Damn lies
Posted by Morné - 15/12/09 at 08:12 am under Expert OpinionItaly, according to statistics of international rugby matches in 2009, have the best scrum in world rugby.
Dan Retief, Superrugby
And before I get accused of being disingenuous by one of the subjects in this column let me quickly admit that my opening paragraph, as per all good writing manuals, is for deliberate effect – i.e. grab your reader’s attention.
So, having hopefully achieved that, let’s return to the theme of my last few columns – whether the current Springboks are as good as we/they think they are and whether their “magnificent” year has been tainted by what has been described as a calamitous end-of-year tour.
One of the subjects touched on was the Springboks’ unstable scrummaging and, as mentioned, I was interested to be sent an e-mail link to Bok forwards coach Gary Gold’s column on RugbyIQ (http://coaching.blog.rugbyiq.com/ ) in which he provided some interesting insights.
I admired Gold’s candidness because venturing into print (should that be digital?) is a risky business. Your views are misunderstood, misconstrued and misquoted (ask me I’ve done it for 40 years!) – to the extent that when the 1995 Rugby World Cup was approaching Kitch Christie summarily banned a number of the Boks, including Francois Pienaar, from writing columns.
At the Sunday Times we were a little put out to lose Pienaar’s words of wisdom but Christie, a master of homespun truisms, simply growled, “no matter how careful the guys try to be it will come out wrong!”
Sometimes, I have to admit, I agree with him.
But Gold has been bold enough to carry it through and duly produced a column setting out the factors that concern the Springbok coaches and the scrum, while not ignored, is not priority number one.
It is from Gold’s stats that I gleaned the pearl that Italy, who can’t win Tests against the big sides, have an extremely effective scrum and that the Boks are really not that bad.
Gold is dead honest and does not gloss over the problems in the scrum but in his life, and in all likelihood that of Peter de Villiers and Dick Muir, the most pressing problems are the breakdown (don’t we know that!), ball retention, effective kicking, fail-safe tackling and only then the scrum; a facet which, according the stats, amounts to a very small part of the game.
Of course, stats can be made to prove anything so check out RugbyIQ and see for yourself and make up your own mind.
Me? I’m not convinced. The problems in the Bok scrum presented our opponents with an unwanted psychological edge while my contention is that the key reason for the loss of momentum at the end of the year goes to poor selection and the inability to be realistic.
There were some shocking selection errors during the year, particularly on the tour north, some alarming substitutions and the team as a whole gloried in their victories without acknowledging the role of good fortune.
They say you make your luck but seeing a re-run of the second Test against the Lions on SuperSport again the other night showed just how fortuitous it was for the Boks to edge in while a number of the Tri-Nations Test hinged on moments of luck going our way.
And when the Boks were beaten they were well beaten but we tended to complacently crow about being No1 without questioning the make-up of our teams or the efficacy of our tactics.
For instance there was never a concession that while we were achieving results with our kicking game our tactical kicking, apart from Fourie du Preez, was not of a particularly high standard – which is why Ireland were able to cope so well in the last game of the season.
National selector Ian McIntosh is another who has put his thoughts up for public consumption – in print in his regular column in The Sharks magazine.
McIntosh contends that there was an underlying wisdom to the selection of the touring squad, stating: “Three years ago (2006) a watered down Springbok team got hammered by Ireland on their end of year tour. Commentators, as now, were very critical of their performance.
“I personally believe that selection was the masterstroke that won South Africa the Rugby World Cup the following year.
“Not only did it give needed rest to the top players left behind, but it also unearthed a number of players who the selectors afterwards knew could play at the top level, which was the whole reason for the exercise. It was an invaluable sortie.
“The so-called “B” team that was written off by the prophets of doom went out to beat England on their hallowed turf an Twickenham the very next week (it was actually three weeks later because in between they beat a World XV and lost to England). And a number of those players went on to form part of the successful World Cup squad that traveled to France in 2007.”
