There’s a good in every bad

Peter De Villiers only managed to win two games out of a possible six during this year’s Tri-nations. A bad feat considering that we are the current World Champions. His starting record does not look very alluring especially if you consider that his predecessor has an incredible record start when he took over the Springboks in 2004.

However, there are some positives that have come out during his mixed tenure as Bok coach. First of all he has been able to foresee talent that was overlooked by other previous coaches and he has also unearthed some incredible ammunition. The first name that quickly erupts from my lips is the BEAST. This young man has been the greatest revelation for the Boks in the just ended international season. Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtawarira has had an implausible 2008 season. He has grown immensely in just over a year to become one of the greatest loose-head props in world rugby, having effortlessly out-scrummed some of the biggest tighties in world rugby circles (Sommerville and Mat Dunning). Mobility and loose play has always been his strength, but he was often criticised for his scrimmaging last year. He has worked on his conditioning and scrum techniques under the guidance of John Plumtree at the Sharks and this year he came back with a BANG. Big up to the BEAST and he surely looks set to fill up Os’s BIG boots.

Another eye-opener comes in the wake of Adi Jacobs, a player that has been overlooked for the past 6 years ever since his Bok debut in 2002. He has managed to silence his critics (including myself) about his worthiness for the Bok no13 jersey. With his diminutive size (as compared to Steyn), I openly doubted his defensive abilities in the 12/13 channel but have since been proved wrong. This guy is a marvel to watch on attack and has broken lots of opposition defensive channels many a times. His try scoring rate is probably the highest at the moment for the springboks. Hats off to DiV for having faith in the player that he had once coached at junior level.

Other revelations of the current international season include Conrad Janjies who gone to stake his claim on the no15 jersey (away from the legendary Percival). Great under the high ball and consistent attacking capabilities, Conrad has grown to be confident and composed at the back. Andries Bekker has also been one of the findings of the season. Superb on the line-outs (dah…..he’s 2.08m tall) and equipped with great hands and ball skills, this consistent grafter has given us a raison d'être to stop licking Matfield’s feet (he can very much contest the “Moemish of the season” award alone). Sorry Big Vic, you’re no more the National Treasure, gone are those days, you better go back to Saint-Denis and look for that “Mighty-King-Matfield-Status” tiara as well as that work-rate that you dropped after the world cup final against England.

Besides these revelations, other players have also been exposed (Frans, Butch, Percy, Matfield, Schalla, Juan just to mention a few)......Not for good reasons, but on the SHOCKING part. Nonetheless, I believe the POSITIVES out-weigh the negatives overall. So at least there’s some light at the end of the tunnel.

Breaking the Silence.......

A very good morning to you all ladies and gentleman. It's been quite sometime since the Coach posted an article on this much preferred blog and i must say the past few weeks have been rather abysmal to some extent, with all sorts of untimely events proceeding. Nonetheless, I would like to send a deferred "SHOUT OUT" to the Boks for plummeting the Wallabies pretentious ship at the Coca Cola stadium last weekend. I must say the 'Wobbles' were beginning to grow big-heads after overwhelming the Boks at the Shark tank in their previous fixture, only to be brought down to earth by the Nokwelishas stirred 'Bhoko-bhoko'.

Amazingly enough, the Bok mentor is still being taunted and ridiculled by the the so called 'ragga-bloggers' after that emphatic victory. I wont dwell much on this issue. If we truelly are proudly Bok followers, the least we can do is to congradulate DiV and his side for a job well done. Let the 'anti' and 'pro' DiV factions settle this on their own. The tri- nations is gone.

Nevertheless, one appealing MANIA that was brought t0 light by the recently ended tri-nations was the DOMINANCY and SUPREMACY of Cape rugby. The Bok team had on average at least 5 players on the run-on XV (Conrad, Jean, Ricky, Schalla, Luke, Mujati, ) on most times. To quote one of the WP's die-hard followers and 'rugby GURU's statement, " At least two sets of qualifiers for the Boks in the Currie Cup.....(Percy and Monty, Ricky and Bolla, Schalla and Luke) alongside other familiar bok faces in Andries, Mujati, Grant, Tondie and Brits......SIYASHISA Madala"

On paper, I believe we have the best BEST SIDE in the world... the only side or team that i see maybe trying give us a tussle or good run for our money is perhaps the JAMAICAN 4X100m relay team that broke the olympic world record (BOLT, ASAFA, Frater,Carter). Otherwise no other rugby side would look this good on paper. Well, all we need to do is to translate this on the field, like we did in the Super14, and we'll be completely untouchable.

