Write off the Boks for another year

Thanks to the utterly spineless pricks at SA rugby for retaining the utterly useless Coetzee as head coach. Fuck it pisses me off

How can someone so useless be rewarded with another season?

Do these idiots really think a single player will have an ounce of respect for Coetzee as a coach?

What on earth is Franco Smith going to do to change things, while Coetzee is the head?

Sadly a bunch of armatures are running our rugby where selections are politically based

What a bloody sad day for Bok rugby

Instead these wankers could have selected Dave Rennie or Rassie or Ackerman with Swys......but hey ho we have useless Coetzee instead

I give up.....whats the fucking point?  

At a time when rugby is crying out for a Springbok team that will again compete at the highest level of the game‚ all we can expect is a holding pattern in mid-table – at best.

There will be no closing the gap on England‚ New Zealand and Ireland at the top of the game in 2017.

Coetzee’s first year in charge yielded a 33% winning ratio – four wins out of 12 Tests – which alone should have been enough to have been sacked.

But that only tells a small part of the story‚ which has been well documented over the previous months of his tenure.

Poor selections‚ muddled gameplans‚ porous defence and regression rather than improvement over the course of last season do not suggest any miraculous turnaround just because Franco Smith has been added to the coaching staff.

Smith‚ the Cheetahs coach‚ has a good track record and will no doubt add some value to the Bok set-up‚ and Brendan Venter‚ the well remunerated consultant coach‚ will also bring huge vats of rugby IQ when he is formally unveiled as ‘defence coach’.

But like a government with a president out of touch‚ all the best people in the world won’t be able to carry out their work if the boss undoes it with one or two bad judgement calls.

On last year’s November Tour to Britain and Italy‚ this correspondent spoke to several people in the squad and there was discord over tactics and team culture.

How is that suddenly going to be rectified with all the same personnel in place‚ bar one?

The outlier is backline coach Mzwandile Stick‚ who was never appointed by Coetzee it has to be said.

He is the only casualty in the coaching reshuffle announced this week.

Stick is inexperienced and was too hastily ushered to the top table of rugby‚ but equally his influence in the squad set-up was so minimal that sacking him – and that’s what it was – was unfair.

Smith essentially took over Stick’s duties on the November tour‚ in an embarrassing situation for both parties‚ but performances were worse.

That is not a sleight aimed at Smith either as he was parachuted into the squad days before it departed. What was he supposed to do in a handful of sessions?

The entire set-up and planning last year was a shambles and Coetzee’s late appointment has been used as an excuse for why matters deteriorated so alarmingly last season.

But if anything‚ the Boks should have been worse at the beginning of the 2016 international season and gradually improved over the course of the year as Coetzee put his plan into action.

Yet they won three of their first four Tests and then lost seven of the next eight‚ including to Italy in Florence.

The excuse that there was no time to plan and prepare doesn’t hold up when matters became worse the more time the squad spent together.

There are myriad reasons why SA Rugby retained Coetzee‚ some which will only be known to the inner circle.

For one‚ there aren’t too many ‘world-class’ coaches out of contract at the moment so finding a replacement isn’t easy or cheap.

Secondly it would have cost a huge amount to sack the incumbent because his performance clause doesn’t kick in until year two of his four-year contract (how that was agreed is a mystery).

There was also political pressure to retain Coetzee and the only solution around the problem was a typical South African rugby answer – fit a square peg into a round hole by adding more lieutenants to prop up an ailing general.

In a statement on Monday Coetzee promised improvement‚ which when you consider the current standard‚ isn’t promising much at all.

He also continued with the line that 2016 was ‘unacceptable’ and that there were ‘no excuses’.

Because it’s so bad that no one is even bothering to come up with any excuses anymore.

It’s all just hot air that the rugby public must inhale without question."

In an article in the papers last year it was stated that Coetzee lost the change room -  and that remains the situation.   Coetzee always was a sub-par coach and nothing will change in the year to come.    He is still in charge and the assistant coaches will have to put up with his selection BS.      

Moz you are speaking utter crap as usual……look no further than Lancaster vs Eddie Jones as a coach……under Lancaster England were a bunch of no hopers, under Eddie Jones the exact same players are now on the verge of breaking a record……you spot the difference???

We have more talent than England have by some distance…….there are very few world beaters in the England side……it’s a confident, well drilled side thanks to Eddie empowering them and giving them direction in the modern way the game is played…….gone is the crash bash under Lancaster, the same outdated model useless Coetzee employs

As for no wings……..what utter rubbish…….Combrink, Ulengo, Ismiel, Senatla, Kolbe, Sergel Petersen and Skosan are all better than anything England have to offer other than Watson

As for centres……..de Allende, Jessie Kriel, Serfontein, Odendaal, Frans Venter, Vorster, Janse v/Rensburg and Am are all far far better than the likes of average Farrell and little Joseph

We have class acts at 9 in Faf, Hougaard and Reinach………….Faf was simply brilliant for the Lions last year, but supressed under Coetzee, Hougaard was brilliant playing here in the UK

As for loosies, the only England loosie that would live with the standard we have on board is Billy…….the likes of Haskell, Robshaw and Wood are as bog ordinary as they come

We have more depth in the loosies than ever……..Marcel Coetzee, Jaco Kriel, Carr, Kolisi, Notshe, Labs, Kwagga, Jacques du Plessis, Kirsten, du Preez x 2, Elstatdt, Oupa, Mtembu, Arno Botha, Liebenberg, Ackerman, Brink etc

With the young talent we have at our disposal, something England only can dream of, we should be riding the crest of a wave under a merit coach. Last I checked we had a SA side in the Super final last year and the likes of the Bulls and Stormers under new coaches were certainly heading in the right direction. This years Super comp has only just started so the pass judgement is slightly premature.

The likes of Dave Rennie, Rassie, Ackerman/Swys would have us challenging the Kiwi’s for top honours – hell look what they have to work with:

15. Willie / Gelant / Coetzee

14. Combrink / Ulengo / Ismiel / v/Wyk

13. Jessie Kriel / Janse v/Rensburg / Vorster / Am

12. de Allende / Serfontein / Odendaal / Frans Venter / du Preez

11. Senatla / Sergel Petersen / Kolbe / Skosan

10. Pollard / Jantjies / Lambie / Goosen

9. Faf / Hougaard / Reinach/ Groom

1. Kitshoff / Nyakane / du Toit / Pierre Schoeman / Kebble

2. Bismark / Marx / Akers / Ntshe / Scara

3. Malherbe / Marcel v/d Merwe / Koch / Wilco Louw / v/Dyk / Coenie

4. Etzebeth / Lood / Willemse / Jenkins

5. PSDT / Snyman / Ruan Botha / Lewies / Erasmus

6. Jaco Kriel / Kolisi / Carr / Labs

7. Jacques du Plessis / du Preez / du Preez / Kirsten / Mostert / Elstatdt / Oupa / Ackerman

8. Marcel Coetzee / Notshe / Arno Botha / Mtembu / Liebenberg

In all the years I have followed SA rugby, never have we ever had such quality depth in young talent – it’s a disgrace that we have such an incompetent coach at the helm, wasting the best years of these players

Not a single one of these players will respect Coetzee after last year’s debacle

Moz as per usual you have it all wrong……its as simple as Lancaster vs Eddie as the measure…….Coetzee is so much worse than Lancaster