Why Boks need a fresh start

When the Springboks gather in Johannesburg on Monday to start preparations for the home leg of the Tri-Nations, they will have just less than fortnight to prepare for their first match in Pretoria.

Considering that two weeks was enough for them to introduce some new variations to their play between the last two matches of the overseas leg of the Tri-Nations, that may represent enough time to get a couple of things right ahead of the return clashes against New Zealand and Australia.

But there is a lot of hard work for Springbok coach Jake White and his management to get through, for the narrowness of defeat against Australia in Sydney did not answer the many questions nor erase the criticisms hanging over this squad.

And although the addition of new players, such as André Pretorius and Jean de Villiers, may make a small difference in terms of the questions asked of opposing defenders, it is quite clear that a dramatic paradigm shift is necessary if the Boks are to be competitive in the 2007 World Cup.

Now that the dust has settled on the Sydney match, and the disappointment of such a last-gasp defeat has passed, it is time for us to be brutally honest. The Boks came close in that game for the simple reason that it was a really awful match, a million leagues worse than the one that we had seen the previous week between the Aussies and All Blacks in Brisbane.

And that is where the Boks are right now. They are a bit like a smaller Currie Cup team that comes up against one of the fancied unions and realises that the best way of beating the bigger team is to stop them from playing. It makes for miserable rugby to watch, and as has been said many times in the past 10 or 11 years, it does not bring consistent success.

On this occasion, it is also true that the Wallabies, perhaps because they underestimated their opponents and then struggled to be comfortable in the wet underfoot conditions, helped the Boks hugely by stooping to their level by employing a mindless kicking game.

Considering that it was quick-paced, skillful rugby that buried the Boks in Brisbane three weeks earlier, this made no sense, although there were two factors, notably the more committed South African defence and the conditions, that may have contributed.

That last one is interesting as for me it does pose an interesting question about the supposed advantage the Boks have playing all their three home tests this year on the highveld.

I know that psychologically the Boks do have an advantage over both Australia and New Zealand when they play at Ellis Park. You just have to look at their recent record there to know this.

But the argument that the Boks are better off at altitude per se is not entirely convincing if you look at the record books. For instance, and you can correct me if I am wrong, I cannot recall the Boks beating the All Blacks at Loftus in the past ten years. My most recent recollection of a game against the Kiwis at that stadium throws up a nightmare 50-point massacre, with the All Blacks completely dominant.

And my memory also throws up images of Robbie Deans, then the All Black manager, waxing on after that match about how happy he was to see his team finally get a chance to play on a dry, firm field and in a day game.

Which of course is what the All Blacks are likely to get again this time around, and we all know that when it comes to running rugby, they are light years better at the moment than the Springboks.

Would the Boks perhaps not have been better off on this occasion playing the All Blacks in Cape Town, where the current unpredictable weather might just throw up an atrocious day where the conditions will be a leveler. Remember, the Boks won there against the Kiwis last year.

The other match on the highveld, outside of the Ellis Park one, is in Rustenburg. Considering that few of the Boks have played much rugby there, and none of them can regard it as their home base, whose home match is this? And will the conditions provide the sort of conditions that will turn it into a really horrible game to watch, and thus conspire in favour of the limited Bok approach?

Not that the winning of the three home Tri-Nations tests should be seen as the be-all and end-all. Selecting test venues on the basis of where the team is most likely to win is a faulty method of going about it. This is a vast country, and if you want to grow the brand and take the game to the people, then places like Durban, where you have no altitude but an almost guaranteed dry game (and one hell of an occasion!) at this time of the year, have to be included.

Some of the finest Tri-Nations matches have been played in Durban, and the Boks have often won there. If you think the All Blacks are intimidated at Ellis Park, try and tell me they are less so at Absa Stadium after the 2002 game, where they only just scraped in against a Bok team that self-destructed in the last quarter on a day where a certain Piet van Zyl added to the volatility of the atmosphere.

Four years before that, the Boks fought back from a deficit against the All Blacks to claim one of their most memorable victories of the post-isolation era. And while the Wallabies can claim Durban as one of only two venues where they have won in our country in the post-isolation era, it took a last minute Sterling Mortlock penalty in 2000 to do it. There was nothing else separating the teams that day.

At Ellis Park a few years later the Boks beat the Wallabies to secure their only win of the 2002 tournament. But it was not going to happen before Werner Greeff scooted over after the hooter had already sounded.

When all is said and done, the record books reflect that the Boks do have a much better chance of success on South African soil, regardless of whether they are on the highveld or at the coast.

Next year’s World Cup though is in France. The Boks have only won once in the White era in a big match in a foreign country. This is what needs to be addressed, and this is why the Boks need to change their game and have to make a dramatic shift from the approach, and perhaps in some instances the players too, that has been employed over the last 18 months.