Beauty doesn't win rugby games

It’s not all bad, or all black, after the exceptionally disappointing 19-0 defeat against New Zealand on Saturday. Our team still managed to put together a number of very good-looking plays that saw us on the verge of a try many times throughout the game. The problem is that we never had the discipline to convert them.

Since Peter De Villiers has taken over the coaching responsibilities, there have been a number of odd decisions and a pattern of playing that is not immediately obvious. How is it that we can claim our first ever victory in the Dunedin “House of Pain” one week, and then lose dismally to a fairly weak and thrashable Australian team the next?

Why were we trailing to a clearly unprepared Argentina for the first thirty minutes of that game, and does the fact that we slaughtered them with an unanswered 63 points subsequently make up for this peculiar glipse.

It’s all a bit puzzling really. One thing is for sure though, and that is that Peter De Villiers wants the Boks playing running rugby. Rugby with flair. Aggressive, confident and entertaining rugby.

And that is exactly how they played on Saturday.

If we had only had the ability to convert into points a fraction of the brilliant moves we started, Saturday would have been a much tighter affair. Our backline is lightening quick and a pleasure to watch; that is if they don’t keep dropping the ball at the critical moment.

I would say that the Springboks are still a good team, with a lot to be proud of, but their fundamentals and psychological strength has deteriorated significantly since their World Cup victory last year.

When it comes down to it, what makes a true champion is not the flair with which they score tries or how “good” they look while they’re winning, but rather their consistency and reliability.

Our defeat of England in the World Cup final was anything but pretty. A whole rugby game without a single try is like a childhood without a bicycle — rather pointless really — but we were willing to accept it because it showed something more than just our ability to run spectacularly across a field. It showed our ability to cope under pressure, to compete and to convert plays into points when it really mattered.

De Villiers has done some very good things with the team and we have seen them run through some pretty good-looking plays under his coaching, but he will not succeed if he lets the fundamentals slide. We must find our way back to the well-disciplined rugby machine we were last year and with that discipline will come the ability to convert imaginative plays into points.

Although being good-looking might have made Percy Montgomery’s rugby career more memorable, it certainly isn’t what enabled him to achieve 100 caps in a Springbok rugby jersey. Instead it is his thorough discipline and relentless work ethic.

From a certain point of view the Springboks played beautifully on Saturday, but beauty doesn’t win rugby games and I think Percy’s centenary was a very appropriate time for us to learn that.