Campese: Boks won't get any better

Legendary former Wallaby winger David Campese does not foresee the Springboks getting to the level of the All Blacks any time soon.

The Springboks were thrashed 57-0 by the All Blacks in Albany last month, before almost turning the tables at Newlands last weekend when they lost narrowly, 25-24.

In an exclusive interview with Sport24, Campese acknowledged South Africa’s improved performance but does not believe the Kiwis performed at optimum level.

“I agree South Africa played well in Cape Town and pushed New Zealand close, having been hammered 57-0 in Albany. Two great teams played a Test match that people are still talking about and I’m hoping to see that all the time. However, for me, the All Blacks didn’t play to their full potential, went through the motions and still won the game. At Test level, it doesn’t matter if you win by one point or 50 - a win is a win. The All Blacks must be applauded for getting the job done and ending the Rugby Championship undefeated,” Campese said.

Campese though feels it will be tough for the Springboks to get to the level of the All Blacks and gave his reasons.

“Since the home defeat to the All Blacks, the Boks have slipped to fifth in the world rankings and I don’t think they’re going to get any better. The bottom line is there are too many players plying their trade overseas and are earning so much money that they’re not interested in playing in South Africa.”

Campese was also not impressed by what he saw of some of the Springbok backline players.

“In Elton Jantjies, the Springboks boast a flyhalf who is a flair player and has got a good vision for the game. However, they have an inside and outside centre, who can’t pass the ball. The Springboks possess players that can finish (South Africa scored 17 tries during the Rugby Championship), but they don’t get the ball often enough. Yes, the Boks are effective hit-up merchants, they can take the ball up and get over the gain-line, but under pressure I feel that they can’t do anything else,” Campese said.

“Talking to people in the know, I believe Jan Serfontein and Jesse Kriel were fantastic schoolboy players, but just look at them now - the two midfielders have been moulded into nothing more than battering rams and they can neither see nor create opportunities. I think the problem within SA rugby is that no one is passing on knowledge.”

Last Saturday was probably about the peak performance for this team. It’s not so much whether we are at the AB level.....but more a question of how we rate against the likes of Ireland and England. We will see in a few weeks viz Ireland. .. Making further progress means doubling down on the power game. A player like Willemse, making Wilco a starter. In the backs why not give Rohan a shot. He is pure power at 12, a classical Bok centre. Sure his defence needs work but Steppie routinely misses a quarter of his tackles.

Campo is getting senile early on like many Ozzie do.
He assumes nothing can be learnt and nothing changed. That is a dangerous assumption especially with a guy like Dr Brendon Venter around. Of course we need to play the power game its our competitive advantage. But anybody suggesting the Boks of old never had great backlines is a  rugby noob!
If Ou Coetzee does what he is told (or even allowed to do by the anc) to do we can field a very good back..A few tweaks in the backline and the backs can be pretty  good with the right coaching.
The Boks can't get better. Zip it Campo you are making an ass of yourself not for he first time.Finally Campo should just be honest and admit the Boks did enough to win this test comfortably. What would this warped Ozzie have said then. Hahahahahhaha  No forget about ou Campo, he is still hurting about being smoked by Pieter Hendricks like he was standing still on that fateful day at Newlands in the World Cup.  

 “Talking to people in the know, I believe Jan Serfontein and Jesse Kriel were fantastic schoolboy players, but just look at them now - the two midfielders have been moulded into nothing more than battering rams and they can neither see nor create opportunities.
Campo has it right, blind Frikkie has it right, everyone else in this forum has it right excepting for the Jihadi. There isn't a single go-to man in the backline and there won't be unless Coetzee gets rid of the two battering rams. Going by the last test there is hope for the Boks with good selections starting with the backline where it's blatantly obvious that speed, vision and skill are in short supply.
Houston we have a problem......

 Got to have  the vision and timing to put your man into space ,big ask when all your told to do is head down and pump those legs !

 Denny is it true that beandik has made common cause with the his local muslim Imam ? After all they are both god bothering ,homophobic anti-semetic  racists with zero knowledge of rugby .

Indeed, as I've said before, I think Baboon-ou would be very surprised by how much he has in common with the more loony and fundamentalist muslims.

