Ken Borland

Last weekend’s thrilling Test against the All Blacks showed that the Springboks are genuine contenders for the World Cup, but they have to be able to produce their best play for 80+ minutes and they also have to be clinical in taking points from whatever opportunities are presented to them.

A team has seldom dominated the All Blacks in almost every facet of play as much as the Springboks did at Ellis Park last weekend, but the Kiwis showed why they are the undisputed number one side and the favourites for the World Cup by somehow still engineering a victory. They did this by being ruthlessly clinical – the few chances they had to score, they took.

You know a coach is feeling the pressure when he makes 25 excuses in a dozen minutes at his post-match press conference, but there’s no doubt the last fortnight has been hugely frustrating for Heyneke Meyer as his Springbok team have shown such potential before faltering at the final hurdle in successive Tests against Australia and New Zealand.

The Springboks are injury-hit and they are not getting the crucial 50/50 decisions at the moment, but the bottom line is that they have shown a disappointing lack of composure when matches reach the critical final quarter.

In fact, the abiding feature of the Heyneke Meyer era has been the infuriating tendency of his team to play both sublime and mediocre rugby in the same match.

Solving this problem before the World Cup is obviously critical and I hope Meyer will be looking at a very interesting book which was launched this week – Creative Rugby by Dr Kobus Neethling and former Springbok captain Naas Botha.

Neethling is very well qualified in the field of brain skills and creativity and he says the book may answer the question why South Africa does not win the Rugby Championship way more often than three times in 20 years given that we have more players than New Zealand and Australia put together and wonderful talent to choose from.

As Botha pointed out at the launch, it’s very clear in this professional age that what makes the All Blacks better than the rest is what they have between their ears given that the science is there to make all international players as strong and as fast as each other.

The great flyhalf’s main gripe about South African rugby in general is that we go very overboard on game plans. He told horror stories of players who have come to him and said their coach, even at franchise level, came and told them that if they don’t put the ball under their arm and drive at the first channel then they will find someone else who will. Botha blamed the devolution of Morne Steyn from a creative, all-round flyhalf into someone considered now to just be a kicker on the strictures of game plans.

The authors added that teams need to have game plans, but that these are just a springboard because matches are fluid and sides that are stuck in their plan and can’t think on their feet don’t win.

Neethling said the work he did with Paul Treu when he was the Springboks Sevens coach proved very quickly how effective using creative thinking and knowing the brain profiles of your players can be.

The fear of losing is a very strong force in South African rugby, mostly caused by impatient fans and administrators, and it causes coaches to stick to what they know best.

When the Springboks were very close to the All Blacks’ line last weekend, against 14 men, why did they keep trying to bash through with the forwards and not try Damian de Allende, who had been bumping off defenders all game, charging through on an angled run?

The difference between the New Zealand and South African mindsets becomes very clear when you consider the local reaction to Richie McCaw’s match-winning try: instead of applauding the creativity and skill behind a clever piece of rugby, excuses were quickly sought in the law-book, trying to label the move as illegal.

I am happy, however, that Meyer is trying to innovate and is desperately trying to get his players to play what is in front of them. He drums in the importance of decision-making at every opportunity, but at times he must wonder if he has inherited from the pipeline the rugby equivalent of the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman from the Wizard of Oz …

Former All Blacks and Lions coach John Mitchell says a continued emphasis on immediate results and resources not being dedicated towards developing coaches will mean South African Super Rugby franchises will continue to struggle.

The Bulls and Stormers are both looking for new head coaches for Super Rugby, the Sharks are restructuring their coaching staff and the Southern Kings are yet to appoint their leading man.

“It is going to be a serious worry if those franchises make emotional appointments. They need to look at due process and appoint a group of coaches, not just make a one-man appointment.

“It’s a really grave concern in our industry, we’re the only sport where a player can become head coach two years after he has finished playing. Coaching is about experience and wisdom and there are a lot of fantastic minds around. But it’s scary how results-based everything is. These organisations don’t realise that many of them are in a development phase and that takes more than 18 months.

“There’s also a lack of resources, time and money spent on coaches. A lot of them aren’t ready for Super Rugby level and I don’t believe in the whole system at the moment, there needs to be a change in mindset, we need to find ways to get smarter. Rugby has become a game of transition, it’s about how quickly you re-form on attack or defence, it’s about building pressure with the ball and moving it into space, not over-working by trying to bash it through the gain-line all the time,” Mitchell said at a Powerade launch for their new ION4 sports drink.

New Zealand’s 2003 World Cup coach has been linked with the coaching jobs at both the Stormers and Sharks, but he said that although he still loved coaching, a full-time post was not his desire at the moment.

“I’m really enjoying being a businessman at the moment, I’ve been given a great opportunity, and I’ve done 20 years of coaching all around the world. I’m at peace with what I’m doing and I’ve actually learnt a lot being on the outside, looking in.

“I turned down the Stormers, although I could really work with Gert Smal [Director of Rugby], but I didn’t want to come in on top of another coaching group and I wasn’t keen on commuting. The Sharks could have asked me a long time ago and they need to be accountable for the last two tenures.

