Cool heads, warm hearts: Here’s to 2011

As the Boks head for Brisbane, scene of their infamous 49-0 defeat in 2006, the whines about bad refereeing are threatening to cloud the real problem. We forget that Richie McCaw was not offside while the All Blacks were scoring a record eight tries in their two opening World Cup games. Four tries a game; it’s a big problem, a long time since the Boks had such a disorganised, leaky defence.

What’s the problem?

Dick Muir handles the backline. He carried the Golden Lions through 13 straight losses so he knows why a team concedes tries. Not sure he knows how to fix it though.
Poor defence = lack of commitment? Although the scoreline suggests being comprehensively outplayed, if the Boks made first time tackles they would have been competitive.
Bakkies Botha must be up for some Darwin type award for sheer audacity. I can understand why he wanted to mug Jimmy Cowan (a scrumhalf pulling the jersey of the meanest man on the field — that wouldn’t escape vigilante justice in the old days!) Bakkies obviously hasn’t done much street fighting in his day, because he’d surely have known that ‘kopping’ the opposition on the BACK of the head only causes damage to the front of one’s own. I would love to have been sitting around the All Black campfire when they discussed that one. Then poor old Danie. Sucker punch number two. Richie McCaw’s been taking lessons from the soccer players. Zane Kirchner should have gone down in a heap of pretended unconsciousness after taking a vicious (yellow card offence) shoulder charge from All Black winger Rene Ranger. Would you rather get a toe in the back or be hit in the face by the shoulder of a 103kg wing while running at full pace?
Selection problems continue. Can we call them mistakes? The Boks have arguably the best centre pairing in the world yet they don’t play them together. Francois Steyn is lost through poor man management. The Springboks are carrying a number of players who, while performing well in the Super 14, are not in the class required to compete at the highest level. Our second stringers don’t cut it. Remember the third test against the Lions last year? We should ask the question: would the All Blacks pick that player? Or Australia? In 2007 when we won the World Cup the Boks had class players in virtually every position. They were either first choice or close for a World XV selection. We have only lost two through retirement: Percy Montgomery and Os Du Randt. Jean Smith, Fourie Du Preez and JP Petersen are injured, but Jean De Villiers and Pierre Spies are back.

Maybe it’s not such a bad thing. Jake White played some crafty tricks in the pre World Cup Tri-Nations. If the All Blacks are lured into a false sense of complacency then we’ll all be patting ourselves on the back.

Looking back at the 49-0 loss (30-0 at halftime!) at Suncorp Stadium a year before the 2007 World Cup victory. Danie Rossouw and Wynand Olivier and Ricky Januarie were all there, Jaco van der Westhuizen at flyhalf and Akona Ndungane on the wing. We have wasted opportunities against weaker nations to grow and blood key world class players of the future.

Obviously John Smit’s form and captaincy will come under scrutiny if the Boks do not pull out of their nosedive.

The 1999 Springboks could have, should have won the World Cup following the 1995 success. The class of 2011 need to avoid making their mistakes. Dropping the captain, Gary Teichman, was clearly one of them.

We need a cool hand at the wheel. Someone whose jersey can be tugged but stays focussed on winning the race to the ball.

Let’s see if Pieter de Villiers can timeously find someone like Eddie Jones to help.

Peter Church’s follow up to Dark Video is due out this year. www.peterchurch.book.co.za