Building an innings.

For far too long South African rugby coaches have been playing it game by game. They very often lack the vision and the luxury of building an innings where sometimes sacrifices have to be made.

Pick the best player available at the time and just try to win the match at all costs, would more often

than not be the theme of our approach, and it’s totally understandable if one considers the enormity of the pressure South African coaches are working under. The media is absolutely relentless and even more so the fans. Three losses in a row from a franchise and the stands run dry! So the pressure is on, not only to perform well, but to produce positive results as well.

The ripple effect of this “tendency” however, is the fact that player development more often than not, goes totally down the drain. 

After the retirement of Fourie du Preez, South African coaches hang on for dear life to old custodian

Ruan Pienaar. While in reality I had no problem with Ruan Pienaar as the first choice scrumhalf, I did however condemn the fact that no consistency was shown towards the second-string scrumhalf! Jano Vermaak, Cobus Reinacht, Louis Schreuder, Rudy Page, Charl Mcloed, Ross Cronje, Faf de Klerk, Sarel Pretorius and Dewaldt Duvenage all at some stage, formed part of one Springbok group or the other, but none of them ever really got proper game time so as to settle in as a second or first choice scrumhalf.

For longer than the last decade, proper development seemingly went flying out the window, but under Rassie Erasmus it seems like we can finally look forward to seeing the opposite. Obviously Erasmus is no one day cure and one victory over the mighty All Blacks in New Zealand, doesn’t right all the wrongs, but at least he is creating a belief amongst the players. He is creating a healthy competition within the group and some combinations are starting to settle. Understandably the Springboks face major challenges with first choice players not being available for the year end tour, and this will not only test the Boks, but will also disrupt the combinations that Erasmus had started to develop. So there is no doubt about the challenges lying ahead but what I like about Rassie Erasmus’ approach, is the fact that he is busy setting up more than one player in a position and ultimately he is creating a safety net for players.

To my absolute frustration, we are found comparing players like Duane Vermeulen and Warren Whiteley with one another all the time. This is rather unfair as they have two totally different approaches to the game. In the past, South African coaches would for example play Duane Vermeulen with a cracked rib, just because hís approach is more physical than thát of for instance, a Warren Whiteley! And only when Duane is medically certified as unfit, would they play a Warren and then worse even, they would have that second stringer try an emulate the first choice player in terms of approach and performance. This is just all wrong and I got the feeling that with Erasmus in charge, a Duane and Warren for an example, would not be molded into the same player but rather be utilized to grant each other some well-earned rest and to enforce some form of a rotation policy. More importantly, it seems that Rassie has the vision to have his game plan fit the players and he actually plays towards the players’ individual strengths. So it becomes a whole lot easier to replace a Duane with Warren, or a Pollard with Jantjies, and a Beast with Kitshoff, etc.  The Safety net does not only get bigger, but also a whole lot stronger.

The front rankers are settling in and younger players like Wilco Louw and Malcolm Marx, are being

set up to become 100 cap players. The Second row also saw some real consistency under Erasmus and yet the development of a RG Snyman, had already begun! Erasmus might have had two very poor games this year, but ultimately enormous progress has been made and displayed on-field, and the leadership within the group is growing stronger day by day.

From a South African perspective, this type of preparation was last witnessed in the Jake White era. I love the fact that Erasmus did not only focus on the Championship itself, but he quite clearly also spared a thought towards the year end tour and the fast approaching World Cup! 

As stated in an earlier article, I do hope that the South African fans are patient and open minded enough to understand that sometimes you have to lose matches in order to win trophies.