“A coaching job has to be right for me and neither of those are at the moment. This time I will coach on my own terms, with the right people, I want to play a part rather than be the focal point. I’m 51, so I’m still young in coaching terms and I have a lot to offer. I love coaching, it will never leave me, but I believe I can share and serve the game in other ways at the moment. Being a consultant coach is still an option, but it needs to be the right fit and frequency, not full-time,” Mitchell said.

The Springboks versus All Blacks rugby Test at Ellis Park last weekend counted as one of the greatest sports events I have been to and I felt immensely proud not just because our national rugby team won, but also because of the way they played and the way they carried themselves after the long-awaited triumph over their greatest rivals.

Even if one is not impressed by the way New Zealand and South Africa are steering rugby in a bright new direction of high-tempo play, the wonderful spirit shown between the two teams and the obviously high respect they hold each other in, must gladden the heart of all who love sport for the character-building effects it can have.

The wonderful gesture made by the All Blacks in Wellington when Richie McCaw handed over gifts to Bryan Habana and Jean de Villiers for playing their 100^th Tests will live long in the memory. The fact that nothing of that sort happened in Australia probably says more about the special relationship between the Springboks and All Blacks rather than any deficiencies on the Wallabies’ part.

But if the Springboks are going to win over even more hearts and minds – it is clear that still not everyone in South Africa believes they represent them – then perhaps they should take a leaf out of the book of their cricket counterparts who launched their ProteaFire campaign this week to some fanfare.

A huge part of the Proteas’ success in recent years has been due to the calibre of people in the team – the likes of Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis, JP Duminy, Dale Steyn, Ryan McLaren, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander are all fantastic human beings – and the Springboks also have some fantastic leaders of men in their ranks, Jean de Villiers, Victor Matfield, Tendai Mtawarira, Adriaan Strauss, Duane Vermeulen, Francois Louw, Bryan Habana and JP Pietersen springing readily to mind.

Rugby will be facing their own World Cup challenge next year, but they will also be tested off the field with sponsors cutting back and transformation issues still bedevilling them.

Whether ProteaFire will help the cricketers finally win their World Cup remains to be seen but what is certain is that most of the population will be firmly behind them.

ProteaFire emphasises the importance of putting the team ahead of the individual and the concept of Ubuntu is a key part of Graeme Smith’s vision that started in 2007. Cricket is often, because of its tradition of statistics, a very individual game and one would have thought rugby, perhaps the greatest of team sports, would have been quicker to implement this sort of mission statement of what playing for the national side really means.

For the cricketers, their diversity will be their strength and rugby probably isn’t quite there yet.

Another important aspect of ProteaFire is that it is almost a contract the national team have signed with their supporters in terms of what is expected of them, on and off the field. As Hashim Amla pointed out, this does not mean treating players like babies.

“On the field, emotions can run high and nobody’s perfect. It’s not about having 15 saints, everybody’s different and it’s about getting the strengths of all 15 players together and dealing with any fallouts,” Amla said.

One cannot help but come to the conclusion that the current turmoil wreaking havoc in English cricket is born out of their failure to deal properly with issues of team culture and identity.

Kevin Pietersen can be a brat, but there have been difficult cricketers before who have been allowed to enjoy the middle of the spotlight while still contributing to the team success.

Last Saturday night at Ellis Park and Thursday night in the SuperSport studios were two proud evenings because it showed South African sports teams are getting it right.

The All Blacks declared the Springboks worthy winners of their epic Ellis Park Test and said the home side’s ability to put them under pressure had made it tough for them to get into the game.

“They put us under pressure and caught us on our heels a bit. That meant the momentum was against us, the core roles at the set-piece weren’t always there and the pressure led to us coughing up the ball, simple passes went down. So that made it a hard old day, giving back easy ball  to let guys like Duane Vermeulen run at us,” All Blacks captain Richie McCaw said after the 25-27 defeat.

“Firstly, my heart tells me the Springboks probably deserved to shade it,” coach Steve Hansen admitted. “We didn’t start well enough, they put us under a lot of pressure, and we just gave them too much of a head start.

“In the first half, the ball we got from the set-pieces was of no great quality so we weren’t able to build any pressure of our own at all, which is a key element of rugby. In the second half, we maintained the ball better and it came down to a 55m penalty under pressure, but the right team won and congratulations to them.”

Although the Springboks produced a phenomenal first half of dazzling attacking rugby to seize control of the Test, you can always count on the All Blacks finishing strongly and they turned the tables on the home side before Pat Lambie’s 55m penalty in the 79^th minute finally sealed a nailbiting win.

“This team hates losing, it sucks, but I’m still bloody proud that we nearly snuck it at the end. They never gave up, you could see that by the way they attacked with 90 seconds to go, and at the last ruck the penalty could have gone either way then we’d be sitting here happy chappy,” Hansen said.

McCaw said the Test would go down as another classic in the annals of the great Springboks/All Blacks rivalry.

“There’s very little between these two sides as everybody could see today. As a youngster, dreaming of playing for the All Blacks, at Ellis Park against the Springboks would be it every time. It’s hard and tough and you have to be spot on to get the result.

“It’s a great place to play, I love it here, the atmosphere is brilliant and you generally get a dry ball. We just have to be a bit better,” McCaw said.