We also are privileged to have the GOLDEN-BOY of South African Rugby in NIC KOSTER. For him to be in the match squad despite a number of Springboks coming down is surely an indication that the technical team has got MAMMOTH plans for him in next years Super 14. The Cheetahs must look forward to some serious battering this weekend.

Go WP..........jou lekker ding!!!!!!

This article was inspired by the "rugby GURU", CoachTJ.

Haunted by jersey no10...

I am a bit concerned about a succession plan at the flyhalf position. To add more worry to that, it does not look as if PDV is really worried about that.

If i look at the three flyhalves that are playing in the Tri Nations, it really worries me to realise that we do not compete with the Oz or All Blacks. None of our flyhalves can match the brialliance of either Dan Carter or Giteau. Butch seems to have lost that touch and it will take a while to gain his confidence back. Actually there's no time to allow him to gain it. Meaning we need a solution immediately, coz i do not see Butch playing after the British Lions tour in 2009 (or maybe i'm pushing too further).I do not think Frans Steyn is the answer. He has been tried and tested many atimes and to me i dont see him as a flyhalf. Ruan Pienaar seems not to be KEEN to play there and he has insisted on rather being 4th on the Scrum-hlaf packing order. BEside, he hasnt excelled in that position.

Peter Grant could have been the obvious solution but then he's injured. More so he hasnt justified himself enough to claim that position. As much as he is an excellent footballer, to me he is suited to the midfield than at flyhalf.He doesnt have a kicking game and he battles on defense. Whoelse...lets see...maybe Morne Steyn....But we dont wanna watch boring Dutchmen rugby. He's a typical Houggard, and there's no flair at all. I think our only hope will have to lay on the hands of our youngsters, players like Burton Francis and Francois Brummer. These youngsters have been a marvel to watch at junior level and they have done well at Currie Cup level. We should start introducing slowly into the test arena.

This past weekend i watched Bishops play Rondebosch. There's this centre/flyhalf (Nico Loezedels) from Bishops who reminds me of Steve Larkham. He scored 4 brilliant individual tries and made assists in pther tries scored that morning in the 49-15 drubbing of Rondebsch. This is the third time i've watched he and he has been exceptional. These are players that we need to watch closely so that they are not lost to other nations (like Barrit).

DiV needs to start worrying about a succession plan at flyhalf becase it looks really bleak. Not that other positions are sorted already, but i think the flyhalf one is critical. DiV said he wants to make sure that there's at least 5 good players in every position but i dont think this is so at the PIVOT. Other positions look fine but............we are haunted by the GHOSTS at Flyhalf

1 Butch
2. dont know (maybe Frans)
3 dont know(Percy)
4 dont know (maybe Peter Grant)
5 dont know (maybe Ruan0

THIS IS A SERIOUS ISSUE and DiV must START acting now!!!!!!!!!

Newlands: Our house of hope

Disappointing perfomance no question. The problem is not only consistency but discipline. At the breakdown instead of being all over that ball we tackle and then bloody 'roll away' (much like an obliging wife)- rules yes! But did you see how aggressive the AB were when the ball was on the ground. We were too worried about Matt Goddard. FdP, instead of picking up the ball wanted to put on Matt's kit.

I do not like Francois Steyn-singizwile about how levels of maturity,hee hee dropkicks....kwasha kwa cima.He sucks - DECISION MAKING. The last try shouldn't have been. How do you throw in the ball like that when the men are already on site and if you are throwing it in as F.Steyn who do you expect is on the inside to kick it.

The AB didn't necessarily play a superb game of rugby but they crushed us. No two halves are ever the same. They came back in the second half and had more steam than we did. Tit for tat. We humiliated them at Dunedin and in turn we got immensely embarassed at Newlands. I am dusting myself and moving on. Mara bo Percy bona should call it a day. No magic for his 100th cap instead he was not going to be outshined by Dan Carter's misses. Pathetic!

Written by Lady Bladen

Moment of truth.......Reflections

Are we really the World Champions? Do we deserve to be the no1 team in the world, if a team like the All blacks can manage to humiliate us like that at the home of rugby. That was just disrespect to the William Webb Ellis trophy that is sitting at the exclusive cabinet next to the presidential suite at Newland stadium.

