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Settlers be gone, time for fresh rugby thinking

rugby14 May 2019 15:57| © SuperSport
By:Johan Coetzee
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Sevu Reece © Gallo Images
SuperWrap - week 13, 2009

“You are what you settle for," mused rock goddess Janis Joplin once. "You are only as much as you settle for”.

Those comments were made in one of her final interviews and is found in among other philosophical ramblings about things like creativity and rejection, but it would have worked just as well if she was looking South African rugby bosses straight in the eyes when she said it.

Someone needs to do just that.

As a rugby nation we are what these bosses settled for, and what they settled for on our behalf is very little. It is about time this whole deal they have with the rugby-loving public gets renegotiated.

Take a look at this, for example:

“We made some wrong decisions at times, but that is just one of those things. They are a good team and you can’t take that away from them,” is how Bulls coach Pote Human settled for another embarrassing loss at the once-formidable Loftus Versfeld on Friday night.

On behalf of Bulls fans the world over he publicly settled for it being “just one of those things” if his team finishes an evening with more mistakes than can be found in a late-night casualty ward reeking of alcohol. He settled for losing badly against a good team because “you can’t take that away from them”.

Can you remember ever accepting such a deal with the teams you support?

“We know we are better than this, if your attitude is right you can do anything and this was simply not good enough,” continued coach Pote as if he didn’t realise that he has just admitted that his team never really cared about the result.

If that is representative of the type of thinking we have in our Super Rugby change-rooms, then no wonder we are in such deep trouble.

So far this year South African teams have won only two from eight games against their New Zealander counterparts. Go back another two years and that count becomes a mind-numbing 9/37. It’s also a number that would have been considerably worse if it wasn’t for a struggling Blues.

We clearly need a complete new way of thinking throughout our entire system if we are to turn that tide, yet at all four of our franchises we are stuck with coaches that were already in the system at their various Unions when I started my SA v NZ comparison.

The same coaches saying the same things after the same losses. Year after year. Nothing changes because nothing has to. They’ve settled.

Something has to give, and that something should not be supporters’ standards.

Now, not for a moment am I trying to overlook the fact that we have some unique issues facing us at professional level in South Africa. An ever-weakening currency and a high player turnover rate continually monkey-flings a fistful of fouls at our Unions, and so far not one of them has learned how to dodge it successfully. But learn they must, lest they resign themselves to this slow dwindle into a state of non-existence.

Our teams cannot compete with overseas clubs financially when it comes to retaining top international players, but that doesn’t mean they have to settle for remaining in that state of being indefinitely.

We may not be able to out-pay, but for as long as schools rugby remains healthy in this country we can massively out-produce anyone in the world on a continuous basis in terms of raw talent.

The trick is for our Provincial Unions to start focusing on turning a seemingly endless supply of schoolboy talent not into just one South Africa under-20 team, but into six professional outfits capable of being ultra-competitive every season in competitions across the world.

That will require a sizeable mind shift accompanied by a complete reallocation of available resources. Instead of trying to retain big-name senior players they should throw everything they have available behind obtaining world-beating coaching teams who, in turn, have all-round player development top of mind, not just short-term results.

The South African team of the future will not be successful because they have a strong first team in any particular season, but because they always have near-equal quality third and fourth-choice options in every position. There is no other way around the realities of incessant poaching in an unequal player market.

Overwhelmed players being guided by coaches whose main skill is re-hashing worn excuses should never become the new normal, but it increasingly is. And nowhere at Super Rugby level does that seem to bother anyone in a position to do something about it.

Dead average is not how we like to think about ourselves as a rugby nation, but with the passing of each season it is becoming more clear: we are not just going through a patch. It is the same old thinking that is leading us down the same old path that will eventually end in pitiful self-destruction.

If the game is to survive it urgently needs new life to be breathed into it.

For us to not to be ordinary anymore will require some extraordinary thinking from those who run the game on our behalf. We should never settle for less.

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Let’s have a look at what happened elsewhere in the world of rugby this week.

Tries of the week:

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Best of social media:

How do you celebrate a Champions Cup win? If you're Alex Goode you do it by going on a three-day bender.

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Some next-level trolling by Sale...

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Wait, there's more...

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Someone call security...

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Coach Swys opens up

Lions and Springbok assistant coach Swys de Bruin finally revealed exactly what caused him to return home from New Zealand in the week his side were due to play the Chiefs in Hamilton.

De Bruin told You magazine that he was tormented by the fact that the match was going to be played on Good Friday and also by the indecent assault conviction against the team's defence coach Joey Mongalo, after an incident in Sydney last year.

The 59-year-old De Bruin said his hotel bed sheets were drenched after he broke out in a cold sweat, and his wife Marilize ordered him home.

"The Lions are a Christian team and I found it incredibly difficult to play on Good Friday," said De Bruin, who led the Lions into last year's final against the Crusaders.

"Many of our supporters criticised us for that too. I felt I should've taken a stand, but I didn't.

"I started getting a hollow feeling in my stomach and thought 'today I'm saying goodbye to the world'. I called my wife and told her I felt as if I were drowning, but didn't know why. She said I should come home immediately."

Here at the Wrap desk we commend coach Swys for being so forthright about mental-health issues. The sport can do with a whole lot more honesty when it comes to that particular subject. The GLRU also gets a tip of the hat for their unwavering support of their coach in such a tough time.

Goode? Bloody brilliant...!!

As shown earlier in this column, Saracens star Alex Goode celebrated his side’s European Champions Cup in Saturday’s final by going on the mother of all drinking sprees.

Who better than the Daily Mail to give you the details:

“Alex Goode's boozy Champions Cup celebrations finally came to an end on Tuesday - three days after he lifted the trophy with Saracens at St James' Park,” the dailymail.co.uk wrote.

“The 31-year-old, who was also crowned European Player of the Year after helping his side to a 20-10 victory over Leinster, headed out to toast his double win with teammates straight after the game.

But instead of changing into his own clothes, Good opted to proudly show off his Saracens colours by keeping his full kit - including boots and gum shield - on.

Pictures of the former England star out drinking soon emerged on social media, with his teammates Sean Maitland, Nick Isiekwe and Mako Vunipola among those who shared images of Goode with a drink in hand.

And on Monday, Goode even tweeted 'Boots on, strapping done, gum shield in - we are moving' along with the address of his next drinking destination.

Earlier he posted the location of a house party he would be attending, seemingly inviting his followers to join him for his extended celebrations.

Goode proudly announced that he was the #LastManStanding in one tweet, although his antics appeared to have caught up with him on Tuesday.

The Saracens legend took to social media to post a photo of his kit on the floor, along with the message 'Over and out' and two sleep emojis.”

Sleep tight, Alex!

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