“Talking to people in the know, I believe Jan Serfontein and Jesse Kriel were fantastic schoolboy players, but just look at them now - the two midfielders have been moulded into nothing more than battering rams and they can neither see nor create opportunities. I think the problem within SA rugby is that no one is passing on knowledge.”
Now Camnpo and well know board morons think that these two youngsters can't learn if properly coached. That they cant be more than battering rams. That the brilliance they showe das schoiolboys cannot be revived. MAn how dumb is that. In any event to call them battering rams is inaccurate, they are doing more than being purely battering rams!!!
Beeno as usual well ahead of the game whilst dumbass halfwits suck up the BS. Bwahahahhahahahahaha
Rooiwit are you still sleeping all wrapped up in your ISIS blanket, I am sure dense denise is! hahahahahaha haha

 @Wardad
The Baboon is not allowed out of it's enclosure, it's just to damn dangerous so the Imam visits him once a week to deliver his Koran readings and his usual feed of bananas. 

Give the kids a break, they are both still 23 and can get better in the next couple of seasons. It is a pity that Serfontein is going overseas as I think he would have benefited being coached by Mitchell

They may or they may not get better Corn....but the thing is so many posters were convinced they were world beaters 2 years ago.

 ..... can get better in the next couple of seasons
Sure they can but who or what exactly is going to bring that about? I wouldn't leave it to....chance.

Centres usually show early....JDV was a proven international star at 23.

 Beeno
Campo is residing in KwaZulu-Natal as far as I know.   He is fully aware about the situation in SA Rugby - so don't write him off completely.
Where I do agree with him is about the centers.   I do not think that Serfontein and Kriel is the answer,   Although the two showed promise  as  players when they played Under 20 rugby - both made the simpleton decisions to play for the Bulls where they were submitted to the idiotic Ludeke.   The place became the graveyard for centers under him - he did not allow for any center play and they had to play to versions only -
*   the kick and chase game with Morne at flyhalf initially and then under Pollard - who was also nearly destroyed by the same game plan; and
*   mindless crashballing with no idea that centers are there for anything else bar defending.
The same result was achieved by Meyer - another example of a clueless coach of backline players,   He selected centers and also Pollard - yet when the cards were down in the WC - he chose a game plan where the flyhalf was replaced by a loosie and reducing the role of the flyhalf to that of a kicking dummy.   Meyer was the one who made the classical remark that SA players do not have the skill set to play ball-in-hand rugby.   
However, all is not lost with regard to Serfontein and Kriel as centers.   Under new management they may yet recover their early promise.   Mitchell showed what can be done by the skill-deficient SA players  - one just have to look at what he did to Jackson  and Odendaal in teaching them running lines and passing of balls in record time as was evident in the game on Friday.  the same could happen in the case of other centers - where Venter is showing them how to defend and Smith can yet get to a stage where they are useful centers.
Where I do not share the opinion of Campo is about Jantjies.   Jantjies will always cave in under pressure and he has had enough time to show that he will not,   I hope that Pollard or one of the other fyhalfs would develop into useful international players.   It would be interesting to see what the next season of Super Rugby produces and whether Mitchell will be able to get Pollard back to playing good rugby - he showed some signs of that in the Cape Town test - but he needs lots of game time and proper coaching.   .

I am still on the fence with Kriel, he still is fast and quite elusive. His defense can be worked on, and as some of you have noted, with good coaching he may still come good. Serfontein for me is just too slow to play 12. Pace cannot be fixed, you either have it or you don't. Rohan should have been there ages ago. 

 International centres who don't know how to pass the ball......

The statement "The Boks won't get any better" is a rank stupidity. You cant say that with any certainty. In fact at some point they will is a much more likely statement.Before the bulle tried to use him as a battering ram Jan had plenty of vision and was a superb passer of the ball. 
Stransky said Jan had a good game against the abs and Stransky was right. Those trashing Jan are overstating matters they are prone to do! 
Personally I would like Rohan to have a shot. He is surprisingly quick steps well and is powerful. Also looks to get his pass away and is effective.The trashing though of Jan and Jessie is absurd.

 B eeno
I differ from you in this case.   I do not believe at this stage Serfontein and Kriel has any real punch in attack and they have some real deficiencies in ball handling skills.   I can remember that it was not the case when they played junior rugby and it is a problem that those skills have been coached out of them as clearly indicated.  
I think there are problems with those two players that Mitchell may be able to coach out of them.   It will be interesting to see whether Mitchell select them for the CC semi - as his favourite pairing seems to be Jackson and Odendaal.  However, as far as I can rem,ember Serfontein is contracted to play NH rugby after the CC and that is likely to be the end of him as Springbok center, but Mitchell may yet do something positive with Kriel.
However, I do think that there are other weaknesses in the Springbok team tha the center combination.   Those include -
*   Jantjies at flyhalf; and*   the loosie combination.  
In the AB test both Louw and Kolisi was sub-standard and Louw specifically made a mess of virtually every ball he touched,   I still think a healthy Coetzee, Kriel and J-L du Preez will solve that problem.   However, there are some youngsters coming through who will solve  the present problems.
Finding a proper flyhalf should also be clarified in the Super Rugby season next year.
           

