TRUTH BE TOLD

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.  ~Norman Vincent Peale

for some reason I tend to agree…. This is my last post for the year, so I would like to wish every blogger a merry Christmas and a happy new year… 

Enjoy…

Digby Ioane

a report on the Queensland Reds’ official website confirmed that their powerful back Digby Ioane will be back to full fitness in time for the start of the Super15. 

Ioane, in my opinion one of the deadliest and most exciting players to watch with ball in hand, has been out of action since July when he picked up a Shoulder injury which needed surgery, he thereby missed Australia’s EOY tour, and in some of the games they struggled, his big hits and hard running was clearly missed. 

There is no doubt that Digby has been at the heart of the Reds’ surprise rise in Super rugby.  

Digby is reported to be back to full speed at training, Starting full contact training this week.

Some suggest Ioane ,if fit, would’ve been a sure starter for Australia this year, and I tend to agree. 

I’m looking forward to seeing the powerful Ioane put in some bone crushing tackles and tearing up defensive lines as the Reds will look to repeat the successful year they experienced in 2010. 

I’ve had this idea for a while now, and last night I read an article on Japan’s rugby coach , former NZ legend John Kirwan, where he discusses his goal for rugby in Japan, how he wants Japan to enter the top 10 on the IRB rankings. he also touches on club rugby in Japan…and this got me thinking. read the full article here….

rugby is played on every continent , and it’s popularity is growing every year. It would be a great if we had a tournament that represented every nation, instead of extending current competitions, we can create a new tournament that would have club or provincial sides from across the world competing. think about it… Champions league rugby…

Here’s what I had in mind:

top two teams from each country qualifies for selection (every country with a decent provincial or club championship can be included), teams are randomly divided into groups of 4, where they’ll play each team in their group, after each team has completed the their 3 matches, the top two teams advance to a knockout round, followed by another and another until we reach a final. this tournament should ideally  be held annually  in a country like Japan, Argentina or USA , to promote the game. 

Alternatively: 

we can have the same setup described above, but fixtures will be knockout matches from the start , teams are randomly drawn to face each other, until one team is left standing. 

Another option:

an open tournament, only criteria would be that you have a squad of 25-30 players. over the age of 16. Any team can enter, opponents will be randomly drawn, all matches will be knockout matches, teams will be playing for price money and bragging rights (getting sponsors for an international tournament like this should be easy) . if a 1000 teams enter, you might have a problem scheduling all the games, and a limit on the amount of entries might be a good idea. Unless you make it to the very end, or win it, it won’t be too many extra games a year. bigger teams will probable have the luxury of fielding a second string team in most matches up until the business end of the tournament, depending on their opponents. 

would a tournament like this be possible? 

What do you guys think of the idea? 

and more importantly , assuming it would be broadcasted world wide, would you watch it? 

I am not a Lions supporter, obviously, but I loved seeing them rebuilt and if they can built on their 2010 Currie cup performances , it can only be good for South-African rugby, with the Super15 just around the corner, the Lions seem to be on an upward curve, they’ve signed a decent coach who has already impressed in the Currie cup, and they’ve discovered a lot of young talent, who have also been nothing short of impressive this year. names like Elton Jantjies , Joshua Strauss, Warren Whiteley, Edgar Marutlulle, David Bullbring, Jaco Taute, etc. come to mind.

They’ve also made some good buys , this year seeing Waylon Murray, Pat Cilliers, Jacobie Adriaanse, Michael Rhodes, Bandise Maku, Lionel Mapoe, etc.  move to the highveld. I am sure the Lions will be a force to be reckoned with next year. 

I read on Sport24, and I’ve heard previous rumors that the Lions are interested in Springbok Fly half, Butch James. I am not exactly sure why they would want Butch in the team if they already have Elton Jantjies (who was brilliant in the currie cup, and should be first choice) Burton Francis, (who is more than an able replacemnt) and Herkie Kruger (who struggled with a Lions team who were defenseless throughout the Super14, but is still a very strong third choice FH to have) 

Butch James

If Butch should move to the Lions, he would probably expect a starting position, in my opinion, FH will be occupied, leaving inside centre….where the Lions have the brilliant Doppies la Grange. so are the Lions really looking to buy a high maintenance player like Butch just to sit on the bench? I wouldn’t recommend this. 

if you were in charge of recruiting players at the Lions, would you consider adding Butch James to the Current setup? 

