Why I’d have gone for Rohan by Gavin Rich 08/08/2016, 09:39
It would have been a great confidence booster for the Springboks had the Lions defied the odds by beating the Hurricanes in the Super Rugby final, but in some ways the loss might have been a better result for national coach Allister Coetzee.
I’m not sure how much attention Bok coaches pay to social media and whether they should pay it any, as it might not be good for their stress levels. But the platforms that give everyone an opinion would surely have intensified the heat on Coetzee if the Boks continued to struggle in the coming Rugby Championship like they had against Ireland and the Lions were Super Rugby champions.
“Why isn’t Johan Ackermann coaching the Boks and why aren’t the Boks playing the Lions way?” would be predictable questions, and Ian McIntosh, who didn’t in his day have to deal with social media, would nonetheless be able to tell Coetzee just how difficult it can become when a provincial or franchise team becomes successful.
McIntosh had the core of the Transvaal team that broke a long Currie Cup drought and won the Super 10 for Kitch Christie playing for him back in 1994, and I remember him telling me that it was exceedingly difficult to “coach another man’s team”. It wasn’t unexpected that eventually McIntosh made way for Christie.
Coetzee is already being pressured by the Lions’ success by way of the number of times he has to point out in press conferences that he won’t be following the Lions template. He was at it again last week. Now at least he can respond to those who think the Lions can just be selected en masse and their template adopted that if he did that, the Boks wouldn’t be good enough to beat the Hurricanes.
There is merit to Coetzee’s point about the difference between Super Rugby and international rugby. As we’ve seen periodically from overseas examples, some players are just brilliant Super Rugby performers but struggle to transport that to the higher level.
To me Warren Whiteley and Elton Jantjies are two players who still have to prove they don’t belong in that category. They are both outstanding at Super Rugby level but have yet to really produce the same authority at the next level up.
But having said that, it should be pretty obvious that there is a lot that the Lions have done right that should be adopted by the Boks. And while international rugby is different to Super Rugby, and it was obvious against Ireland that the Boks needed to improve their kicking game, the basis of the attacking intent of the Lions – their skill level is really impressive and that even showed in the wet in Wellington until travel fatigue hit – should be embraced by the Bok coach.
With the players who don’t play for the Lions still finding that approach a little alien, it means that Coetzee should be trying to accommodate as many of the Lions who have been key to that franchise’s success as possible.
The Malcolm Marx selection was an unexpected surprise as I had anticipated that now that Coetzee has appointed Adriaan Strauss as his captain for the season, the coach might be reluctant to bring into the squad a player who could properly challenge the skipper for his starting place. There is a potential John Smit/Bismarck du Plessis scenario just waiting to happen there.
Marx is a seriously good player and would not be out of place in the Bok starting team. Neither would the man that Coetzee ignored, Rohan Janse van Rensburg, be. The importance of the Janse van Rensburg contribution to the Lions’ success this season has been understated. The centre’s ability to take the ball to the line, his skilled handling of the ball, his all-round strength, are all massive contributors to the Lions’ ability to be more like Kiwis than South Africans when it comes to the attacking game.
Damian de Allende is the established inside centre and he played for Coetzee at the Stormers. But he appears to have lost a bit of weight after spending time in Japan and out injured, and it may have impacted on his influence in a game. The only time this season he’s really looked the business was when the Irish fell over in a heap of tired bubble-blowing bodies when the altitude got to them in the second half of the Johannesburg test match.
After the Wellington final, Coetzee should be concerned about Jantjies, who looked a bit overawed by the occasion and made mistakes that cost his team. There is also the question of international experience. De Allende has that. But with Patrick Lambie now looking likely to be sidelined for a while, a Faf de Klerk, Jantjies and Janse van Rensburg configuration in the 9,10 and 12 axis could be key to getting the Springboks to play more like the Lions.
It would have been a great confidence booster for the Springboks had the Lions defied the odds by beating the Hurricanes in the Super Rugby final, but in some ways the loss might have been a better result for national coach Allister Coetzee.
I’m not sure how much attention Bok coaches pay to social media and whether they should pay it any, as it might not be good for their stress levels. But the platforms that give everyone an opinion would surely have intensified the heat on Coetzee if the Boks continued to struggle in the coming Rugby Championship like they had against Ireland and the Lions were Super Rugby champions.
“Why isn’t Johan Ackermann coaching the Boks and why aren’t the Boks playing the Lions way?” would be predictable questions, and Ian McIntosh, who didn’t in his day have to deal with social media, would nonetheless be able to tell Coetzee just how difficult it can become when a provincial or franchise team becomes successful.
McIntosh had the core of the Transvaal team that broke a long Currie Cup drought and won the Super 10 for Kitch Christie playing for him back in 1994, and I remember him telling me that it was exceedingly difficult to “coach another man’s team”. It wasn’t unexpected that eventually McIntosh made way for Christie.
Coetzee is already being pressured by the Lions’ success by way of the number of times he has to point out in press conferences that he won’t be following the Lions template. He was at it again last week. Now at least he can respond to those who think the Lions can just be selected en masse and their template adopted that if he did that, the Boks wouldn’t be good enough to beat the Hurricanes.
There is merit to Coetzee’s point about the difference between Super Rugby and international rugby. As we’ve seen periodically from overseas examples, some players are just brilliant Super Rugby performers but struggle to transport that to the higher level.
To me Warren Whiteley and Elton Jantjies are two players who still have to prove they don’t belong in that category. They are both outstanding at Super Rugby level but have yet to really produce the same authority at the next level up.
But having said that, it should be pretty obvious that there is a lot that the Lions have done right that should be adopted by the Boks. And while international rugby is different to Super Rugby, and it was obvious against Ireland that the Boks needed to improve their kicking game, the basis of the attacking intent of the Lions – their skill level is really impressive and that even showed in the wet in Wellington until travel fatigue hit – should be embraced by the Bok coach.
With the players who don’t play for the Lions still finding that approach a little alien, it means that Coetzee should be trying to accommodate as many of the Lions who have been key to that franchise’s success as possible.
The Malcolm Marx selection was an unexpected surprise as I had anticipated that now that Coetzee has appointed Adriaan Strauss as his captain for the season, the coach might be reluctant to bring into the squad a player who could properly challenge the skipper for his starting place. There is a potential John Smit/Bismarck du Plessis scenario just waiting to happen there.
Marx is a seriously good player and would not be out of place in the Bok starting team. Neither would the man that Coetzee ignored, Rohan Janse van Rensburg, be. The importance of the Janse van Rensburg contribution to the Lions’ success this season has been understated. The centre’s ability to take the ball to the line, his skilled handling of the ball, his all-round strength, are all massive contributors to the Lions’ ability to be more like Kiwis than South Africans when it comes to the attacking game.
Damian de Allende is the established inside centre and he played for Coetzee at the Stormers. But he appears to have lost a bit of weight after spending time in Japan and out injured, and it may have impacted on his influence in a game. The only time this season he’s really looked the business was when the Irish fell over in a heap of tired bubble-blowing bodies when the altitude got to them in the second half of the Johannesburg test match.
After the Wellington final, Coetzee should be concerned about Jantjies, who looked a bit overawed by the occasion and made mistakes that cost his team. There is also the question of international experience. De Allende has that. But with Patrick Lambie now looking likely to be sidelined for a while, a Faf de Klerk, Jantjies and Janse van Rensburg configuration in the 9,10 and 12 axis could be key to getting the Springboks to play more like the Lions.
