Blame the system
by David Campese | 18 November 2009 (10:48)
It beats me to understand how a Springbok team can lose to an English club side – not once but twice!
Given South Africa’s riches – money, fanatical support and unbelievable player depth – that should just not happen and what it shows are the flaws in the system.
The Springboks were up against 10 of their compatriots at Saracens – a club with backing from Johann Rupert, Morné du Plessis and Francois Pienaar on their board and Brendan Venter as their head coach!
There are a good number of South African boys at other clubs in the UK, France and Italy so what it shows you is that South Africa could field a third side, perhaps even a fourth, who would be competitive at international level but that the resources are being wasted.
Many of the guys playing overseas are there because of the colour situation and I wouldn’t be surprised if this tour hasn’t caused some others to weigh up their futures and decide that if the selection policy is weighted against them they might as well head north.
If any good can come out of this tour by the Springboks it must be the realisation that it’s no good picking players who are just not up to it. We know why its done, but it does no-one any good; not the team and certainly not the individual.
I’ve said it before (much to the annoyance, I noticed, of some bloggers) but the World Cup is still two years away and I don’t think the Springbok coaches have been very clever about how they’ve gone about this tour.
They needed to be saying: if Victor Matfield, or Bakkies Botha, or Fourie du Preez or John Smit breaks down who’ll step up? And when you see them losing to club sides you’ve got to say they’ve got it wrong.
I suppose they had it coming given Pieter de Villiers’ arrogance, or paranoia, with his treatment of Brendan Venter. It was disgusting really. Notwithstanding the fact that Venter was, in effect, their host it is really quite pathetic to think that he was spying or going to learn something earth shattering.
If there was something the Boks had in mind they could have quietly walked through it at their hotel, or even in the warm-up, but in the end it does not alter the fact that it’s what you do on the field rather than off it that counts.
That said I don’t think I’ll ever really understand what goes on in South Africa. Take this stuff with The Beast (Tendai Mtawarira). I looked it up. He made his debut in June 2008 and had played 19 Tests before someone in Government decided he was ineligible to play for South Africa! Explain that to me?
Looking ahead to the Test against Italy I believe the Boks will stand up. The old saying that there’s nothing as dangerous as a wounded Springbok remains true and I believe the No1 side will dig deep to restore their pride.
Enough about the Boks. It’s a shame the Wallabies failed to beat Ireland and I’m sure the guys will be hurting because they came within 30 seconds of keeping the dream alive.
Ireland were there for the taking as they were playing their first game of the year and you also have to question why we were playing deep in our own half with 30 seconds to go but you only get one chance and now I suppose we’ll have to wait another 25 years to repeat the Grand Slam!
