The All Black success over the past few years – and their ability to snatch victory from defeat last Saturday – truly made me think again about the state of South African rugby.
Instead of lamenting the Bok loss – a loss that came so close to being a victory – it made me think about how we compare to our biggest rivals.
The current All Black side is an exceptional one. It has lost just two games out of its last 53. That is an amazing record in any sport.
It isn’t just that we haven’t beaten them. Nobody does on a regular basis, and there are several reasons for that.
For one, they are a country united. While we fight petty provincial wars, allow our bias to overcome what is good for the national team and just generally can’t get along about anything, they stand united.
Every inch is done for the good of the All Blacks.
Super Rugby teams rest players for the good of the national team, the whole season – conditioning, planning and everything else is done for the national team.
In a country of four million people there is only one obsession, and that is the black jersey.
It’s an amazing sight to behold and I’ve been privileged enough to attend more than a few tests in New Zealand. Rugby comes first, rugby is the passion and the All Blacks above everything else.
Compare that to South Africa – where the Bok coach can never do anything right.
We have one part of our country that hates the Boks and loves the All Blacks – some of it historical and understandable but mostly simply because they won’t support their own countrymen.
We have a Springbok-supporting public that never can agree on anything. Whether its Heyneke Meyer or whoever as the Springbok coach, you can count on them being lambasted one way or another.
If the Bok coach talks about conditioning, which is poor, everyone says he is making excuses. Forget the fact that five franchises all agreed in writing to rest players, and when it came to the crunch not one of them did.
When the Bok coach talks transformation, he is racist, or controlled by government policies. Forget the fact that Super Rugby coaches haven’t increased the pool of available players for him to pick from, covering their own skins rather than thinking of the national interest.
I tweeted as much a few weeks ago and received an angry personal message from one Super Rugby coach, who said I should remember Heyneke has got more right than any other Bok coach.
But why should that be where it stops? Why should the Springbok coach fight to have his players fit, or rested, or in prime shape when they play test matches? Surely that should be a given?
Injuries are part of the game, but you really need to stop and think why we have such a high injury list currently. Why are so many players are struggling to get fit?
There are a few truths of rugby – experience is vital, a good mix of youth and experience is perfect but in a game of inches, there simply isn’t space to give players chances to play themselves into a team.
Test rugby is brutal. You either step up and take your chance, break down the door, or you get forgotten.
Sometimes it makes me wonder if it will ever stop. My colleague Gavin Rich wrote a brilliant book called “The poisoned chalice” – the title describes a Bok coaching job to a tee.
I’ve watched over 20 years how every Bok coach has come into the job with passion, has done their best and has made mistakes, but has always seemed to lose the plot at some stage or another.
The pressure placed on the national coach is ridiculous at times. It isn’t surprising when they falter. And I’ve never seen the same amount of vitriol in New Zealand at their coach, even when they’ve been bundled out of World Cups.
The amount of sideshows the Boks deal with daily is something no other side has to deal with. The amount of fires always being put out shows the state of our rugby. And more than anything else, we’re always looking for someone to blame.
I have a dream that one day South African rugby as a whole will be a healthy place of debate, of perspective. It will be a place where the franchises work together for the good of the national team. It will be a place where deserving players get the platform to shine and force their way in.
I know we will never agree totally on team selection, and a healthy debate is always good. But some of the comments left on websites across the country easily cross the abuse threshold and contribute little to the debate.
I dream that whoever the Bok coach is, that he has a good working relationship with the franchises, without the back-stabbing that goes on. That agreements are honoured and decisions are made for the good of the green and gold jersey.
That every player selected for the Boks is selected on merit, on performance alone and while we may disagree on selection, it is accepted that once he pulls on that jersey, he plays for the entire country.
To those who scoff at this, think of what happens those few brief moments when the Boks have got it right, where the country was united as one behind a team that brought hope and promise to the fans.
Bok captain Jean de Villiers said as much at his tribute dinner the other night – South Africa desperately needs the Boks to bring some hope. Too often we’re our own worst enemies.
This doesn’t mean that criticism isn’t warranted at times, and necessary to highlight points that are wrong. But often the debate isn’t sober, isn’t productive and is filled with bias.
So when I say I envy the All Blacks, it is because they are able to function in an environment that puts rugby first, when we can only dream of the same.