 qBweeno
I differ from you in this case.   I do not believe at this stage Serfontein and Kriel has any real punch in attack and they have some real deficiencies in ball handling skills.   I can remember that it was not the case when they played junior rugby and it is a problem that those skills have been coached out of them as clearly indicated.  
I think there are problems with those two players that Mitchell may be able to coach out of them.   It will be interesting to see whether Mitchell select them for the CC semi - as his favourite pairing seems to be Jackson and Odendaal.  However, as far as I can rem,ember Serfontein is contracted to play NH rugby after the CC and that is likely to be the end of him as Springbok center, but Mitchell may yet do something positive with Kriel.
However, I do think that there are other weaknesses in the Springbok team tha the center combination.   Those include -
*   Jantjies at flyhalf; and*   the loosie combination.  
In the AB test both Louw and Kolisi was sub-standard and Louw specifically made a mess of virtually every ball he touched,   I still think a healthy Coetzee, Kriel and J-L du Preez will solve that problem.   However, there are some youngsters coming through who will solve  the present problems.
Finding a proper flyhalf should also be cla rified in the Super Rugby season next year.
           

Mike the flyhalf problem could be resolved by Pollard and Robert Du Preez. We shall seeAs for the loosies, the Du Preez twins are looking good. In any event if there is the will to pick the best we have no shortage of top loosies. Pick the best and we can filed a pack to dominate the wee abs. Even JW knows that!
Pity Jan is going as Mitchell would have brought out the best in him. I am expecting the Bulle to start on a significant upward turn next year. Mitchell will whip these donkeys into shape and bring some smarts to da bulle. Cerudunce windpomp could become insufferable much as the hapless coot rooitwit has been with the sharks doing well against sides without their Boks!

 The single biggest act to have stopped the advancement of South African rugby is the inability to pass the ball and the single biggest act stopping the Boks further advancement is the inability of the centres to give the ball some air, to perpetuate the attack and to create momentum. Instead, the attack dies in in the hands of the attacking centre.......it's been the nail in the coffin of the Bok attack and here we have clowns supporting what is obviously dumb.South African rugby has suffered this effect since re-admission.....players with poor hands, the inability to trust their hands and to time the pass. We saw this at all levels of play all the way to Bok level. It is for that reason national coaches had to cut their cloth to the material in hand. They had no choice.
Thankfully there's a change in the air, it's happening as we speak, the days of kicking the leather off the ball is dead and buried as SAFFA rugby moves to a new dawn. It will take time but the key is the shift in the right direction. As they make that move it's critically important that they maintain their strength in the set pieces.

It stuns me that after 5 seasons of Stepfontein and 3 seasons of Kriel playing for the Boks fans still think these two can be part of a dominating centre pair. Neither of these two are comfortable ball in hand. Step now has moved beyond the inside step to add a sort of barging, stampkar move. Kriel has no clue as to when the ball should be passed.....and as Pakie showed in his investigation, Kriel simply doesn’t bring up the defensive line....while Step regularly misses 25% of his tackles. .. No amount of coaching is going to make these guys a great centre combination.

 I think that in the case of Serfontein all his skills were coached out of him by the duds who coached him in the three years mentioned.   I do not think that he cannot be coached properly and improve - but he is going north after the CC and Mitchell will not be of help to him.  
In the case of Kriel he played at center in the JWC - but in reality always was a full back.   I am not saying that proper coaching may not help him in fitting into the relatively new position., but I do think he is a crashballer and his psyche is in that direction.   As long as that is his only approach he is not going to succeed.     

According to wee Beeno:  "Pick the best and we can filed a pack to dominate the wee abs. Even JW knows that!"
I am sure that all intelligent posters (and perhaps even Beeno) will notice that you all compare yourself to the best, i.e. the Mighty All Blacks. So, clearly you guys are falling short. 
JW administering a does of reality to the delusional

 JW the wee abs are only the bets because we do not have our house in order. Thinking people realis e this!

We did all we could to help you guys, left Retallick at home, had new props, took Barrett off early along with a whole host of other players & your pack was still not able win. We even let that wee hooker bloke Marx have a good game (the ref cooperated by not blowing the whistle on him in rucks & for throw ins that were straight to the Boks).
Beeno, selecting imaginary players and an imaginary coach won't help but I suppose one must remain optimistic

What rugby have these idiots been watching......Serfontein has been beating defenders left right and centre all year.......by attacking space unlike the year before when he was attacking traffic.
If observers cant acknowledge the vast improvement in Serf's performances this year then they are either fucking stupid or incapable of judging a player based on current form but instead choose to define him based on history.
Its like being stupid enough to say that the Argies are currently great scrummagers 

 Dave
Sorry to disagree,    For three quarters of the Super Rugby Serfontein and Kriel out up a poor show partly due to a poor flyhalf.  Towards th end of the season Serfontein was top class  and he continued that form against the French.
However, the combination did not do well in the Rugby Championship - especially against New Zealand.   They were really not competitive and showed no real knowledge to become mire c[able of playing ball-in-hand game.       

