Getting the right players together, getting them fit and winning is new South African coach Kitch Christie’s aim
RUGBY: Jon Swift
IN A society, indeed in a game which consumes the interest of a not insignificant portion of that society, the new South African coach Kitch Christie has conducted a klopjag which has shaken not a few sensibilities.
It must be said that not least of these are those of the 19 players — and their respective provincial administrators and supporters — Christie has discarded from the New Zealand tour party.
Christie’s elevation to the national coaching job after his notable successes with Transvaal signals a move away from some of the ingrained problems which have bedevilled this country’s stormy return to the international fold.
First, and by far the most important, is the fact that the coach has finally been allowed to gather all the reins of team power in his hands. As the convenor of the three-man national selection committee, Christie has far more influence on the make-up of the squad which will be refined to contest next year’s World Cup in this country.
Unlike his predecessor Ian McIntosh he has the direct line to co-selectors Hannes Marais — the former convenor of the earlier unwieldy seven-man panel — and Dougie Dyers. It is a far more sensible and manageable situation.
Second, Christie has shown that he is not overly impressed by pure talent alone. “We can’t win the World Cup on individual efforts,” is his summation. “We need to pull together.”
He is right. Rugby remains a team game and the needs of the individual must be subservient to the demands of the whole. Thus, exit — temporarily one would hope — James Small.
But in bulleting Small — Christie, intriguingly refers to him as “naughty” rather than uncontrollable — the new coach has laid down a challenge to the hugely talented Natal wing and all the other discards. It is this: show the coach that you are men enough to take a stinging slap in the face and players enough to work your way back, and you’ll be straight into the reckoning. Ignore the challenge and face the future from the stands.
In the brutal world of test rugby, an arena where this country’s results have not shone like the beacon lit by the hopes of a nation, Christie is absolutely right.
His emphasis is parallel to that which has bred so much success for Australia, New Zealand and England over the past decade. They have all used a simple system and a basic philosophy: pick a test team and stick with it; back that with a line-up of reserves who, though they might spend the bulk of their international careers on the bench, are ready at any time to step into the breach as part of the larger team.
In some cases, this may mean that a highly talented player does not come into the reckoning for a test cap because he does not fit the pattern of the team as a whole.
The system breeds three important things: a team of 30 rather than 15, strong bonds of understanding among the chosen players and continuity of the pattern of play at international level.
It is not simplistic to say that South African selections since our return to the test arena have met none of these three criteria. Under Christie, the pointers are that this will change very rapidly.
“My job,” he maintains, “is to get the right players together and squad train them to a pitch where they can start winning again.”
Which leads directly to the emphasis Christie places on the fitness of the players under his charge and his wish to have former professional, Ray Mordt, move up from his spot on the Transvaal team management to a similar job at national level.
The performances of some of the players who made the trip to New Zealand in the Currie Cup since their return has shown a surprising lack of the fitness levels one would expect.
Under Christie, there will be no puffing props or loose forwards with hands on their knees after the first five minutes. It is a simple case of polishing the tools before the job begins. Unfit players cost as many lost games as indiscipline or inept football.
It would point to a difficult initial period for the players Christie has named. They will be forced to reach higher levels of fitness than have clearly been the norm. And they will be drilled into the squad pattern Christie has set his sights on, having to forgo some of the more free-flowing — and it must be said, more dangerous — manoeuvres on the field.
They will also be subject to an on-going system of checks on off-field behaviour. One would hope that this is a self-imposed discipline rather than the ridiculous bed checks and media blackouts of the not so distant past.
But strict and all encompassing this part of being a test player will undoubtedly be.
On the field, Christie has yet to show his intentions. But, in the light of the winning Transvaal pattern, it would point to the type of rugby many critics were calling for under the reign of McIntosh. A return to basics and using this country’s undoubted strengths rather than our patent weaknesses.
It does not take a genius to see that the forward interplay around the fringes of the South African scrum looks good the first time it is done. And it works the first — and sometimes the second — time. But against sides as drilled and street smart as the All Blacks and the Wallabies, it doesn’t come off the third time.
Tommy Bedford, one of the more cerebral players ever to captain this country, thought about a similar problem when he led Natal. His thinking was this: when you are only likely to get 40 percent of the ball at forward, you let the backs do 100 percent of the attacking. It keeps the opposing pack on their heels and the opposing backline tackling for their lives.
With the wealth of talent this country owns at three- quarter, this is doubtless the strength Christie will work towards more fully utilising.
That said, Small must still be strongly in the reckoning for a recall. But, like every other player who wants to wear the green and gold under the new national coach, he will have to do it the way Christie demands and no other.