Lucky Sithole
It is not easy to criticise a winning team. Sayings like, “nothing succeeds like success” and “looks at the scoreboard” come to mind.
Famous commentator, Chick Henderson, used to say “handsome is as handsome does”.
And while the Springboks were winning, it was very difficult to criticise. But, now, in one blinding flash, with a performance the Aussies can rightfully dine out on for the next decade, all that has changed.
The Springboks’ rolling maul seems without initiative, the endless up-and-unders seem wasteful.
The players are rudderless, the replacements have no impact, and as for number tens who squander ten points in a test match? You could write a country song about it!
Of course, the analysis will continue all week, but perhaps it all boils down to one, pivotal factor: Leadership.
Example: Jake White is undoubtedly the best provincial coach in the country and possibly the best in the world. (We will soon find out.) But can he take the step-up to coaching a national team again? Probably not, and one assumes – smart man that he is – he won’t try.
Coach Neil Powell’s bout with Covid during the Olympic Games, may very well have cost the Blitzbokke, and South Africa, a gold medal because the other coaches could not get those brilliant sevens players to deliver the goods.
Enter Jacques Nienaber.
Is there a harder worker in rugby than him? Probably not. Did the Boks suffer because Rassie Erasmus wasn’t there? In a match that close, Rassie would have made the difference, Jacques did not.
Why Rassie wasn’t at the Gold Coast being the best water boy in the world is shrouded in the kind of mystery that the rugby gods seem to thrive on. C’mon, Rassie, Jacques. For the sake of the Springboks, get your act together. Look sharp!
A note on the terrible triplets. For some years, James O’Connor, Kurtley Beale and Quade Cooper have drifted around in the wilderness, squandering vast talent all over the place. One hopes this is behind them forever. Good on, ya’ Quade. You did real good.