I read this article on supersport, basically Federation of Oceania Rugby Unions (FORU) president Harry Schuster wants the eligibility rules currently in place to change, to accommodate the rugby players who are technically “retired” from New Zealand rugby to be eligible to represent their pacific countries of birth in order to strengthen pacific rugby. Think Jerry Collins…

I’m not sure what their actually proposing in terms of a rule, should probably be something like “a capped player will be eligible to represent a different country (where he qualifies for selection) if he has been absent from test rugby for a certain period” that period would probably be a year or two. 

but surely this rule, would be applicable for all countries, which would mean a player like Brian Mujati or Tonderai Chavhanga would be free to play for Zimbabwe. I personally would have no problem with this, 

can just imagine:

Doug Howlett playing for Tonga 

Lote Tuqiri playing for Fiji

Jerry Collins                            &  Chris Masoe for Samoa 

there are probably quite a few players who have been selected for countries like New Zealand or Australia , for only a hand full of tests who aren’t eligible for selection in their countries of birth. Kevin Senio apparently played 20mins for the All Blacks, and then failed to make the team again, with that he also qualifies to play for Samoa, but isn’t eligible anymore, after those 20mins. 

what’s your view on being eligible to play for a second country after being absent from test rugby for a certain time? 

I personally have no problem with this, if the guys are still good enough to play for the smaller nations, let them select them. 

Met Uysh issued a challenge, for bloggers to come up with their own unique game plan for the Springboks, seeing that our current “plan” has been critisized by basically every single human being on this planet.

I am no coach, and have never had the privilege of coaching a team, I base my opinion mainly on my knowledge of the game, what I would classify as “watchable” rugby, and obviously winning rugby, I have on more than one occasion said that I believe a country like SA filled with talented players would be fairly easy to coach, but we have a variety of players, each with their own unique playing style, and deciding on who to pick and how to use them, will never be agreed on by everyone. 

I am also going to divide it into multiple posts, was planning on keeping it as short as possible, but that’s easier said than done.

- firstly I just want to point out 2 areas of our game that I believe we’re really lacking

- ball retention – it is something that your U-8 rugby coach at school probably told you, but for some reason at national level, it isn’t executed , I believe when going into contact a player should place the ball with an outstretched arm, that way it would not only give a slight advantage to your own forwards when battling for ball possession, but it would also be much more difficult for an opposition fetcher to get his hands on the ball. this may be something small, but we’ve seen our forwards kick the ball out of the ruck unknowingly , SH’s struggling to get to the ball, giving opposition defenses time to regroup and ball carriers cheaply losing possession. a greater emphasis should be put on QUICK ball retention and possession. 

- using players – we have some impressive ball carriers, some dangerous backs, and lately we’ve added probably the best player under the high ball in the world, but we haven’t really used them. we should use our wings and fullback to run between the centres , around the rucks, and from set plays, from line-outs and scrums, can’t remember when last I saw a Springbok side really throwing the ball around a bit, we see way too little skip passes , pop passes or dummy runners .

Set phases - 

-kickoff – we currently prefer going for the long kickoffs , with Bryan Habana following up , to put on pressure and keep the opposition in their own 22. I don’t have any problem with this, because the opposing team will take the ball into contact, next phase will see it move to their fly half, who at worst will give us the trow in on the half way line, I do however feel this should be varied, the shorter kickoff worked brilliantly for the barbarians last weekend, and the All blacks also used it well. 

we should kick to the open side (to the opposition backs) with a player like Bjorn Basson in the team, who loves contesting the ball in the air, the one on one contest for the ball from the kickoff between two backline players should give us a good chance of regathering the ball, or forcing a mistake. support for our main “contester of the ball” will be vital here, to maintain possession. 

-receiving kickoff – when we receive, we’ve seen opposition kicking on our left wing (usually Bryan Habana) who runs it back, I do feel we should have at least have one big forward close by, to secure ball possession should he go down, or to run off the shoulder in order to keep the ball alive until support arrives. 

to be continued…..

this would be my squad and team selection: 

1.Tendai Mtawarira 

2.John Smit (c)

3.CJ van der Linde ( his ability to play both sides of the scrum will enable us to use Gurthro from the bench, but with CJ moving to the Stormers, I believe he will get more game time, and he’ll have to prove he is worthy of the no3 jersey ) 

4.Bakkies Botha

5.Victor Matfield

6.Heinrich Brussow

7.Juan Smith

8.Schalk Burger 

9.Fourie du Preez

10.Morne Steyn ( I’m assuming that it is due to the game plan and not the player that we’ve been kicking so much, If I’m wrong, Morne will have to go) 