Consistency has always been our prime downfall and we have always struggled to put-down the foot and let the world know that we are the no1 team in the world. Roger Federer has been no1 tennis player in the world till this morning, and as much as he may have taken a huge slump, this man actualy showed what consistancy was about as he took the n01 spot for four and a half years, playing superb and dominating tennis.Micheal Phelps is clearly a world champion and he showed that steadiness as he swam through eight gold medals in Beijing. Consistency is the primary character that any sporting individual team should be able to demonstrate. Even the Auto& General Lions have been consistent in being the the whipping boys of Super 14 Rugby for the last couple of years.

The Springboks played 'shite' against the AB on saturday. All the seniors played kak, Matfiled, Juan, Schalla, FdP, Percy, Habana and Butch all included. To me the only standout players in the Boks were BEAST and Andries. This is a game that the Boks should quickly forget about and it should bring DiV back to the drawing board. We have been patient with Butch and i think its high time we need to urgently find a new flyhalf. He has done nothing this season. Same thing with, Percy, thank you for being a loyal and brilliant player of the Boks, but i think his time is up. Jantjes - brilliant, if he doesn’t start on Saturday then I don’t know. But probably he’s going to have to play wing if Habs is injured. Where was our super lock, Matfield? Nowhere, did nothing, tried to play wing. He has failed to be John Smit's deputy. He cant bring the Boks together when the chips are down. I say he be dropped when Bakkies comes back. Jean for Captain

But the biggest disappointment was our much vaunted back row, who, when it counted, were invisible. Schalk tackled like a demon, but we were pathetic at the breakdown. Schalla is not as effective at breakdown in these new ELVs (totally outshined by Mccaw). He's a got defender and tackler, but i think we need a specialist fetcher in the mould of Baywatch or Brussouw. Watch Ritchie McCaw play. He is a master-class in fetching. He doesnt contest unless he's sure that the ball is winnable. Otherwise he backs off and focuses on the next engagement or tackle. His bridging techniques is impeccable. Too may loosies attempt to win the ball and lose their footing but still continue to contest. McCaw is very smart in this area.

No comment on FdP. He's first game back, made a couple of wrong decisions.But well forgive him. Our front row was awesome, even in the loose phases. The only shining light was the Beast…….he makes me smile. Best prop since Os. Spies must just go and get more game time at Currie Cup. Bizzy was alright but also doesn’t ever pass the ball. DiV should bring back Big Joe.Conrad on for Percy and Frans at flyhalf. DiV needs to be bold enough to make such decisions. We are the world champions but i havent seen this in a while (even after the win in Dunedin). It about time the players reflect on themselves.

All hail the persistant King Percival

When Percy Montgomery becomes the first Springbok to reach a century of caps when he runs out against the All Blacks at Newlands on Saturday it will be the culmination of a remarkable career of highs and lows.

There was a time in his career that he was ridiculed; he had to leave for Newport in Wales to keep going a calling that seemed to have stalled but, at the behest of Jake White, he returned to set one record after another and become a key figure in South Africa’s victory in the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France and one of the greatest Boks of all time.

Here are some key points from the life and times of South African rugby’s first Springbok centurion.

• Montgomery made his debut, playing at outside centre, in the second test against the British & Irish Lions at King’s Park in Durban on June 28, 1997 and scored a try.

• He played his first six tests in the No13 Springbok jersey and holds the unique record of also being selected to start in the No15 and No10 jerseys and also wearing the No16, No19, No20, No21 & No22 jerseys when coming on as a substitute.

• Across the entire spectrum of career records (caps, points, season, individual nations etc) he holds more than a 100 Springbok marks.

• He is the only current Springbok who can boast two victories over the All Blacks in New Zealand -- having played in the 13-3 victory in Wellington in 1998 and in the 30-28 win in Dunedin in 2008.

• Montgomery's fantastic performances in the 2007 Rugby World Cup rocketed him up the world scorers’ list to give him a total of 887 points after 99 tests (from 25 tries, 150 conversions, 148 penalties and six dropped goals) - well beyond the 312 points Naas Botha scored in 28 tests between 1980 and 1992. Joel Stransky is third on the list with 240 points.

• The first points ever credited to what was to become one of the most accurate kicking boots in the game, his left, were the two he got for a conversion against England at Twickenham in November 1997; in his ninth international. Later in his career he also went through a spell of 11 successive tests with no points from the boot -- apart from a pair of drop-goals in the third place play-off against the All Blacks at the Millennium Stadium in 1999 -- as Jannie de Beer, Henry Honiball and Braam van Straaten took over the kicking duties.

