Lucky Sithole
LUCKY ON THE BALL: The camera isn’t often on Blitzboks’ coach Neil Powell. He simply is not a spotlight kind of guy. But in a rare shot of him sitting in the dugout at Toulouse he is seen literally squirming in his seat.
“This is the worst performance by the team since I took over. There is very little to be happy about with the performance we delivered here,” he said on Sunday.
Beyond stating the obvious, he really didn’t say much.
“We dropped the team as individuals and the team did not function as a unit. That is very disappointing,” he said.
Very disappointing?
The return of Fiji, New Zealand and Samoa has raised the bar substantially in terms of the standard of the matches. This is no surprise. How the Blitzboks were going to respond to it was the unknown factor – and yes, Neil Powell, it was very disappointing.
To say the individuals dropped the team and the team was not a unit, is stating the obvious. To say that the main problem identified is the inability of the players to execute their core duties is also painfully obvious.
To his credit, he accepts responsibility for the performance.
“Every player – and management – will have to look at themselves seriously and ask why they are not contributing as they were earlier in the season,” he said.
Already, they are now ranked number two behind Argentina in the World Sevens rankings.
There is also a painful little historical reminder that Neil Powell will probably want to avoid thinking about.
Bulls Coach Heyneke Meyer led the Bulls to three Super 12 titles and two Super 14 titles. But he will be remembered as the coach of the Springboks when Japan, under the leadership of Eddie Jones, beat the green and gold 34-32 in Brighton in the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
In his book, My Notes on Leadership and Life, Meyer says: “After the match I went to my hotel room. I experienced the most intense feeling of loneliness I have ever felt.”
Unfortunately for Powell, the HSBC Sevens schedule does not allow him a lot of time to recover. The squad leaves today for the London tournament which kicks off this weekend.
The Blitzboks have never been known to be physically big, but they have always been the most passionate with the biggest hearts.
Training a physical body to perform better is what sports people do, but training for a winning attitude is a much tougher task. The coach will have to find a way.
Neil Powell goes to the Sharks after the Sevens World Cup in September. Will he be remembered as the great Sevens coach who took the Blitzboks to glory or the coach who led them to failure?
As Heyneke Meyer says, it is a lonely job.
Image source: @SuperSport
