South African rugby is not as far into the doldrums as some fear
Andy Capostagno
In the week that the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) celebrated its 10th birthday it could be argued that the game is at its lowest ebb in this country since readmission.
All four of our Super 12 franchises lost at the weekend, the second time that has happened this year, and if the Sharks lose against the Waratahs this week Rudolph Straeuli, the incoming Springbok coach, will take the reins having superintended five successive defeats for the Sharks.
And yet there are signs that the patient, if not about to be restored to glowing health, has at least got good vital signs. The beleaguered Bulls, for instance, showed against the Brumbies that while their defensive deficiencies remain, they have a strongly beating heart and a quite unexpectedly vibrant team spirit.
Heyneke Meyer wasn’t sure at the start of last week whether he’d still be coaching the Bulls this week, but in defeat his team earned a standing ovation from the Loftus faithful. They deserved the applause and there will be some grateful coaches out there with more ideas about how to beat the Brumbies, thanks to the Bulls display.
Furthermore, those members of Sarfu who were either at the ground early or watching on television would have seen a Border team including eight players of colour beat the Blue Bulls with the final kick of the match to extend their unbeaten run at the top of section Y of the Vodacom Cup.
Border’s stand-out player was a fullback by the name of Siyabonga Mangweni, a player of whom much will be heard in the future. Mangweni is from East London and was as difficult to pin down with a microphone as he was with ball in hand.
As we waited for the cameras to roll for the man of the match presentation he said to me: “I don’t speak English very well.” In my typically nave way I said: “Don’t worry, I’ll ask the questions in English and you can answer in Afrikaans.” “I don’t speak Afrikaans either,” he said.
It should be a source of pride to Sarfu that less than 10 years after Die Stem was defiantly played at Ellis Park at the first Springbok Test after readmission, a local television interviewer was stymied by the fact that he didn’t speak Xhosa.
There will be those who will refuse to accept such evidence as a sign of progress and the usual clichs will be trotted out about the low standards in the Vodacom Cup. But the last thing left in Pandora’s Box was hope and that is what South African rugby needs right now.
The Stormers will be hoping, for instance, that the Brumbies do not bring their A game to Cape Town this week. Gert Smal’s men have now lost twice by a one-point margin in this year’s tournament, avoidable defeats that will surely come back to haunt them. The fact that both defeats were at the hands of probable semifinalists underlines their significance.
Former Waratahs coach John Connolly had some ill-mannered things to say about the future of the competition, suggesting that the South African sides were dragging down the standards. But even in defeat it is plain to see that the Super 12 is still about strength against strength, and that applies as much to the Bulls as it does to the Stormers.
Bulls captain Chris le Roux was refreshingly candid about his team’s tactics against the Brumbies. He said: “You know a side that good is going to score tries against you, so you’ve got to score some of your own.”
In the history of the Super 12 no side has scored six tries and lost, as the Bulls did last week. The bonus point it earned them was their first of the year and it should give important stimulus to the Stormers, who have traditionally scored hatfuls of tries, but have been a little parsimonious in that aspect this year.
As for the Sharks and the Cats, they will at least know that their suffering is almost at an end. After a month on the road they will be flying home after their final matches against, respectively, the Waratahs and the Hurricanes.
Two years ago the Sharks got demob happy after three road defeats and quite unexpectedly beat the Waratahs 26-19. It may seem foolhardy to suggest an upset, but there will be a few players who recognise the fact that reputations count for nothing when a new coach takes over. Kevin Putt, the man who succeeds Straeuli for the home series, can expect significant improvement in Sydney.
In Wellington the Cats are unlikely to break their losing sequence, but at least they have blooded Andre Pretorius at flyhalf now. Pretorius was actually criticised for trying too much against the Waratahs, which prompts the question: do South African teams lose so frequently because they try too little?