Two Cents

In part 2: Madibas, I would like to tell our story. To put it another way, the story of the team who had made the wooden spoon their own since the start of the Varsity Cup. Nelson Madela Metropolitan University (NMMU), formaly known as the University of Port Elizabeth (UPE) was in its hayday a wonderful breeding group for rugby players but in the last ten or so year this has become less so.

Untill now… the university is coming around to the fact that a good rugby program with a winning team brings in more students and money. We are a rugby crazed nation. Even if you are not one of the crazed if I asked you who are the top hockey or netball or football universities, most of you would not have a clue. But if I say Maties, UCT, Tuks, Shimlas, you immediately think rugby.

The university has invested in a good coach, with a heart for the game, to turn things around. And you need a big heart to turn a smallish budget club around. Its hard to sign players if you are the bottom of the log team and many had to be begged before they reluctantly signed. The coaching staff worked over time: to get new players, to get their game plan in order, get the players to buy into their game plan and way of playing.

I think its fair to also thank coaches like Jake White and Pieter de Villier (former French Prop & now Villagers coach) who took the time to help out.

During our preparation I felt very confident about our chances of ending mid table after the competition. And for a team that had, before this year, only won one game, it would be quite an achievement. We started with two home games.

Our first game was TUKS. We knew they had worked with Heyneke Meyer and at times trained with the Bulls. The player’s nerves was just too much and with some great play from last year’s club champs flyhalf TUKS punished us. We showed potential at time but struggles with patients. We got hammered 37 – 8.

Our next encounter was with now log leaders UJ. They did not look very convincing during the first round and we thought we had a chance. We held our own and, I felt, dominated them in the tight phases. Again our patients ran out and we just could not finish them off. We lost again 21 – 16. Those who watched the game will remember how we sat in their 22 forever but could just not cross the chalk in the final minutes of the game.

We then hit the road for a very difficult fortnight: First UCT and then Maties. I think some of the UCT forwards still have nightmares after that encounter. Both their lock ended their games in the infirmary, one concussed, the other with a shoulder injury. They cleared their bench more than once as UCT players limped of the park. We broke them in the scrums and in the tight phases.

The southeaster blew us to pieces, as did their backline. In the first half they just kicked us back into our own 22m area and punished us with long range penalties. In the second half they quickly realized not to take us on in front. Any mistake we made they would move the ball quickly through to the backline. This was mostly the Western Province u21 backline that won the u21 Curry Cup last year. They ran us to pieces with great pace and skill, punishing us again and again. I felt the score line flattered them as they won 49 – 12.

We quickly had to pick up the pieces for the following week. Maties was turning out to be beatable and we were hoping for an upset. As it turned out Maties was not going to give us a minutes rest. In the first seven minutes we found ourselves 12 – 0 down. The guys picked themselves up and fought courageously for most of the match.

With only two minutes on the clock the score was 35 – 17. Maties turned up the heat once again and within a couple of minutes had done what they did at the beginning of the match and scored two converted tries to win 49 – 17. This was heart breaking for the guys. Ten minutes of not concentrating 100% lead to four tries and 26 points.

Luckily we were back home to play the only team NMMU have ever beaten in the four years of the Varsity Cup. TUT was sitting pretty in the sixth position after beating TUKS. One of the TUKS players had got himself into a little trouble and received a red card. This swung the game in TUT’s favour.

The boys got themselves, with a great deal of help from the coaching staff, in the right head space. We seemed to struggle with confidence in the first half, trailing 15 – 9 at half time. Everything came together in the second half. They fought hard and after putting a couple of phases together the TUT defence collapsed. The boys from NMMU ran them to pieces and won their first ever bonus point win by scoring four tries. The Madibas triumphed 40 – 15 and drinks were on the house!

The players’ confidence was high as we left for the Highveld and the injured Pukke. They had lost five games in a row and were there for the taking. But as the boys from the North West will tell you, an injured buck is the most dangerous animal. They had slowly been improving over the last couple of weeks and we never saw them coming. The guys did not seemed to arrive for the game. The runny tummies in the camp did not really help. We got a proper hammering 57 – 6. We were only in the game for a short while with the score 7 – 6 in their favour, but only for a short while.

