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A country for knowing old men

rugby13 March 2019 05:31| © Super Rugby
By:Johan Coetzee
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SuperWrap - Week 4, 2019

[embed:video:id=1051974]"Give me a strong tighthead prop and I’ll build you a strong rugby team". That is a quote mostly attributed to the late Springbok coach Kitch Christie, but it really could have been uttered by anyone older than 75 who has ever coached a team to any great success in the game of rugby union.

There is another old-school saying that claims that "The two most important positions in a rugby team is the tighthead prop and the reserve tighthead prop!"

Those wrinkly codgers must have loved this last round of Super Rugby. For once they could take the full two minutes needed to raise a gnarled finger and creak at us: "I told you!"

We should have listened the first time round. As we saw for ourselves this weekend, old fogeys aren't always wrong.

On Saturday we saw in both local games that a winning effort starts with the big men upfront, and that the modern notion of scrums being little more than just quick restarts to the game is way off the mark.

In Johannesburg on Saturday we saw the Lions scrum literally bulldoze their Jaguares counterparts for almost the entire match. It changed the entire shape of the match.

What ended up being a 13-try points fest could easily have gone the other way if the Argentinians were able to score in the opening moments of the match after they were awarded a five-metre scrum after some sloppy handling by Wandile Simelane. But instead of scoring they got muscled off the ball, conceding a penalty that allowed the home side to escape.

Versions of this happened throughout the first half, and if the Jaguares had only parity upfront they could have had a handy lead, forcing the Lions to play catch-up rugby (something they’ve been struggling to do lately).

The Joburg match showed that not only can a scrum serve as the platform to launch an attack from, but it can just as easily stop an opposition attack at source.

This is the perfect opportunity to bemoan the fall from grace of the Argentinian frontrow. Los Pumas were always revered for their scrumming abilities, with their Bajada variant being the stuff of legend. All that know-how seems to have been lost ever since they joined Super Rugby, and the tournament is much poorer for it.

SCRUM HAS TURNED

The opposite is true in Pretoria, where the Bulls scrum has undergone a remarkable turnaround in the off-season, changing an aspect of their game that caused them to be perennial strugglers into what is now one of their main weapons.

On Saturday Liza Gcoboka and Trevor Nyakane made a huge statement about the Bulls' intent this year when they grabbed the all-Springbok Sharks frontrow of Beast Mtwarira, Akker van der Merwe and Coenie Oosthuizen by the short and curlies and dragged them all over the Loftus pitch.

That is a feat very few scrums have been capable of, and one that couldn't have gone unnoticed by the Springbok selectors in this all-important World Cup year.

Well, what has changed for them in the off-season, you may ask. The short answer is that they started taking it seriously. They appointed former Stormers and Toulouse strongman Daan Human to consult with them for a couple of sessions a week. They also embraced the immense intellectual property brought across by overseas veterans Schalk Brits and Duane Vermeulen and turned all of those outside influences into gold.

Previously the Pretoria outfit made use of former Bulls players like Wessel Roux and Gary Botha to take care of that aspect of the game, and as mentioned earlier, not with much success.

Human, despite having to share his available time between the Bulls and the Cheetahs, seems to be so effective up north because he does not come from that Loftus echo-chamber. His ideas are foreign and invigorating, and the players are responding remarkably.

It begs the question: if a change in coaching personnel could have such a drastic impact, why did it take the Bulls so long to pull the trigger, and how many massively talented youngsters have left Loftus without ever getting the guidance necessary to make it to the top? I shudder to think.

LION BEEF

The Lions' scrum successes also have a lot to do with coaching, but in their case it has been that way for a long time now.

With the legendary Balie Swart barking orders next to the scrum machine, they have been able to churn out a whole host of Springbok frontrowers without ever having to buy any big names. Under Balie's watch the Springboks gained strong scrummagers like Heinke van der Merwe, Brian Mujati, Pat Cilliers, JC Janse van Rensburg (uncapped), Julian Redelinghuys and Ruan Dreyer - seamlessly replacing one slab of prime muscle with another year after year.

