Die Bokke Die

The tri-nations is almost over and I am $20 lighter. You see, I foolishly looked at the World Cup winning Springbok squad and thought, you know what, they should blow the Wallabies and All Blacks off the park.

Instead, apart from a lucky victory in Dunedin and a tonking of an under strength under motivated Wallaby team in Joberg, I was subjected to some of the worst, and certainly most aimless, Rugby I have ever seen. The bottom line is that the bok must stop with the coach. Serious questions have to asked about Peter De Villiers’ credentials and his tactical nous.

I am proud to say that I have a Level 1 coaching badge from the QRU, but freely admit that all that really means is that I’m able to pretend to know what I’m doing. However, even I know that winning the breakdowns, and stringing a few phases together is more likely to bring success than simply running and passing. In Cape Town and Durban the Springboks looked horribly under coached and the Durban crowd were right to boo De Villiers.

Now, if anyone bothered to read this blog (apart from Spice Unit), I’d no doubt be accused of being just another whinging, racist ex-pat South African. How dare I attack the first ever black Springbok coach? To you I say bugger off. If the bloke wanted the job then he cannot hide behind the colour of his skin when the muck hits the fan. After watching the boks lose 49-0 in Brisbane, I was just as angry with Jake White, which is why I want to give PDV a chance. Jake went on to win a World Cup, Australia lost in the quarters. However, PDV has to consider the strengths of boks and play to them otherwise the boks will be on a down trajectory throughout his reign.

Here is my verdict on the positives and negatives of PDV’s first Tri-nations:

Positive: The emergence of Beast Mtawarira, Brian Mujati, Andries Bekker and Bismark Du Plesis as potentially very good test players.

Negative: Butch James is the only decent flyhalf in the country, and most days he’s pretty crap anyhow.

Positive: Winning in Dunedin removed a large, King Kong like, monkey off the back. Was lucky though.

Negative: Losing in Durban removed a large, King Kong like, monkey off the back of the Wallabies. Was lucky though.

Positive: Fourie du Preez, , Schalk Burger, Victor Matfield ,Adrian Jacobs, Jean de Villiers and Ricky Januarie leave with their reputations either enhanced or intact.

Negative: Luke Watson is no better than Solly Tyibilka, and therefore not a test quality lose forward.

Positive: 58-3 demonstrates that with the right platform, we will beat anyone. Including those pesky All Blacks.

Negative: Losing to a pretty ordinary Wallaby team. We were unlucky in parts, but mostly we were rubbish.

Positive: PDV accepting that his game plan needs revising?


Negative: No contender to replace John Smit as captain.