The Ultimate Cure

Winning cures all problems. While the Boks were somehow winning, Pollard and Faf boasted how they enjoy winning irrespective of performance or aesthetics. One must be wondering how they are feeling now. This will be an entirely new challenge for José and Krutch: Players with expectations and pride. They have had a long time to soak up the glory of being world champs and the number one team in world rugby, without having to defend that status or title. The red flags were there, yet they fully ate up the mediocrity soap served up by José. Now, things are different. After being comprehensively outclassed, humiliated, can they still carry out these orders with belief or conviction? How will José manage the disappointment? Silence the noise from without? There's a sense of inevitability to it all; a coaching team that struggled and strained heading into the world cup, suddenly found themselves with a golden run to a final, and against their best matchup. It paved over all of the cracks. It's apparent that the bandaid skop 'n pop blueprint was only ever an unsustainable quick fix solution that was most suited to knockout rugby, amplifying our siege mentality. Playing with expectations is another matter entirely. Playing away from home, and playing well, carrying a sense of excellence, it was beyond this coaching team. They never had a plan to build on what had been done, to expand the team. The aftermath of this sham is going to hurt more than the present losses. Unless of course, they can win next week, and at least break even on the EOYT. Winning cures all ails. 

There seems to be a general mindset problem in all SA sides at the moment...look what we have in reserves up north, apart from losing 3 (probably will be 4) down south. The winning culture is slipping overall and it would be unfair to just blame Rassie, it appears in all our sides, . Our top Franchise whipped by Leinster (albeit they have internationals in their side)

Lions v Zebre (38 - 26)
Stormers v Benetton (18 - 22)
Bulls v Leinster (3 - 31)
Sharks v Munster (17- 42)

The ultimate cure: termination of rugby in SA.

Putting an end to all this misery is the charitable and christian act to do.

It is all a game after all. Time to admit the mistakes made in the past and man up to accept the consequences.

Mindset, positivity. It's all a load of hot air. At the end of the day, it's about technical aspects of the game and execution. South Africa ranks very low in the world for analytical and critical thought. The Boks rely on emotion, and that works in one-off encounters when the stakes are high, it will never bring you sustained success or excellence. They are also followers, but usually get the details wrong. It was Tim Lane that commented on the South African players, he said they are willing if you show them the way, that they generally follow orders without really questioning what they are doing and why. Then it was Jake who also made a comparison, saying that the Aussies want to know what they are doing and why before they will buy into it. They aren't passive, but proactive thinkers. South Africans are too passive, and encouraging general intangible things like positivity etc is not going to help. South Africa has a big problem with learning.