Lucky Mdluli
Speaking about the way the Sharks destroyed the Bulls on Friday, Naas Botha said it was a pity that fans weren’t taking the warm-up matches for the Rainbow Cup seriously.
“They say it is just a warm-up tournament and that’s a pity. A rugby match is a rugby match,” he said.
Well, yes. Of course, Botha is right. You can’t tell a rugby player that he must slow down. A try is a try, no matter what is at stake.
So, Botha is right. He usually is.
Until you throw the Jake White-factor into the mix.
White sends his charges onto the field with a blistering win-at-all-costs message and that is what the players do. They give it everything they’ve got.
But on a strategic level, White almost always outsmarts opposing coaches.
Commentators agree that the Sharks scrum was rampant. But were they up against the best the Bulls had to offer?
In the Currie Cup, the Bulls front row consisted of Gqoboka, Nyakane and Grobbelaar. In Saturday’s match it was Gqoboka, Erasmus, Van der Merwe. The Bulls’ loose forwards in the final was dynamite: Louw, Vermeulen and Van Staden. On Saturday it was Gouws, Carr, Agaba.
White, a coach who wins tournaments, almost certainly doesn’t say, “A rugby match is a rugby match.” He almost certainly thinks, “What’s at stake?”
And the answer is, the Rainbow Cup is at stake.
All the teams in the tournament should respect the Sharks’ great win (it was, after all, a 47-12 victory with seven tries to two) but if they don’t wonder if the best Bulls side was on the field, they’ll be playing straight into Jake White’s wily hands.
Picture source:@TheSharksZA