11.Bryan Habana

12.Jean de Villiers

13.Jaques Fourie

14.Bjorn Basson 

15.Gio Aplon

16.Bismarck du Plessis 

17.Gurthro Steenkamp 

18.Andries Bekker 

19.Willem Alberts

20.Francois Hougaard

21.Pat Lambie 

22.Juan de jongh 

23.Jannie du Plessis

24.Chiliboy Ralepelle 

25.Danie Rossouw / taking a specialist loose forward in the 30 might be a better option 

26.Flip van der Merwe

27.Duane Vermeulen 

28.Ruan Pienaar

29.Frans Steyn (on current form he won’t make my starting team, but if he gets back to his best, or anywhere near it, he’ll be an automatic selection)

30.Elton Jantjies 

31.Werner Kruger 

32.Pierre Spies 

33.Doppies la Grange  

34.Walon Murray 

35.Lwazi Mvovo

36.JP Pietersen 

South-Africa since becoming a democratic country in the mid 90′s have been on a mission to transform sport, some race groups were disadvantaged prior to 1994, in our apartheid era, and it would only be fair to favor these race groups, in the new South-Africa, in order, to even out the past. 

The only way this plan of transformation could really work and keep working, was to develop a foundation, and people have been pointing this out for years now, although the rugby administrators didn’t exactly take the same approach, because we wanted immediate results, we rather decided to promote players of colour, (giving the previously disadvantaged, a clear advantage) which is justifiable and understandable. They however never really took into account that rugby was still absent in big parts of the country, and that only certain schools had rugby as an option. leaving potential rugby players of colour, in the same position they were before…opportunityless. 

Some questioned whether we’ll ever really have a Springbok team reflecting our country’s demographics. seeing that loose forwards, locks and fly halves of colour are hard to find, and this just shows how much development at ground level is lacking. 

how good would a team currently be, if it did reflect our current demographic situation?

I don’t have the exact stats, but a % here or there, shouldn’t make too much of a difference, I’ll include indian or asian , and coloureds to the “players of colour” race group, which then roughly makes up 90% of our population, the other 10% is classified as white. so out of 15, we need 13 players of colour, and out of 22, we need 20. so in the match day squad. injuries were not taken into consideration.  

1. Beast Mtawarira – beast is my first choice loose head, with Gurthro in close second, I’ll rather have a tighthead on the bench(if I can find 1) so Gurthro will miss out on selection completely. 

2. Chiliboy Ralepelle – with Bandise Maku on the bench, promising young Lions Hooker Edgar Marutlulle is one to watch

3. Brian Mujati – he disappeared off the scene, and I’m not sure if he is suspended, or fit, but without taking that into consideration, he makes his comeback, tighthead is a position where we have few options for this team. 

4. Hilton Lobberts – he was the next big thing before he  also disappeared , he has been used as a lock at WP where he held up, he is still seen as a strong ball carrier, and useful player in the loose. 

5. Victor Matfield - 

6. Heinrich Brussow - has been missed this year, and quite a few have tried, but no one could truly fill his boots, lets not even waste time debating his importance in the team

7. Zolani Mofu – I decided against picking Davon Raubenheimer  who despite being completely useless when he represented his country in the midweek tour matches last year,  is another one of the few options currently playing top flight rugby, Kabamba Floors is probably another option

8. Asley Johnson – has ben impressive in the Currie cup, he has found some form after being out of favor with the Cheetah selectors during the Super14, not sure if it was just because it was the Currie cup

9. Ricky Januarie – showed some good form at the end of the Currie cup, before he picked up an injury. 

10. Elton Jantjies – played his first Bok game aginst the barbarians this weekend, and although he didn’t exactly impress, he has talent in abundance , and with a game plan that suits him, he might just be an answer to the Boks’ one dimensional woes…

11. Bryan Habana 

12. Juan de Jongh 

13. Waylon Murray – Murray and de Jongh should be able to switch between inside and outside centre depending on our defensive and attacking needs. 

14. Bjorn Basson

15. Gio Aplon

Replacements: 

16. Bandise Maku

17. Buhle Mxunyelwa – can’t think of anyone else

18.  Fudge Mabeta – he may be a little light to make any real impact at test level

19. Kabamba Floors – versatile , and certainly an impact player. 

20. Heini Adams 

21. JP Pietersen / Lwazi Mvovo

22. Elgar Watts – he has been impressive in the Currie cup, Ricardo Croy , Earl Rose, Logan Basson etc. are the other options who can cover FH, 

I think it’s safe to say, we are no where near ready to send a “demographically correct”  rugby team onto the field to represent our country, this was and probably still is a SARU goal, although supporters have been assured there will be no quota selections, transformation is still an objective, but like most things government organisations try to achieve , they have been found wanting. if the right systems were put in place at ground level as soon as 1995, (15years ago) we would have a huge amount of talented rugby players of colour coming through the ranks, at this very moment. and fielding a team that represented South-Africa’s demographics would be much easier than it currently is. 