Rubbish, Step spent the whole AB test bouncing into tacklers....slow, small and not elusive. Another pipe dream. His Super Rugby ranking for the whole season.....13 in tackles missed/34 in tackles beaten......case closed.

 Idiots? Give me a break! Serfontein is a crashballer and Kriel doesn't have a rugby brain, a nothing player. Kriel makes zero impact, non whatsoever, he is neither a threat nor a force to unsettle the opposition or to advance attacking moves. 
Dave would find value in the pair just like he found value in JJ Engelbrecht.
JJ who????....yeah right, well may you ask who is JJ Engelbrecht.

 What is wrong here?   Dave likes Serfontein and Kriel - why others don't like that center pairing and I stated so without getting personal.   I do like Serfontein - but the obvious skills he had as a junior has been coached out of him and I think t hat Kriel is not a center at all.  
He is to my mind the muscular and pacier version of Fat Fransie - an unthinking crashballer - which make him an extremely questionable center.  
If we want to play a ball-in-hand game Kriel is not the answer at 13.      

Serf's contribution in the AB game:
00:40 Serf runs into AB 907:29 Serf crashball off Cronje21:24 inside ball to Coetzee22:52 Cronje breaks, passes to Serf in space, steps a defender, makes 10m29:46 catches and passes31:33 picks up a loose ball, tackled37:40 put into half gap by Jantjies, makes 5m38:09 steps inside back into contact42:07 catch and pass48:39 another crashball42:57 seeks contact, bounces out of one tackle53:46 throws a hospital to Kriel55:29 crashball off Cronje, bounces out of first tackle57:00 loops around Leyds into space and runs 30m down touchline 
Ironically, Serf's two best runs (both breaks down the touchline at 22:52 and 57:00) were initiated by the much maligned Cronje spotting and exploiting space. 
Apart from that and the half break Jantjies put him into, he just crashballed. He bounced out of two tackles on the crashball, making an extra 2m or 3m as a result, but created nothing outside of him. Kriel made a dismal 4m in 11 carries. Crotty made 62m in 10 . Our wings made a total of 17m. The All Black wings made 232m.

 Pakie, in the close type of match it was, his 3 runs were actually not that bad. The obvious problem is that he can't put the players on his outside into space. Frightening stats for the wings though. We should keep the ball close to our forwards when we play NZ, but the wings should not be starved completely.

He's a hard, honest player Draad and his runs were good, but as I said, he didn't create that space himself. Serf will always be solid, we know that, but he does some things poorly, like passing too early and putting his outside backs under pressure. A guy like Rohan with about the same tackle success offers so much more as an attacking weapon.

 There is no dynamic in the Bok backline, how on earth can there be when none of them understand backline play. As for Serfontein little bursts, it was one out, he failed to link with his support and would inevitably die with the ball in the tackle. For a moment though he looked spectacular.

 Naas Botha made a comment once that both Kriel and Serfontein both put the  ball under one arm and then they cannot pass it timeously or even pass it at all to any recipient.   That means they are both inadequate as centers and they will always be ineffective insofar as off-loads are concerned.
I think from what we have seen is that booth are effective crashballers as a result and both are  unsuitable when it comes to a ball-in-hand game plan.   I am not sure as to what can be done because it obviously is an ingrained coaching problem very difficult to overcome.
I don't think that Serfontein's problem will be adequately addressed by his NH club and as things stand in the case of the Bulls I think Kriel would find it very hard to be selected at 13 ahead of the current Bulls captain - Odendaal.   Maybe Kriel would overcome the deficiency at another franchise because he may not get enough playing time at 13 for thee Bulls  to correct that problem.
 

Those bursts were so slow....he was slowed up so much in bumping off the initial tackle....everything died a natural death. Another way of interpreting the lack of ‘dynamics’....in the Bok backline is to ask when if ever Kriel or Step have ‘seen’ the field. Done something that exploits the opposition’s imbalance rather than simply go through the process.....they have zero intuition

 Naas Botha Huh...he should know....too funny.
Ever heard that classic about the passenger who shared a flight with Naas?
He went up to Naas and said Hello......Naas respond s by saying....who are you?
I'm the inside centre in your team.

Haha....funny.