Unless Peter de Villiers and the Springboks stop their whinging after losing against the All Blacks last Saturday and focus on playing rugby, they will experience more suffering at the House of Pain in Dunedin this weekend.
I have been a staunch Springbok supporter since I saw my very first Test as a primary school boy (the third Test at Kingsmead in Durban between Hennie Muller’s Springboks and John Solomon’s Wallabies in 1953), but I refuse to whitewash their poor performances.
Through the years the Springboks — and their blinkered supporters — have regularly complained about referees and wrongdoings of their opponents. It’s become the norm when the Boks lose! But this week’s outcry about foul play and talk of revenge with threats to employ illegal tactics in the scrums in the second Tri-Nations test is unwarranted and simply does not befit world champions in any sport.
Clashes between the Springboks and All Blacks have always been bruising encounters. But let’s look at it objectively: the All Blacks deserved to win last week’s Test in Wellington, and by a larger margin than 19-8. We must stop looking for excuses for the defeat. Forget about Brad Thorn’s so-called spear tackle on John Smit and the fact that he was not given a red card and only received a one-match ban after being cited for the incident.
In any event, I don’t believe it was a spear tackle in the true sense of the word. In fact, it wasn’t even a tackle! A scuffle — no, a scrap — developed after referee Stuart Dickenson had blown the whistle for what appeared to be a dangerous tackle on a Springbok. It was during this scrap that Thorn tipped Smit over and dropped him to the ground. He did not bore him into the turf.
Anyway, the Springboks were no angels and were also guilty of roughing up their opponents in the opening minutes with Butch James and Bakkies Botha the main culprits. In some of their tackles, gaining possession of the ball was secondary. James targeted Daniel Carter for roughing up, but although the All Blacks flyhalf came out shaken he, in return, punished the Springboks with his superb kicking and running play.
Now we hear that the Springboks are also unhappy about the tactics used by the All Blacks loosehead prop, Tony Woodcock, in the scrums. De Villiers says Woodcock was scrumming illegally and, to counter him, the Springboks will also have to cheat and employ similar tactics.
Referee Dickenson is again being made the scapegoat for not penalising Woodcock after he had ostensibly given the Springbok camp an undertaking to be on the lookout for such infringements. He obviously did not see anything wrong and this is backed by the opinion of former Springbok loosehead prop, Robbie Kempson, who is reported to have studied Woodcock’s tactics and could see nothing wrong with them. The truth is, Woodcock had the better of CJ van der Linde.
Maybe de Villiers is having second thoughts about his inexplicable decision to leave the best Springbok tighthead prop, BJ Botha, out of the touring party to Australasia, and now he is desperately seeking an excuse for the Boks’ failure in that department.
I am sure he is starting to realise that there is a vast difference between Springbok rugby and that of under-19 and under-21 tournaments. Jake White also had to learn this lesson the hard way.
Welcome to the real world of Test rugby, Mr de Villiers — and remember what Naas Botha so famously said: “Cowboys don’t cry!” I’ll add to that — champions don’t cheat.
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