Bok supporters keep shifting the goalposts

Four weeks ago, if you had asked Bok supporters what they expected from the 2010 Grand Slam Tour given:

1. A rancid Tri-Nations;
2. An under fire coaching team;
3. Thirteen top internationals missing;
4. Key players at the end of a gruelling season; and
5. The usual game-changing matter of Northern Hemisphere winter conditions.

You would have been lucky to find those who believed the Boks could come away with the results they have. All the talk before the tour was of doom and gloom, with some finding a personal silver lining in the belief that losing all four Tests would account for the tenure of Pieter de Villiers. Had you gone around to pubs countrywide and offered Bok supporters tight wins over Ireland and Wales as well as a dominant crushing of England, in return for a four-point reverse against Scotland and Stuart Dickinson, most would have bitten your arm off.

So why then are most in Bok country still pessimistic about matter going forward. Yes the All Blacks have daylight between them and the rest of world rugby. The Boks seem tired, and while a game plan is apparent, the players seem to lack the finesse and focus to pull it off, and the coach is under pressure and widely unpopular. The skipper himself, while injured, remains a doubt in the minds of many who believe there are better alternatives both in his position and to lead the team.

But a cursory look back at recent history will reveal that:

1. The All Blacks always set the pace in between World Cups. In 2007 we were so far off the pace we were ranked fourth in the world entering the tournament.
2. The Boks have won two World Cups with coaches who only got the nation behind them once the tournament was imminent and it was nigh on impossible he would be changed.
3. Francois Pienaar and John Smit were never everyone’s first choice both in their positions and as skippers leading up to World Cups. Remember the Tiaan Strauss vs Francois Pienaar north-south divide?
4. The Boks results in the years leading up to the World Cups were not the most promising. In fact the Boks went into the last World Cup ranked just fourth in the World and with a dismal recent record against the teams above them in the rankings.
5. In 1995 we beat France, Australia and New Zealand (the latter two narrowly) at home. In 2007, we didn’t even play them.
6. In 1995 there was a concern that physicality and pride aside, the Boks were way off the mark in terms of tactics and thinking. In 2007, we had great defence and a team that had largely played together for a long time, even if they spent that time being spanked by the big boys. But there were concerns that our bluntness on attack would see us fall short.
7. In 2007, there was a concern over the depth in the Bok ranks that was cruelly exposed against Tonga, before the first choice cavalry charged on to seal the win for us.
8. 2009 was the only year where Super 14 success and Tri-Nations success occurred in the same year.

In 2010 we have a team shorn of many starts, and World Cup winners lose a Grand Slam thanks to poor execution on their part and even worse refereeing while holding off their toughest opponents in tight away encounters, and putting England away with ease. This team having five World Cup 2007 starters in its ranks.

Of course there was an era where we had fantastic form in between World Cups. We lost the British and Irish Lions series by a drop goal (apparently losing a series by three points is brave, winning by the same margin is, however, lucky, go figure), we ran right through the 1998 Tri-Nations and won 17 Tests on the trot in the process. Then we lost Die Lem to injury before the World Cup (he only played in the third place play-off) and Gary Teichmann was dropped for not adding tongue-out, swan-diving try heroics to his otherwise impeccable credentials, and we all know how that went. Beat England in the quarters with a wonderful display of age-old, ten-man rugby, lose narrowly to Australia in the semis, then beat a shell-shocked New Zealand in the third place play-off, many dismissed as meaningless. So what does that tell us about the correlation between Springbok form and World Cup success?

And we all know what that ’99 did for Nick Mallett’s relationship with his employers. In 2007 we were, as stated previously, ranked just fourth in the world heading into the World Cup. France, Australia and New Zealand were ranked above us. We faced none of them in the World Cup. Not that I for one care, World Cup wins are World Cup wins, but we must retain context when making comparison against eras. Most of us happily denigrate the All Blacks win in 1987 when we weren’t allowed to play, having followed HF Verwoerd’s call to play with ourselves rather.

The same team that earlier in the year committed the apparently cardinal sin of not winning four in a row against New Zealand — of losing two games away in New Zealand, apparently a no-no in the modern era. A team that was one slipped tackle away from a famous victory against those same opponents at Soccer City. The same team that will start 2011 with a fit and fresh Guthro Steenkamp, John Smit, BJ Botha, Andries Bekker, Danie Russow, Schalk Burger, Heinrich Brussow, Fourie du Preez, Ricky Januarie, Jacque Fourie, Juan de Jongh, Wynand Olivier, Bryan Habana and JP Pietersen. This with a coach who in a horrible 2008 season managed to get us our first win in New Zealand in a decade, and beat Australia by a record margin at Ellis Park, with the Australians still having a match to play in the tournament and having been in the country for just a fortnight. Later that year he took a team lacking Os du Randt and Percy Montgomery — who were rather vital to the Bok cause a year earlier — and with Ruan Pienaar controversially starting at pivot and supposed revolving door defence artist Adi Jacobs at centre. What followed was an unbeaten three-game tour including a record defeat of England at Twickenham.

Unless that was all the players doing. As were the two wins in the Tri-Nations in 2008. And the Lions in 2009, and the Tri-Nations that year. And presumably the sole win against Australia this year. And Lwazi Mvovo and Willem Alberts joined the ranks of the player-coaches with their contributions to this tour. And the players coached the Boks to reaching the No 1 ranking in 2009. And did it without ever facing easy beats Uruguay, Samoa, Tonga, the US and Fiji. And having faced and beaten the likes of France, Australia and the All Blacks. In which case we shouldn’t worry still, because the players will be there “coaching” the Boks next year. Well, just the matches they will win at least.

Ask any Bok supporter if they’d trade any World Cup win for dominance in the years before. Ask them if they’d rather identify problems in the World Cup year or the year before. Ask them if they’d write off a Bok team with so much quality in and outside its ranks, and with its back to the wall. Then ask them why the pessimism?