What we have learned...

A lot of people are bemoaning the style the Springbok play now. It was the case that this was highlighted by non-South Africans during and after the Lions series, but now even among Bok supporters. I have never been one for candyfloss rugby, but I do want functional rugby. One of the things that I have said is that irrespective of approach, there isn't one Bok side that needed to pass more to be more threatening with the ball-in-hand. Increasing volume doesn't solve a poorly coached team's struggles . In fact, what we have seen is that we lose the territorial battle and are more easily picked off. The point I have been trying to get across is that the José model is not sustainable. From my position it was never about style, but effectiveness. By properly framing the discussion on the quality of this team under José from day one, we see that we have never been a consistently good team under him. The World Cup seems to have caused amnesia. We didn't play good rugby all along, and were quite fortunate that three key games across the year set us up as they did. It wasn't hard to see the last three defeats coming. It could have been worse had Gatland shown some guts, but ultimately botched a series that was there for the taking. The Boks have taken n huge psychological blow, as they clearly believed they were as good as they were made out to be at home. Yet, excuses persist. We now hear from the media lots of errant things, and the message from the Bok camp suggests that they still don't get it. If this carries on, we are on course for a very rocky journey further into oblivion. They tried to throw the ball around more against Australia and it backfired; they tried to lean as heavily on the kicking game against New Zealand and it backfired. Where to next? The coaching team are out of ideas and have no way forward. Their preferred core group are mostly losing all of their battles. We need an overhaul, and a real coach. This farce has gone on long enough. The truth is that they never were good enough, and we were never that elite team all along. 

"The coaching team are out of ideas and have no way forward."

This is true.

An expected outcome, the more it is withdrawn, the fewer options to work with. Adding to that, SA rugby had not that many op tions in the first  place...