Knowing Who You Are

Why do you guys have such a complex about the way you guys play rugby? Its always like you lot want to become Australia or New Zealand but these two countries always (nearly always in australias case) do it the way they know best! They dont copy others, but you guys try to copy their rugby culture without ever understand what it really is, why it works and all the little cultural and technical nuances of it. In case you guys hadnt noticed Afrikaners are a GERMANIC people, that has a certain kind of mentality. its machine-like, gritty, efficient, powerful, robust and it NATURALLY likes structure and clarity. If New Zealand or Australia tried to imitate that they would fail because not only can they not imitate that physicality they dont have the cultural mentality to identify with it. thats something jake himself speaks about, the culture. he has the brumbies playing with elements of traditional saffer rugby but in an aussie package, because he is big on culture. he said in 2004 that he wanted to bring back bok culture and he brought a brumbies attacking playbook and redressed it in a saffer package and it worked. You see what he did? in both the bok and brumbie case he made the core of his philosophy either south african or australian and used bits from either side to balance the weaknesses of either one. Thats a big part of why he is so successful. So instead of trying to imitate just try to fix the weaker aspects and make them functional, like your backplay. Some of your coaches tried to play a "running" game by abandoning the traditional bok mentality and forward dominance which is needed to feed that attacking emphasis. Nothing in rugby is different no matter what the laws, but each team puts more emphasis on certain aspects of play, the best teams have their emp[hasis but are able to be competitive in others. new zealand are the best in sh because they combine forward power enough to be competitive against rsa and enough backline functionality to be competitive with ausystralia every year. Thats what meyer said as well he wants to gradually build up the boks starting from defence and the pack outward to the backs, he understands that traditional strucxture suits south african players better but that he needs to round that out but by balancing the weaker areas. he is on the right track and doing exactly the kind of thing that jake would have done and will get there even though the young crop are not golden era type players. So my message to bok fans is dont forget who you are! Dingo Deans never undrestood aussie rugby and ended with 52% success in just over four years even though he is one of the most intelligent coaches in world rugby ever. Nobody ever suceeds in trying to change a cultural mmentality. It would be like tryingt to tuirn the German footy side into Brazil, it cant work, yet both sides with such different styles are nearly equally successful in the game (germany makes more finals more consistently). Bok strengths and culture is nothing to be ashamed of, i always had respexct for it, but trying to be a cheap imitation makes me lose that respect. if you cant respect yourself why should anyopne else respect you?? thats why you guys get looked down on sometimes!

 Round of applause. Need one of Beeno's emoji's. Well said

New Zealand have never won a test that they been beaten at the breakdown, hats the key area of their game, end of fucking story! tactical kicking is a 15 man game pal, it5takes all 15 players to back it up. the irony is that saffers WANT 10 man rugby because you mofos want the 10 to do EVERYTHING thats the irony. and what did i say about back play? its about balancing your weak areas not changing your culture, like what jake has done. every idiot hat tries to change everything gets smashed up viljoen, mallett post 99, peter, deans all on the pile. new zealands key area in the backs are there centres, again thats end of discuission. the boks can nmatch the skills but cant get the coaches to get the right patterns. you guys dont know how to use your fucking centres, thats the ONLY problem but you bastards are so fucking fixated on 10 that you refuse to see it, frustrating!!!!!  oh and why should you be beating scotland by 20 points when they can match your pack? any team that can put a strong pack together can disrupt possession enough to cut your points in half thats rugby 101 pal. thats why tier 2 nations that can power play do MUCH better than tier 2 countries against tier 1 who have more skilled backs and speed!

 Ihi you have won the games when best at the break down! the thing NZ do that others can not is in there own 22 still be an attacking threat you are the only team that runs the ball from there 22 with sucess i have to say more often than not it is set up by great breakdown secruces and forwards following the ball up however like i said on the other post when i was in NZ i was the only player in my team to know that the NZ would run in the 22! ihi you may know but in england teams are taught in your own 22 if not brought in kick for touch! speak to players in NZ they are taught to look for weaknesses first before kicking! thats what i think most people want SA to become but like you say with the big itmadating pack we have we dont have the speed to keep up in the tight 5! so you are correct in SA have there own special game plan! i have always been told when touring the aussie with run you to death and never stop keep the tempo up! the new zelanders will pass you to death and always draw you in and move the ball to your outside! and the South africans will batter you to death as they only know one line to run nd thats straigh over you! i love the way SA plays brutal classic rugby! but i love the speed and skill the aussie and NZ play with as well 

 ihi to say we want to copy others is complete rubbish! As Moz says lets have the best pack but lets get back some of the traditional backline flair. If you think the Boks have not had great backs and backlines in the past you are very wrong. WE are wanting to return to our roots NOT nz/oz rugby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heaven forbid we play nz netball rugby!!!!!

The traditional balanced Bok game is the pinnacle of what rugby is about. Its what nz lives in fear of. 

Who you are ? Well I know who you were & that was one part of one of the best rivalries in sports ; I.e ABS v Boks. How we all long for the days of fierce rivalry with 2 proud rugby nations fighting it out. So, whoever you are please find out soon. Us kiwis  are getting tired of waiting.

imo to win consistently you need to be able to play more than10 man rugby. SA has the talent to be superb . If you have to play 10 man rugby " because  that's who you are" at least have the players on the park to go to 15man rugby - even if it is your plan B.  Here's hoping. By the way we still want to whip your arses, lol