SA rugby in need of skills revolution

 
                                       By John Robbie EPASA rugby is in need of a skills revolution that starts collectively between our ears. We need to celebrate skill, not brawn, from the earliest age. EPA/NIC BOTHMA

‘ What better time to kick him?” That’s what Oscar Wilde is supposed to have asked when somebody objected to the practice of kicking a man when he is down.

Mind you, those words came back to haunt dear Oscar in years to come, didn’t they? He ended life in disgrace and poverty, whereas if he had lived today he would have had fame, fortune and definitely his own series on television. We are all prisoners of our times.

Have you noticed how people have been kicking Heyneke Meyer lately?

The greatest example of the hypocrisy that defines many fans here is the sneering comment on the emotions of the coach.

Yes, he lives each game minute with his heart exposed, but when he was beating New Zealand at Ellis Park or England at Twickenham, that was an attractive trait.

Look at his singing of the anthem. Look at his reactions in the coaching box. Isn’t it great to have someone who cares?

Now he is derided and mocked for exactly the same behaviour. Shame on you all.

He is slated for losing to Japan and for single-handedly destroying our rugby.

Soon he will be exposed as the real founder of ISIL, responsible for Ebola and the designer of the Nkandla fire pool. No wonder Heyneke fell on his sword and typically, he did so with grace and with his integrity intact.

The fact is that the Boks lost by two points to perhaps the greatest rugby team in history in the World Cup semi-finals.

Yes, we dragged the game down with dogged defence but that is what we did in 1995. Had Bryan Habana not charged early, had we not made that mix-up for the first try, we would be celebrating a third World Cup win and Heyneke would be a hero.

The fact that we lost is tough but had we played any other way, the chances are that we would have been hock-eyed.

Heyneke went oh so close, so let’s give him credit for that.

Okay, I accept that he has been in charge for four years and must take responsibility, and that is fair enough. Maybe that is why he stood down.

Perhaps he should have built on that magnificent game at Ellis Park in 2013 when the All Blacks won 38-27. Nigel Owens called it the greatest game of rugby ever and perhaps he was right. For once the Boks expanded play and seemed to embrace the off-load. It was a try fest and a magnificent spectacle.

However, we lost, and this is the point. You do not win World Cups by just setting out to entertain and, had we done so and come up short, the same critics would have cited a namby-pamby showbiz approach as a departure from correct Bok rugby. Closing it down and cutting risk is the go-to haven for most South African rugby people.

After Japan, Heyneke had to win it outright and he failed by two points. Kick him when he is down.

New Zealand have shown just what is possible and, as significant, so have Argentina. You can play the game at pace and if your skill levels are good enough, you can win against the best. Watch Argentina get better and better.

At any stage you can close things down, but that desire to out-think and to run is now there and in the modern game will mostly trump the arm wrestlers – if your skills are good enough.

That is the way rugby is now set up. The Argies have moved up a mental rung. We have not.

We need a skills revolution that starts collectively between our ears. We need to celebrate skill, not brawn, from the earliest age. Guile and deception, speed and trickery must be appreciated ahead of brute force. This is easier said than done. Just wait for the first intercept or spilled off-load and watch the reaction – be it at school level or Test. A skills revolution will take time and we will lose more than we are used to – at first.

Do we have the guts to go for it? Do we have the will to change a national attitude and work together. Do we really get what is at stake? I wonder.

Will the franchises commit and see it through? Will the schools and academies? When we start to lose through risk-taking, will the powers that be and the influencing media and former players be able to keep a firm hand on the tiller? Those are the questions we should be asking.

Well done, Heyneke. You gave your all and never compromised your principles. I would have kept you on to lead the revolution, but perhaps that is somebody else’s destiny.

Maybe you were a prisoner of your time.

Brilliant stuff from Robbie. The many lemming like critics should read this article twice and try to learn.
I only depart in one slight nuance....playing styles are not mandated, they emerge from the collective skills of the available players. When Willie arrived, we became an attacking team. As Willie's skills became tarnished, we became ordinary again.
Looking at the pipeline of available players there isn't a chance that we will beat NZ with attacking rugby any time soon.

 Thr story about the skill set of players really is a joke.   The skill set de[pends on selection of players and the game plan the coach wanted.   During the White years he was interested in playing of a certain type of rugby and the players at the time had the skills to play the kick and chase game he favoured.  Meyer tried the same game plan and it failed miserably.
The reason was the players Meyer relied on was way past their sell-by date and could not change their skills sets that late in their rugby careers.   
The skills Meyer looked for in the WC were extremely limited.  Try and bash up the teams up front and forget about using the backline.   It became obvious in 2014 that it won't work and Meyer did squat in trying to see how the backline and forwards could be combined into a functional team.
Mozart and some others carry on about Le Roux - but one skilled backline player cannot make a difference at all - opposing players are instructed to isolate him as a danger and he got isolated as the playing style got more easily defended against.       Looking at the rubbish dished up by the Springboks in the WC - there can only be improvement if players are selected on merit and not reputation.   To go into a WC with inexperienced centers because the centers Meyer favoured was for some reason or another not available was a serious problem.  Even that could not have been bad were the backline used properly - but Meyer then got lost by deciding on a game plan entailing not passing the ball to the backline players and using forwards to carry the ball.  
Instead of developing a functional team as a whole Meyer ignored the backline and decided on a game plan that was never going to work out.   The backline skills of players were not a concern and was ignored by the coaching staff - end of story.