I found these stats of the Currie cup Fly Halves and their performances throughout the competition. 

Quite a few have been quick to judge Elton Jantjies’ inclusion into the Springbok starting line up at FH ahead of Pat Lambie. Jantjies and Lambie were both brilliant in the Currie cup, but some were suggesting they are still too young to get the national call-up, while others were singing their praises…. 

he may have to swim with the Sharks this weekend , but no matter what the result, expect to hear his name quite a bit in the near future!

these are statistics of how each player performed in the Currie cup, divided by the amount of games they played to reach an average. this has been allocated into the following groups:

• Defence: Takes into account the number of tackle assists, forced turnovers in the tackle, straight tackles, missed tackles and the % of tackles missed per tackles made.
• Contact: Ball carries, line-breaks, offloads, % success at crossing the gain-line, total metres gain.
• Handling: Total passes, play-maker passes, total handle count.
• Breakdown: Number of turnovers won at the ruck, clean outs on own ball, effective counter-rucks on opposition ball.
• Errors: Penalties, forced and unforced errors, handling errors.

User Note:

• For ease of use, the total minutes each player played has not been taken into account, so although not 100% mathematically correct, this should serve as an adequate yardstick on each player’s individual performances.
• Each statistic reflects the average number per game.
• the “best” stat in its respective category is marked green and second in that category will be marked in a lighter shade of green

• He had the second most ball carries, to only Pat Lambie… 
• He had the most offloads, which is something he should consider giving Morne Steyn some tips on, ironically, Morne had no offloads per game, although he only played a limited amount of games , due to national duty. 
• he was on top in the meters gained with ball in hand category 
• he made the second most passes per game
• and the most playmaker passes

he doesn’t look bad in the other categories either, and except for his defense, he was without a doubt the top FH in the Currie cup, and was constantly performing well, it would have been a sin to overlook him , just because of his age, seeing that he performed against experienced rugby players, and out played them. don’t think he could be more deserving of his chance in the team,  just a bit disappointed that it didn’t come sooner. 

so there is basically no criteria , how absolutely crazy would it be, if the barbarians coaches, appointed, selected only rugby players from the country they were facing, and managed to beat them? perhaps a bit unrealistic, one might think. but you would be able to pick a pretty decent South African team to face the Springboks this weekend. lets leave out the injured players, the possibly injured, the banned, possibly banned, rested or anyone else who wouldn’t have been available for Springbok selection. 

my “barbarians” South-African side:                                          Actual Springbok side:

1.Dean Greyling / Pat Cilliers                                                         1.Coenie Oosthuizen

2.Deon Fourie                                                                                2.Adriaan Strauss

3.Werner Kruger                                                                           3.CJ van der Linde

4.Steven Sykes                                                                             4.Bakkies Botha

5.Anton van Zyl(c)                                                                         5.Alistair Hargreaves

6.Jacques Botes                                                                            6.Willem Alberts

7.Francois Louw                                                                            7.Juan Smith(c)                        

8.Duane Vermeulen                                                                       8.Ryan Kankowski

9.Jano Vermaak                                                                            9.Francois Hougaard

10.Peter Grant                                                                            10.Elton Jantjies               

11.Louis Ludik                                                                             11.Lwazi Mvovo

12.Doppies la Grange                                                                 12.Andries Strauss

13.Waylon Murray                                                                       13.Adi Jacobs

14.Gerhard van den Heever                                                        14.Odwa Ndungane

15.Michael Killian                                                                         15.Pat Lambie

16.Craig Burden                                                                          16.Bandise Maku

17.WP Nel / Eugene van Staden                                                 17.Tendai Mtawarira

18.Franco van der Merwe                                                           18.AN Other

19.Derick Minnie / Joshua Strauss                                              19.Flip van der Merwe

20.Sarel Pretorius / Dewald duvenhage                                     20.Keegan Daniel

21.Meyer Bosman                                                                       21.Charl Mcleod 

22.Lionel Mapoe                                                                         22.Gio Aplon

The Springbok team has an experience advantage in some positions, but in other positions it would be very interesting to see how much better the selected players are than the ones who are still waiting for a chance, a game like this would be ideal for players to prove they deserve to be n the team, if they’re already in the team or not. this is close to our third team, and we have bucket loads of depth, in most positions, that is possibly the reason why we get so frustrated when the coaching staff continues with out of form players. 

with the amount of talented rugby players in this country,winning the world cup should actually be nothing more than a formality… 

With one game still left to play against the Barbarians this weekend, South Africa – win or lose – will leave northern hemisphere shores with mixed emotions.

