Another insult to fans.....our teams aren't fit!!!

How the blue blazes after so many Super seasons can we produce unfit teams? The chaps all look as pumped up as a tyre, so I assume there is a lot of enthusiasm for strength training. That pays off quickly as players sport their biceps and lats, and in the case of Jordaaaan his bra. But what of stamina? .. It would appear the NZ coaches and now the Bools coaches are saying our players are short of stamina. ... Damn unprofessional. We may not be able to easily duplicate the coordination of NZ teams. But fitness is available to any team willing to put in the effort. It would appear our teams aren't willing.

The Bulls were huffing and puffing after 25 minutes in some of the games overseas. They bumbled around and somehow kept the score within reason, only to completely fall apart after half time- . as each ruck seemed like a mile away 
It is not just poor defence, they are too slow to reorganise the defence once a clean break has been made.
Even PDivvy said as much that our players are not conditioned for SuperRugby, or perhaps any rugby. 
It is obvious that our creatine zombies spend too much time in the gym, and less time actually developing skills playing the game as touch rugby or not contact etc, etc.  Some of our players like Fat Albert look like they would struggle to reach their own toes- which explains how poor they are at the ruck

 Well, one can scroll back the clock to the start of professional rugby when the Oz strategy was to run our teams ragged in the first 20 minutes.....it was no secret, even our chaps knew of it.
In other words, 25 years later nothing has changed, we haven't learnt..

 Are SA Super Rugby teams fit enough?

With three of South Africa’s Super Rugby franchises losing to their New Zealand counterparts this..

.SA sides ‘not up to NZ level of conditioning’

09 May, 12:59 - South African sides are “not up to the level” of conditioning that New Zealand franchises are at in Vodacom...

 Old news - the issue was mentioned in the local media repeatedly.   Even in various discussions on the issue of for instance POllard it was clear that he was not matchfit and has lost pace.
The Bulls and to a slightly lesser extent the Cheeetahs are the main culprits in this case.  The Lions are the fittest of the SA teams, followd by the Sharks, te Kings and then the Stormers - the losses of the latter team against the NZ side are due to oher reasons s discussed.  
We know the Cheetahs are not a team of big names and they are to be droped from Super Rugby - but the real scandal in this case is the Bulls,   Both the Bulls coach, fitness coach and captain are to be blamed for the mess and all three should be replaced.

 
And who's to blame for this?

Surely the coach should be taken to task for this?

 Preach!

 
Huh?

 CC
100% correct about the coach - but others should suffer the same fate.

 preach"Preach" has no single meaning, but is used to convey a casual sense of affirmation, acknowledgement, Said in agreement, something that is real, absolute, well said, a person dropping mad knowledge, 

Or to indicate that something has impressed you favorably. 

 
Why thank you, Plum.

Never understood this shortcoming of ours - really no excuse for it.
Interesting that it seemed one of the major beefs that the Lions players had with the NZ'er Mitchell was the intense training and conditioning program he had them on. 

 Preach!

oimatey
You are correct about the training regime of Mitchell.  The issue turned into a breakdown of relationship between him and  Strauss - the Lions captain at the time - as well as Jantjies,  The latter followed an incident in a game against WP in which Jantjies was so bad Mitchell replaced him early and balled him out afterwards.
They wrote a letter of complaint signed by all players to the then President of the Lions Franchise against Mitchell containing all kinds of allegations against Mitchell and he was fired by the Union President.   The matter ended up at a CCMA Hearing - where only Strauss and Jantjies turned up to give evidence and it was found that the letter was a farce - the other players opted out and did not attend the hearing.   The end result was a major compensation pay-out to Mitchell by the Lions Union.   

 Lol Denny
Never knew that Mike. 
Shows how it takes one idea from on guy to turn things around. And often times the masses will fight him tooth and nail.

 Oh look, they've been dumb enough to shoot themselves in the foot, typically couldn't tell the wood from the trees when there were good coaches around like Plum, Mitchell and even Campese. Even if a good thing crept up from behind and gave them a smack across the chops they'd still not recognize it.......it should be of no surprise though, couldn't hold onto their own in JW so how on earth can anyone expect them to hold onto foreign coaches.

Two points stand out for me on the matter. Firstly, as most have already mentioned, if we haven't figured out after 25 years of professional rugby that we need to be as fit as our opponents, then we (our coaches, players and administrators) are just plain stupid. Secondly, Nolis jumping on the bandwagon is a total cop out. The Bulls were already being comprehensively outplayed by their NZ opponents long before they had a chance to get tired. This idiot Nolis is just making excuses for his own incompetence. 
The more I look at things in SA rugby, the more convinced I am that our problems lie less and less with out players and talent pool, and more and more with our coaches and the overall rugby philosophy. One good coach, Ackerman, took a team of nobody's and created a truly competitive side. Three years ago, all of us on this site, upon looking at the current line-up at the Lions, would have said they were a bunch of talentless wannabees destined to dwell at the bottom of the Super Rugby log. Yet here we are three years later, and they are genuine title contenders.      

 
The players under Snorre dictated terms to him. He submitted himself to their authority and let them have their way. To add to this some very poor decisions (selecting John Smit etc) were made which resulted in being embarrassed at the WC.

Similar things took place at the Lions. Mitch who is known as a disciplinarian wasn't supported by management and this opened the doors to disaster. Instead of disciplining the players, as they should have, they paved the way for a rebellion. Players thought they could make demands.

We have an unfit Bulls team. Why? Where is the discipline? Why are players being left to carry on as they please? Surely there's a set rules in place to abide by?

How many times have we heard that what our teams practiced during the week in  preparation for the coming match was never brought onto the field at all? Why is this tolerated?

We need coaches with spines to take charge. We need discipline to be brought back.

There is no way that we'll move forward with this level of sloppiness.