Fair enough. However in 2006 Fourie du Preez, Victor Matfield, Os du Randt, Percy Montgomery, Schalk Burger and Jaque Fourie (the latter two injured, the others rested) did not tour at all while the only new “top gun” to emerge was Francois Steyn (Ruan Pienaar was still on the fringes), so it could be argued the turnaround the following year may well have been down to the return of the front-liners rather than the emergence of a new generation – especially as Bismarck and Jannie du Plessis would not be included until the following year.
As mentioned previously the coming down of the curtain on 2009 may well have signaled the beginning of the end of a golden era. I believe we missed the mark with some of the selections, I believe our kick-it-first approach was found out and that 2010, the year before the next World Cup, might need to be one of significant changes.
Clearly some of the men charged with putting it all together disagree and… I sincerely hope they are right!
December 15th, 2009 at 9:14 am
“According the stats”
—————————–
I like to use it but Fu.. I hate it when everyone use it to benefit their own point of view.
It’s like the Bible, people can take anything from it and make it to proove their point of view.
The new laws of the game prooved that you can score more tries than before from set pieces and the Boks did that this year.
So scrums is a very critical part of the game today. When we suffered in the scrums we lost the game, the only game where that did not happened was against the pasta guys.
December 15th, 2009 at 9:25 am
Reply to Jacques(Bunny) @ 9:14 am:
hahaha so you like using it to prove your point but hate it when someone uses it to prove their point
December 15th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Reply to JT @ 9:25 am:
Something like that……..
December 15th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Like it when you use it to fine tune a teams performance but not to hide behind like G Bronze
December 15th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Do people still watch union…
Shameless plug for my new site…
Real sport…
http://www.mmascraps.com/
December 15th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Reply to bryce_in_oz @ 9:35 am:
watch the vids before they are banned… REAL 24/7 athletes that don’t earn much…
December 15th, 2009 at 9:55 am
I would like to categorically state that I wrote my thing yesterday before I even read Dan’s column!!!
December 15th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Reply to Morné @ 9:55 am:
I don’t believe you… I thought you were more on the other Dan’s wave-length… what’s that hockey-player oke from your end of town that does the fine n’ dining (not well I might add)…
Retiefy… says it like it is when it comes to union… he’s a legend!
December 15th, 2009 at 10:11 am
There were some shocking selection errors during the year, particularly on the tour north, some alarming substitutions and the team as a whole gloried in their victories without acknowledging the role of good fortune.
==============
I love it when someone provides
some honest perspective to balance
all the hype around the team.
I believe our kick-it-first approach was found out and that 2010, the year before the next World Cup, might need to be one of significant changes.
==============
Changes – like running the ball
a bit more? Creating space for
Habana?
December 15th, 2009 at 10:16 am
Reply to bryce_in_oz @ 10:10 am:
December 15th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Reply to Morné @ 10:16 am:
Hehe… kudos…
I’ll log back in before bed to see the ERT’s (I love using that) diatribe (I love that too)…
December 15th, 2009 at 11:01 am
Reply to bryce_in_oz @ 10:47 am:
No, won’t see him. Pissed off to
buy the book “WP Rugby – The Golden Years.”
December 15th, 2009 at 11:39 am
The kick it first was not found out at all….
December 15th, 2009 at 11:46 am
In fact if anything, the kick it first has returned to be SA’s main and number One weapon like it was in our Golden Age of 1931 to 1956
Dan probably copied the Simonstown Suiplap.
Duh
1976 to 1981
Bulls dominate SA Rugby with their kicking flyhalf and staid conservative forward domination based style of play
1987 to 1991
Bulls dominate SA rugby with theri staid kicking based forwards domination style of play
2002 to date
Bulls dominate SA rugby with their forwards and kicker dominated style of play
2007 to 2009 Boks dominate world rugby with their staid forwards dominated strong kicker style of play…
Same as they did in the olden days of Hansie Brewis and Gerry Brand
Ask GOM (aka Boertjie)
2009
Morne and Dan fail to see that a good game plan wins games as long as it is executed properly.
The times it failed tghis year was simply because of failure to execute properly.