The Springboks’ mission was to win a Grand Slam for the first time in 50 years and, arriving off the back of a disastrous Tri-Nations series with an injury-ravaged touring squad, weren’t given a chance in hell. Knives were already being sharpened for coach Peter de Villiers, who was under a mountain of pressure to deliver after facing much criticism at home during his tenure.

In fact, with confidence low amongst most die-hard Bok fans back in the Republic and fears their World Cup defence would be in tatters, talk around the braai was that if South Africa did fail to deliver, at least De Villiers would get the chop. Hows that for looking on the bright side?

As it turned out, the world champions – depleted of first-choice players, experience and with serious questions around their coaching set-up – muscled to a win over Ireland, showed great composure to overcome a substantial deficit against Wales, lost to Scotland and disposed of England.

Three Test wins out of four.

Not bad going, considering where they were four months ago and certainly looked a more settled side after Saturday’s comprehensive victory at Twickenham, but will be ruing their slip-up in Scotland more with each day.

Had they not come unstuck at Murrayfield then the men in green and gold would have a Grand Slam to make amends for a rough 2010, and apease their frustrated faithful. And despite all that has been this year, the players themselves could have looked back with real pride at a real achievement. It would’ve provided the kind of intangible lift that Springbok rugby badly needs ahead of a World Cup year.

Still, to leave Britain and Ireland with a Test pass mark of 75 per cent was enough to show that the Webb Ellis trophy holders are far from the struggling team many have believed them to be.

They had the worst injury toll of any major team coming into the end-of-year tours, and a host of returning personal – Fourie du Preez, Heinrich Broussouw, Jaque Fourie, Danie Rossouw, Andries Bekker, John Smit, JP Pietersen, Schalk Burger, Juan de Jongh (to name but a few) – will hold the nation in good stead approaching the 2011 season.

And then of course, we can’t ignore the rising talent that has been unleashed in November with players such as Willem Alberts and Lwazi Mvovo taking their chances with both hands. Between them, the Sharks duo have scored four tries so far for South Africa with a Baa-Baas fixture still to come.

Of course, we would have liked to have seen a bit more of the much heralded Patrick Lambie, but his time to shine will no doubt come this weekend along with several other Bok rookies. Though their cause won’t be aided with a number of senior players already on the plane home, and we’re not so sure Lambie and company will be as successfull playing in a new team of young players. Lambie to the slaughter? Sorry, couldn’t resist.

But then again, stranger things have happened on this Bok tour!

Results in 2010:

November:
South Africa won 21-11 v England at Twickenham

Africa lost 17-21 v Scotland at Murrayfield
South Africa won 29-25 v Wales at Millennium Stadium
South Africa won 23-21 v Ireland at Aviva Stadium

Tri-Nations:
South Africa lost 12-32 v New Zealand in Auckland
South Africa lost 17-31 v New Zealand in Wellington 
South Africa lost 13-30 v Australia in Brisbane
South Africa lost 49-28 v New Zealand in Jo’burg
South Africa won 44-31 v Australia in Pretoria
South Africa lost 39-41 v Australia in Bloemfontein

June:
South Africa won 55-11 v Italy in East London
South Africa won 29-13 v Italy in Witbank
South Africa won 42-17 v France in Cape Town 
South Africa won 34-31 v Wales in Cardiff

Planetrugby.co.za

generally positive views from the guy who wrote the article, and the future may look bright with new talent, and a bunch of experienced players set to return next year, but one can’t help but worry about our coaching staff, and our slip up in a should win match in against Scotland, our disastrous Tri nations which leaves me uncertain about the state of Springbok rugby, surely we weren’t as convincing in our EOY tour victories as this article would like to suggest, with the England game being the exception. we’ve played 14 games, 8 against NH sides, winning 7/8 and 6 against SH sides, deserving our 3rd rank in the world, by winning 1/6 …this is worrying. and usually we measure ourselves against the SH sides(the best in the world) and being world champions, our performances can’t be described as more than shocking this year.

Seeing that no one took or will take the fall prior to the world cup, we have to keep faith in the management staff, that they’ll be able to turn things around. with 10months to go until kickoff, will we become the first team to ever successfully defend the world cup……?