• In his 99 tests he has a 66.67% win ratio. In the Jake White years, from June 2004 to October 2007, he scored 612 points in 43 tests (Average of 14.2 per game).

• During the 2007 Rugby World Cup he attempted 44 place-kicks and goaled 39 of them. At the Stade de France, in the the pool game against England, the semifinal against Argentina, and the Final against England he aimed 18 kicks at the posts and goaled them all.

• One of his greatest pieces of control was in the Final when he was sent slamming headlong into a television camera behind the Springbok deadline by a shove in the back but he did not react, coming straight back onto the field to catch a difficult up-and-under and signaling to his teammates to keep their focus. The player who committed the foul, Toby Flood, was not carded.

• After the Final it emerged that he had played out the match, including kicking a crucial penalty, with seriously damaged knee ligaments.

[Supersport]

Transformation: The game of NUMBERS......

Eish, it seems it never rains, but pours for Little Napoleon, lil'DiV. I'm sure most of you have heard about how he's come under fire from the Government with regards to the Springbok composition.

To get to the bottom of the matter, DiV is being labelled a RACIST...........Reason being he dropped coloured (Ok.......maybe black) players (Ricky and Conrad) for the supreme white okes (Percy and FdP). The government, according to the furious statements by Cedrick Frolick, vice-chairperson of the parliamentary portfolio committee for sport is NOT impressed by DiV, the team selected to play the AB at Newlands does not show proper representation of the race groups in South Africa.

To a certain extent, i agree with cedRICK froLICK. Having gone back to my drawing board to find out the accuracy of the statement, i came up with some interesting STATS to formulate COACH'S THEOREM. According to statistics the population of South Africa consists of 76.6% Africans, 9.1% Whites, 8.9% Coloureds and 2.5% Indians. So with a starting line-up that is representative of the country’s population the team should more or less consist of 11.49 Africans, 1.36 Whites, 1.33 Coloureds and 0.37 Indians. Presently there's 1 African (Beast - i wonder if he is black enough), 3 Coloureds (Habana, JP and Adi), 11 Whites (All Afrikaaners i think except for Butch) and no Indians........Sorry i forgot to include the Chinese in my stats,...my bad.

The imbalance seems to be existing according to Coach's THEOREM, there are more white and coloureds than the balance ratios, and extremely few African players, zero Indians. So YES, DiV is very RACIST. As much as he has dropped Ricky and Conrad, there's still too many coloureds playing than the ratios should show (1.33). So at least one more coloured player needs to be dropped. As for the white players, 10 pf them need to be dropped....there is no transformation in this SpringBok team and he needs to be fired. And yes,Mr Frolick please select this team. You know exactly what you are talking about.

On a more serious note, i feel that sometimes people like FroLICK are just there to spoil South African sport. And we wonder why players like Kevin Pietersen, Clyde Rathbone and Bradley Barrit decided to leave SA. Okes like this make the decision to leave somewhat easier. Cedrik FroLICK VICE chairperson, is entitled to his opinions but quite franKLY they SUCK. He should just stick with politics. We are playing winning rugby with winning players - if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Let the public decide. This is a great team that PdV has picked for the and I wish him all the best over the next four years. Monty should be praised for everything he has achieved - he did it the hard way and deserves everyone’s respect, like him or not. Boks forever!!!

Transformation should not ONLY be a numbers gane, but making sure we build the proper structures at the bottom to make sure everyone gets that opportunity to compete. It’s just like in the US where the minority population (people of colour) has a majority of the playing population in the NBA, we don’t hear them bleating about not enough players of non colour being played…. NOOOOO they are happy that their teams are winning with the best players being picked regardless of their colour.

Finally, lets not get carried away but my sentiments i've shared. Dont get me wrong, I SUPPORT TRANSFORMATION and it would be good to see 15 EXCELLENT players of colour WINNING us MATCHES. And as much as we want balance, to some of us the PRIORITY is to WIN FIRST. I have always been a Ricky fan and i love his style of play more that FdP, ever since. But then again with the kicking game plan set to be deployed by DiV at Newland which suits FdP better, we should send "HORSES FOR COURSES". I see nothing wrong with the FEROCIOUS Ricky coming off the bench to terrorise and finish off the game for US. Go Ricky, you Beauty! Dont let these statements affect you. The same goes for Conrad.

Go Bokke!!!!!!