Lots to think about as Boks return

The last part of the Springbok squad that undertook the tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland over the past month return to South Africa on Monday at the end of a trip that can be described as a real curate’s egg – in other words good in some parts, bad in others.

First up, let it be said that this was not a tour plagued by the sort of controversies that have tended to follow Peter de Villiers around during his three years as Bok coach. Part of that might be because a lot of the British media interest over the past month has been focused on the Ashes rather than rugby, another part of it might be down to the excellent coaching that De Villiers received from communications manager Andy Colquhoun.

But De Villiers also deserves kudos for the way he has pulled his act together when it comes to answering questions from the media. While what he says may at times be debated, the way he said it did not leave him open to sanction from an administration that are known to have laid down the law in a very strict way on his verbal outbursts.

That said, there are still too many question marks over the Bok performances for De Villiers to be safe in everyone’s eyes, and arguably only a completed Grand Slam could have seen him arrive home with complete faith restored after the disasters of the Tri-Nations season.

The high points on the playing field were undeniably the first 60 minutes of the two matches against the strongest teams they played against – Ireland and England. But if the Boks showed at Twickenham that on a given day they can still have way too much strength and physicality for England, they also showed that give them a bad day at next year’s World Cup and they could conceivably be vulnerable to a team as weak as Scotland.

And in much of the match against Wales as well as the 26-20 defeat in the last match of the tour to the Barbarians in London this past Saturday, there was a horrible little thought that has been nagging for a long time that started to become a fact – on the days the opposition do front the Boks physically, they have absolutely nothing else to offer.

BACK TO THE PAST

This obviously begs questions of the coaching staff, for there was none of the high level of organisation, and the attacking innovation, that we see from the South African provincial and franchise teams these days.

In some ways you could say the best title for a book on this tour would be “Back to the Past”, for that is exactly what the Boks did do to keep their noses above water.

Indeed, the water analogy is an apt one, for what the Boks appeared to be doing on this tour was treading water, or maintaining a holding pattern, and the one-dimensional rugby produced belied the attacking talent that the Boks do have in the team.

One of the unfortunate aspects of the tour was that from the outset it was never going to be about growing the Bok game. The coach was fighting for his job and as such results, rather than quality of rugby produced, were paramount.

Skipper Victor Matfield and assistant coach Dick Muir made that known in the first week, though the message had already been sent out when De Villiers decided against resting his top players, and selected every first choice player who was fit and able.

If it was just about results, then the Boks might just have achieved their objective, for De Villiers is probably right when he suggests that his squad exceeded some expectations. But then the squad wasn’t quite as weakened as some thought it might be beforehand, with the key ingredient for success in the northern hemisphere, the forward pack, being pretty close to full strength.

And a nation that boasts the playing depth that South Africa does should always expect to win more often than they lose when they tour the UK. The All Blacks after all have now completed three successive Grand Slams within the past five years, and with some comfort. On some of those tours experimental teams have been fielded, and they have still won easily.

It could be argued, and with some justification, that the All Blacks should be the team the Boks measure themselves against. The New Zealanders ended the 2009 Tri-Nations season well behind South Africa, but they overtook them during the most recent southern hemisphere season, and the chasm between the two appeared to widen still further over the past month, with the Boks appearing to regress in some aspects of their game.

While the result of the Barbarians match should not feature as a point to be argued when the coach’s position comes under review, the way the side played in the game should, for the performance as a whole was too typical of all that has gone wrong during a lamentable year – there seemed uncertainty about game-plan and although individuals did well, the group did not play as a team.

It’s a defence to say that this particular Bok team hadn’t played together before, but then neither had the Barbarians, who had enjoyed the benefit of just one 45 minute work-out. Most of the Bok players had at least been in the Bok system for the past four weeks.

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