After taking such a hammering its hard to pick yourself up, for coaches and players alike. The sms’s from the Shimlas camp came through after they beat TUT convincingly: we are coming to get a bonus point win from you guys next week.

Contrary to most people’s belief things like that don’t unite a team or psyc them up. The boys were really down but slowly the leaders and motivator from inside the team started talking. Its great for the management staff to see things like this happen. When coaches have said it all its up to the players and when they start motivating each other… well, it makes you feel proud of the guys.

Shimlas was by no means a push over. They had beaten Maties and Tuks, narrowing losing to UJ and they were in Port Elizabeth for the kill. The Madibas played like men possessed. Sometimes too possessed as we gave away many penalties for off side play and other unnecessary infringements. The boys of NMMU led at half time by a narrow score line of 3 -0. They continued to dominate and three quarters of the way led 13 – 0. But the Shimlas are a die-hard team and fought their way back with the help of some dubious decisions by the referee to scrap out a 17 – 13 win.

It was a sad los but NMMU had secured a vital bonus point for losing by less than seven point and so staying clear of the relegation zone.  

The Madibas had managed to finish seventh. And though 7th out of 8 team does not seem like much of an improvement we conceded 20 tries less than last year. We have the point difference in games and gave a couple of big name universities a good scare.

I think the future is looking bright for NMMU’s rugby program but only if the university is willing to invest in the program. The EP King (Eastern Province Elephants of old) need to work side-by-side with the university. At the moment this has not been possible as the EP Kings closed their door to the university last year. In a local newspaper article they went as far as to say no player that plays for NMMU will be able to get an EP contract, and no EP contracted player will play for NMMU. This makes recruiting even harder.

A union should not want to dominate an university or control their structures but work together were a mutual middle groud if found. Think of the way Werstern Province supports UCT and Maties. They are seperate entities working together.

After a long absence due to some technical difficulties I am back!

My project for the first half of the year was not to comment on the more talked about subjects like the Cricket World Cup, the Six Nations or the Super15 but something different. The Varsity Cup is not a totally left out subject but does not really get the attention it deserves. And before some of you even think: ja, but its university rugby. Its not like super rugby or something. It is so much more. After the shock exit of Maties from the semi-finals and TUT’s promotion-relegation match to come, Varsity Cup has so much intrigue, drama and dirty trick. Its well worth some in depth analysis.

I planned to do a weekly run down of the VC focusing on the team I was involved with but also some of the other teams and the rumours running around. Unfortunately I will have to be satisfied by just one blog.

I will try and give you an almost inside look at what happens during the competition. The areas I felt needs improving, some dirty trick teams play on the visiting rivals and other sometime fun, sometime sad stories behind the seens.

Money makes the world go round and long before the seventh of February came around the rumours started spreading of universities spending up to six million Rand on their Varsity Cup campaign. Some teams like Maties lost some big names to unions and other universities. Players like Cameron Peveret, who got lured by big time cash and an opportunity to play in the Highveld. He is not the only one. And why not: study at a good university for free, accommodation for free and make a handsome salary on the side, plus winning bonuses and match fees. Most of these players also receive free physiotherapy, strapping, gym memberships and other medical treatments.

Working with one of the universities with not such a deep purse or wealthy rugby program you feel a bit cheated. Not all teams are on a level playing field. Its impossible for lesser wealthy teams or universities, especially with the new Varsity Shield and the small teams, to compete with some of the big guns.

I think Steinhoff & FNB could maybe have the VC put a budget cap on the teams’ spending. Here I applaud Maties. They have stopped handing out bursaries left and right. You had to earn it. On the other hand they do have a very good relationship with Western Province, as does UCT. The Universities working with the unions helps a lot with budget spending as well as talent development. I will write a bit more on that later.

Anyway, back to the Varsity Cup itself: the competition has grown so quickly and become such a high light on, not just the university rugby calendar, but on all rugby lovers’ calendar. The competition, I feel, does what the Vodacom Cup has failed to do: show young up and coming players. Its an attractive brand of rugby and a stroke of genius by Francois Pienaar and the boys from Steinhoff.

