall rugby quality perspective, was nowhere near good enough to erase the question marks that had them looking for alternative solutions two months ago.

The All Blacks, who are the team against which the Boks should be measuring themselves, were significantly better against almost all the same opponents.

So even if the Bok coach gets a stay of execution and is allowed to continue, the process of seeking an alternative arrangement that will bring more heavyweight rugby expertise to the coaching group does need to be resumed.

If it isn’t, on the basis of the one result against England, Twickenham could end up being remembered as the moment the Boks lost the World Cup.