People
The RWC 2011 will be played in the southern hemisphere
The only team in world rugby that ocacsionally wins games down here is France…
And France for some reason have a mental block over Argentina…
So the only NH team to worry about in 2011 is actually France…. who will have one giant killing act and one crap game…
In that order…
December 15th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Reply to DavidS @ 11:46 am:
Hehe… worth waiting up for after a very long days work…
“WP Rugby – The Golden Years.”
Neither Dawie nor I… nor our kids nor grand-kids will ever EVER have the misfortune of reading that fiction… unless in year 10’s exam eg of an oxymoron…
Nighty-night!
December 15th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Reply to DavidS @ 11:46 am:
Morne and Dan fail to see that a good game plan wins games as long as it is executed properly.
Well f@$^ duh!
Thanks for stating the obvious!
What you forgot to include there is:
Morne and Dan fail to see that ANY good game plan wins games as long as it is executed properly.
December 15th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Reply to Morné @ 12:27 pm:
And no we dont, it is something rather obvious. Problem is when the other team’s is better or more sustainable…
December 15th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Quick question…
Inbetween the Bulls ‘golden years’ what did they do?
Change their game plan for the fun of it?
December 15th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
December 15th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Hell Bryce I dunno
Apparently in the 80’s there was a war that the ANC fought and won against the SADF…
If they can make up these fantsies then who knows…
Morne you chop
You just confirmed exactly what I said…
Thanks for that…
Reply to Morné @ 12:29 pm:
Now I can just recall from memory
In the WP “Five in a row” era they tried various schemes, like Cliffie Barnard, Johan Heunis and even Lee barnard at flyhalf…. None worked…
They tried to run the ball but Giepie and Phillip Nel were just not up to it.
Same in the Sharks / Lions domination era
They tried various flyhalves but none could match up to their needs until one Derrick Hougaard came along…
The confirmation of my point is pretty simply that without the right players the Bulls could not corectly execute their preferred game plan and other teasm dominated for short periods, but once the Bulls clicked their players and game plan it was business as usual with the Pretoria Boere dominating SA rugby aside from a few hiccups here and there….
Your brain is so sozzled you don’t even see that…
You have confirmed as correct my arguments…
What an argumentative little man you are…
Pity you’re not in the East Rand with me so I can have a “chat” with you…
And Willem jy kan maar lag
The Free State’s rise to power in this decade was built on Rassie copying the Bulls gameplan exactly….
December 15th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Reply to DavidS @ 1:31 pm:
No you bloody blind parra.
You simply confirmed my whole bloody article from yesterday where a Plan A, and ONLY a Plan A IS NOT ENOUGH FOR SUSTAINED SUCCESS WHERE YOU DO NOT ALWAYS HAVE ALL THE KEY PLAYERS TO EXECUTE THE PLAN.
My fok jy is dof.
December 15th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
The frEEstate’s rise to Power was build on decades of developing players from scratch, a lot of hard & smart work by Kol pEEt Kleynhans, some gOOde technical analysis from CoachErasmus- for sure a tighter gameplan- some seriously gOOde “journeyman” players which haPPened to be around at the sametime( sounds like gOOde management), a bit of luck, True blue cockyness AND lots of FrEEstate Pluck- and of course Micheal ClAAsens!
December 15th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Reply to DavidS @ 1:31 pm:
Oh and lastly, for your self-professed knowledge of the game and its history, I think Dan who has been writing about and personally followed the game for 40 years would know a thing or two more than you.
December 15th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Reply to bryce_in_oz @ 11:52 am:
Neither Dawie nor I… nor our kids nor grand-kids will ever EVER have the misfortune of reading that fiction…
========
Being selective about history
does not mean it did not happen.
IGNORANCE
All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.
Mark Twain (1835 – 1910)
Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
Will Durant (1885 – 1981)
Against logic there is no armor like ignorance.
Laurence J. Peter (1919 – 1988)
A little learning is a dangerous thing but a lot of ignorance is just as bad.
Bob Edwards
AND ONE FOR DAWIE:
Lawyers are the only persons in whom ignorance of the law is not punished.
Jeremy Bentham (1748 – 1832)
December 15th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Apart from nick mallet we don’t have a
proper profesional coach in SA.
Don’t start with heineke meyer.
Nick mallet is the new dawn.