Maties sold 9000 season tickets for the Varsity Cup. That is possibly more than the Loins or the Cheetahs have this year.

This year the VC had some outside coaches assist some of the previously struggling teams, Jake White and Heyneke Meyer to name a few. I think this helped a lot. Not because the coaches in charge of the teams did not have the skills or know-how, but to be a sounding board for the respected coach and for some players, not familiar with a coach, a confirmation that they are on the right track. I was fortunate enough to meet Jake and Heyneke in George on our rugby camp and both coaches were open and friendly. they did not mind sharing ideas. I also got to work with Pieter de Villiers, the French prop, now residing in Cape Town. He especially brought a hands-on experience that the players, especially the front row men found very helpful.

As conditioning coach and first response medic from NMMU I had the fortune or misfortune of being right next to the field during the games. I write fortune, as I get to experience it all up close, and misfortune as I see things first as they go wrong or sometimes pick up the obvious (in my opinion) mistakes the referees make. On that point, the quality of referees in this competition was not very good. No, it was poor! Positioning during line outs and ruck made for some really bad calls. The touch judges also did not really support the refs, especially at line outs. Here I feel that touch judges need to help inexperienced referees.

One of our more experienced referees told me a good referee stands at the front of the line out not at the back and definitely not on the side of the line out. Refs that do the latter are, according to him, lazy. Well, there were many lazy refs this VC.

Also many referees were not clear with their call: in one instance the 8thman was caught by the scrumhalf. The referee’s first response was: its fine, ball’s out, play on, but once the scrumhalf received help from his flank, the flank was deemed off side! Enough about the referees. Hopefully next year there will be better quality refs, hopefully.

One of the dirty tricks, I came across this year, by the teams on the opposition (off the field) was to either not give them a full field to have their captain’s run or warm up, or not have a field for them at all. At one of the universities our locker room was put next to a rowdy res team. They were so drunk and noisy we could not have a half time talk with our team. By the time our match ended they were even more obliterated and the coaches did not even both talking to the team, as is customarily after the match. This was no accident.

At one of the universities’ on campus accommodation 24 of our group of 28 players and personnel had the runs. Not to be vulgar, but to prove the point, one of the players had to go to the little boys’ room sixteen times in one day. He later told me he was afraid he would soil his pants during the game, it was that bad!

The most common trick was not to arrange an area for visiting coaches to sit during the game. When you watch your favourite team play they always show the coach’s reaction to a try being scored or decision being made on the field. Usually sitting high in a little glass box. Well, during the Varsity Cup it would have been very difficult to locate the visiting team’s coaching staff. Some games they were next to the field, but many times they had to sit between the spectators to get a better overview of the game.

For me one of the saddest things working with a rugby team is the injury list. Rugby is not ballet PdV once said and that is probably one of the truest things ever to come out of his mouth. A week before VC started we lost our star centre to a knee injury. The injury was so bad he has since decided to hang up his boots. Other talented players got injured early in the tournament and lost their chance to shine and get a nice contract from a union. So players got concussed, an injury never to be taken lightly. One player also wanted to give up his full rugby bursary after such an injury.

The amount of strapping I used in this VC was staggering. Its not on the level of big unions like the Sharks or our national pride, the Stormers. Little joke. I meant the Springboks. They of course get big sponsors to cover their budgets. One of our big forwards had to have his shoulder strapped. It was iffy and I used three and a bit rolls of strapping tape on him. A hamstring about two rolls, a knee the same, ankles two half rolls of different tape, etc. I use the minimum amount needed. I feel strapping should be used as a safety precaution not keeping an injured area together for the sake of the game.

In the end it was a wonderfull experience. I will leave you with one funny little story. During NMMU’s victory over TUT I had one of the most embarasing moments of my life. After our centre had scored a try I ran up to congratulate him and also give the flyhalf his kicking tee. I got so excited and strarted motivating the players to keep up the pressure that I almost forgot to give the kicker his tee. When he called me again i tried to run to him but my feet just gave out under me and i fell on my face. I tried to get up again but could not as my feet kept slipping. I ended up just throughing him his tee.

Check out part two on the inside view of how the NMMU Madibas did.