And despite some changes in personnel, the Lions front-row factory seems to be running as smoothly as ever. On Saturday we saw one of the most dominant scrum performances in the whole of Super Rugby's 23-year history, and in Dylan Smith and the walking fridge Carlu Sadie they seem to have found two jewels once again.

Balie Swart no longer coaches at Emirates Airlines Park, but in former pupil Julian Redelinghuys he has found a very capable replacement. He has also not thrown him in at the deep end. Redelinghuys has nothing but praise for everything "Oom Balie the legend" has taught him and he regards his new position as "a complete blessing".

It is South African rugby that is blessed with that smooth handover.

There is one thing that Balie Swart, Julian Redelinghuys, Daan Human and, at Bok level, Pieter de Villiers and Matt Proudfoot has in common. They are all former International props, now ploughing back into the game. All our top teams should have one.

Together these guys have given the country a whole lot of depth in a position where most of our International opponents are vulnerable. These colossuses will have had a big role to play if the Boks somehow manage to push their way to World Cup victory.

Give me a strong tighthead and I'll build you a strong team. True as ever, especially if that tighthead is retired and now spends his time drilling youngsters.

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Time for us to have a look at what happened elsewhere in the rugby world this week.

Best tries:

Best of social:


My %#$ Marelize!

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What did the cameraman ever do to him?

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Surely this must be on everyone's bucket list.

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Not the worst company ever.

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Game Of Throwns

Hollywood star Jason Momoa caused quite a stir when the American was spotted at last week's Vancouver Sevens wearing a vintage All Blacks jersey.

Here is how a highly flattered New Zealand Herald reported on it:

"The Aquaman actor was seen cheering on the Kiwis on the sidelines at BC Place while wearing a classic All Blacks jersey with a white collar and number eight on the back.

Momoa was seen giving the New Zealand team members handshakes before they ran onto the field.

The 39-year-old, who is of Hawaiian descent, also met the players in the locker room and managed to snap a team photo with them before sharing it on social media.

Momoa told allblacks.com the jersey belonged to All Black great Zinzan Brooke - and was a gift from a colleague almost two decades ago.

'It was a gift from my stuntman Glenn Ennis about 15 years ago when I was on Stargate Atlantis. He was captain for Canada and played against the All Blacks at the 1991 Rugby World Cup where he traded jerseys with the legendary Zinzan Brooke,' Momoa said.

'It is one of the greatest presents I have ever been given. I never leave home without it. It always travels with me.'"

We think it is time for Charlize Theron to start walking the streets with a vintage Francois Pienaar jersey. We can't let the Kiwis have another over us.

Talking Heads

Following the story we shared with you last week about Bismarck du Plessis' admission that he continued playing rugby despite a serious neck injury, we bring you a similar tale shared by Pat Lambie in an interview with thetimes.co.uk.

Lambie described his last concussion, suffered in last year’s European Champions Cup semifinal, in detail.

He revealed he played on, not wanting to miss out on a chance of playing in the final.

"I was in combat mode; the height of competition, where the next game is the most important game that I don't want to miss out on and I can't make a sensible or a right decision.

"It was from a scrum, I made a tackle; it was a big collision. I stayed at the bottom of the ruck, feeling dizzy, everything was spinning, (I) tried to get up, sort of wobbled a bit, went back down for the rest of the passage of play, had some ice on my head, sprayed myself with some water, shook it off, said I was fine and carried on,” he recalled.

"In the back of my mind, I was concerned that if I put my hand up and said, 'I need an HIA (head injury assessment),' I wouldn't be allowed back on the field and, worse, if we made it to the final, I wouldn't be allowed to play in that."

It has been months since the incident (one of five serious head injuries) and the symptoms have finally forced him to retire for good.

“I still wake up with a throbbing head. It’s like waking up with a hangover but you haven’t had any fun the night before.”

Another urgent message from us here at the SuperWrap desk to players of all ages: no single game is ever more important than your long-term health, not even a World Cup final.

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