The delicate if not impossible renewal of SA rugby

It is no secret that SA failed to manage the turn leading to a professional era.

The SA rugby team has been a team shaped by politics from the start and the price is kept being paid.

Obviously, SA rugby was stuck in the past because of it and failed to impulse the necessary conceptual changes to remain competitive. Players kept being trained the old fashion way.

While others took the opportunity of professionalism to think their approach out and further it, SA thought they could do without it.

SA players are improperly trained.

Getting out of this mess would mean renewing SA rugby.

This is when another failure of SA rugby hit the door.

Other countries took the extended means provided by professionalism to expand their scouting and training network, so much  than international squads are now strengthened by foreign talent.
They first expanded their network to as much of the local pool as possible then they attracted foreign talent.


In the meantime, SA rugby failed to include its local pool, which meant leaving 80 per cent of their base out.

A fully white player squad wont be a contender for a world crown. Even worse, it will deliver second rate loser rugby to compete with teams like Italy or Wales. That is the horizon for SA rugby.

If SA want to renew their rugby and improve it, they will have to call for foreign talent. Some of which is going to be non white players.

White player squad: stuck to compete with the likes of Italy or Wales.
Of course not enough for a rugby that pictures itself as the second rugby in the world.

An improvement of the situation will go through attracting foreign talent, some of it non white.

This makes the renewal of SA rugby delicate. Very delicate.
SA team: homegrown players: white only, non white players: foreign only.

A powderkeg.

 No, it's fools running the show. Politics does not have a place in sports. We mighy get better over time, but we will never be great again, unless we get politics out of sports.

Eddie Jones could get things firing in 4 weeks. We dont have great players at the moment, but our players are no worse than England or Ireland.

 To think that Jones would get this lot firing in 4 weeks is pie in the sky. If you look at the stats for the current series of international tours, we are pretty k@k. 
Only one of our players is in the top 10 statistically, and ironically that player is the bumbling Lood de Jager who is seventh in terms of line-out catches. Go check. Go to this page and go through the list under "Player Rankings".
Forget about the world rankings for the moment and have a look at the Opta form guide. South Africa is fcuking stone last. 
Now, just for some more fun, go to team rankings and go through the different aspects:
In terms of clean breaks we are 10/15.In terms of carries we are 8/15.
In terms of metres gained we are 9/15.
In terms of defenders beaten we are 10/15.
The only positive. In terms of tackle success we are 2/15.In terms of line-out success we are 9/15.
In terms of offloads we are 13/15.In terms of scrum success we are 12/15.
In terms of rucks success we are 8/15.
Another positive is that we are not even on the list for cards. We have not had yellow cards.
As horribly k@k as Coetzee is, all of the above cannot be ascribed to him and his team alone. It certainly has a bearing of where our players are finding themselves compared to their international opponents. 
I stick by my view that a player should not be trained in stuff like tackling, beating defenders, clean breaks and offloads at international level. They should be in international squads because they already have all the necessary skills to perform those functions and not because they have the potential to do do it "under the right coach".
Eddie Jones worked wonders with the 2007 RWC squad because they all had the basic skills. He made minor tweaks to attacking lines, defending lines, etc. He would face a mountain to climb with this current bunch of wannabes. 

The current player pool is not world beaters by any means.
The depth at wing and loose forwards is the worst I have ever seen.
We are useless at ball retention, protection and recovery. We are not even in the top 10 teams in world rugby at ruck play. (We are so worried about scrums- when nowadays there are so few scrums compared to rucks).  We have no specialist fetchers- or generalist fetchers. Everyone wants to be a ball carrier- and arrives late at the ruck or stands around aimlessly like a lost fart in the wind. It is like the kid's story there is a hole in my bucket dear lizer.
However, a top coach that could choose his own match day squad would get better results- and remain in the top 5, or possibly top 3.
England made a wise decision by acknowledging they do not have the coaching expertise to get the most out of their player resources. 
It was the Stormers that realised this first- and England flexed their pound muscles to steal the idea. 
The reality is that most of the top coaches are from New Zealand, followed by Australia.

 I agree they have been pretty awful Vlag...but man for man I still think you pick more Boks than Irish in a combined team. There may not be enough talent to beat NZ, but I think there is enough to beat everybody else if we choose the right players. The team has been constantly messed up with flavour of the day Lions players. None of these guys were judged to be international standard by HM. After a full season one would have to say not a single Lions player has proven HM wrong.

 I am watching the Boks vs Italy game & it's depressing. No wonder there is so much angst on this forum. Le Roux has made some pathetic "passes", Combrink is no better. 
I can't believe what I am seeing but Italy are playing well so credit to them.

I don't know how many times I have to tell resident boneheads here there are numerous factors at play that nobody has the least desire to fix. One huge problem can't even be spoken of!There is plenty of talent but it's not developed properly and certainly in terms of playing as a team and demonstrating the required skill levels and tactical nous they fail dismally.Cant see how its going to improve unless there is a massive change of heart. As things stands it's so bad it looks like our rugby is being deliberately sabotaged. Nobody can possibly be this stupid and self destructive without it being INTENTIONAL. Nobody but dense denise Bwahahahahahahahaha