The All Blacks have the best team on the field and off it, and South Africa’s coach doesn’t seem to be able to make a plan to counter their winning ways
RUGBY: Jon Swift
IT WOULD be funny if it wasn’t so tragic that, staring down the barrel of a humiliating series white-wash, Springbok coach Andre Markgraaff should see his problems as being media-driven and liken his increasingly suspect tenure in rugby’s hot seat to that of an Italian government.
The first point is yet another indication of the mind-bending qualities of wearing blinkers; the second, the type of bush diplomacy we have been lulled into thinking had disappeared from South African rugby. It might be added that while legislatures in Rome might come and go, the Italians have earned the respect and status of Test opponents.
You get the distinct feeling that Markgraaff is at the helm of a ship with all navigational aids dysfunctional and the iceberg of All Black rugby power looming large above the bridge. Specific to the straits the game finds itself in in this country, it must be noted that even on the Titanic they had the nous to send a Mayday signal.
Quite simply, the embattled coach needs all the help he can muster and, frankly, insulting the Italians and looking for a whipping boy on the fringes of the game is not exactly tailor-made to aid him in that respect.
Especially as Markgraaff, the man charged with developing and steering the Springboks all the way through to the next World Cup in Cardiff three years hence, has so determinedly ignored the single most important factor in the All Black dominance of the Sanzar series and the three-Test tour of this country.
That factor is this. The New Zealanders stick to the basics. But they execute them consistently, they do them well — and they do them at speed. Markgraaff, a second row forward of some note in his own playing days, has remained seemingly oblivious of this in formulating what has often looked to be an incomprehensible battle plan that has tended to bewilder even the players under him.
Let us at this juncture concentrate then on the rugby aspects and put aside issues such as the James Small debacle. Small is, after all, not part of the current equation and “holidaying” in Europe.
Small’s current whereabouts are a travesty, for Andre Joubert’s current tentative form suggests that he is trying to play his way through injury and Small has proved not just a more than adequate replacement, but indeed the only man on the present horizon really qualified to take over as the Bok fullback.
Let us also try and ignore for the time being the inability of various components of the management — and, it should be added, the team — to communicate … either with each other or with the outside world.
South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) president Louis Luyt has become a self- proclaimed recluse, the coach and manager are reported to no longer even exchange as much as a good morning and the public in general are treated to a shadow play of innuendos and half-truths leaked from “sources close to …”
As a professional image, it tends to look a lot like the corner store carrying a sign saying “Back in Five Minutes” right in the middle of peak shopping times.
But, according to the way Sarfu is going about things, none of this is really germane to what is happening out in the middle. This, too, is a salient example of the blinkered state which ignores the fact that all aspects of life impact on our actions. For there is no such animal as a one-dimensional human being.
The contrast — and, indeed, the record books — will show that this has not been the case in the New Zealand camp under John Hart and Sean Fitzpatrick. Off the field, Hart has concentrated on the basics and grafted some exemplary man management onto this. On the field, Fitzpatrick — admittedly adding a bit of explosive embellishment with fist and foot — has stuck rigidly to the things that every kaalvoet primary school would- be Bok is taught at his first practice.
Things like getting the line-out working properly and ensuring that Ian Jones and Robin Brooke are both avariciously mean on their own put-ins and intimidatory on opposition throw-ins. Kobus Wiese’s return should help make a difference here, but it is amazing that Markgraaff has not been able to sort out his own particular sphere of expertise.
More worrying though have been the problems in the front row, the single most important area in any team. The late Felix du Plessis, captain in the winning 1949 series against the All Blacks, used a simple philosophy. “If the front row is solid,” he once told me, “you can beat any side in the world.”
One suspects that Os du Randt will be sorely missed. Marius Hurter continues to approach the set pieces at right angles bent from the waist, and Dawie Theron has shown immense power but no great grasp of technique in his brief on-field appearances.
You also have only to examine the method in which the All Blacks (a) come in hard and low, and (b) anchor the scrum with foot positions more attuned to doing so than the tap-dancing stance the Boks are currently using. Surely these are basics?
Surely, with the wiles of experienced players in this vital facet of play available — the name of Uli Schmidt, who has more than a nodding acquaintance with the All Black front row, springs instantly to mind — the call should have gone out ages ago.
There has also been a singular lack of plan to counter the masterly over-the-ball tactics the New Zealanders have turned into a fine art. It is no use complaining about the refereeing — or trampling Josh Kronfeld in areas within penalty range of the Springbok posts.
Markgraaff can justifiably point to the injury list. No coach can be blamed for the ravages of losing the amount of players the Springboks have.
In this area you cannot blame the team management. But that is the physical rather than the mental side of things. And what, you might ask, happened to “Boer maak ‘n plan”?
The players have done their part. Suffered the bumps, lumps and more lasting injuries as well as the humiliation of being the first combination to drop a home series to New Zealand.
But there could just be some glimmer of light at Ellis Park in the wake of the somewhat fortuitous 18-18 draw the All Blacks dredged up against Griquas this week.
Japie Mulder’s return — should he actually get on the field this Saturday – — will weld some solidity back into the centre pairing that the inexperience (not, it must be said, the inherent playing talent) of Andre Snyman exposed in the last two outings. Snyman will be back in time to partner his Northerns teammate Danie van Schalkwyk.
Bringing back the Bullet could also be a plus factor, even if it was enforced by the injury to the controversial Henry Tromp. James Dalton may have his failings at line-out and be subject to sudden sense of humour failure in the heat of the moment, but he is both a fine forward and one of the few players this country has who can rip the ball away in the tightloose.
Wiese’s contribution in the second row is always a plus. Even if he is approaching veteran status, the big man lends a massive physical presence and an enthusiasm for the game that the years and a spate of injuries which would have sunk a lesser man without trace, has failed to diminish.
Henry Honiball replacing Joel Stransky is more problematic. Stransky has had a sadly off-form run as a kicker, but remains superior as a supplier of the ball. Honiball, though, has the ability — and the physique — to run the ball closer to the fringes than the man he has displaced.
There is a huge task ahead against a side that will be relaxed and with absolutely nothing to lose but a clean slate on tour. The All Blacks will come out playing the kind of sparkling rugby that a triumph already in the bank engenders against a side that is probably under more pressure than any Springbok side in the 75-year history of matches between the two nations.
But all that said, the priority for all concerned is to avoid the whitewash. That, more than anything, must be the focus ahead of references Roman, blame apportionment or, indeed, rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.