Volume 5, Week 1 Rugby Forum

Editors Note
Brilliant!     Salutations dear readers, RF is back after a lengthy spell of R&R. 2004, a very good year in the modern annals of Springbok rugby made for a far more ‘festive’ festive season than the norm. The usual furrowed brow and endless brooding over what could have been was absent, replaced by a certain joi de vie. Hopefully you were in similar mind. 

There was a distinct lack of ‘joy for life’ in the escapades of the local game’s guardians as have become quite de rigueur in the off season. Public spats via the media might not be any other country's way of dealing with some serious issues but this is SA Rugby we are talking about. Last year’s opening edition was devoted to the departure of a president, CEO and a coach – this year a few more lesser heads have rolled but frankly if these antics are what it takes to win a Tri Nation trophy – be my guest Brian, Andre, Mike and whoever wants to give their 5 rands worth!

This particular writer is looking immensely forward to the new rugby season, in fact not even an untimely series loss against England in the cricket could dampen the spirits. Attractions like the last ever Super 12 competition, Six Nations, a Lions Tour to NZ, personal favourites France touring SA and a Tri Nations competition promises to make 2005 a big year. 

One of coach Jake’s pleas for the New Year – for far better conditioning, is a plea this writer endorses wholeheartedly. However not only must the players be fitter, faster and stronger (sounds like the intro to the six billion dollar man…) but supporters will require a lot of ‘condition’ for those early morning 3-matches-in-a-row call in front of the telly, followed by the obligatory afternoon visit to the park. It is not a task for the feint hearted! 

The Six Nations opened with a lot of pomp and ceremony of this year being the most competitive ever. Well, Wales surprised all and sundry with a very determined and tactically superior performance against the World Champions, England. The English were well below par with the loss of experienced players contributing to their downfall. For Wales, this will be a massive psychological boost as they ran both the Springboks and the All Blacks close at the end of last year. The result was a confirmation that the coach and team is on the right track and the curve may well be on the up for the men from the valleys, it certainly is for Gavin Henson!

A certain Welshman, ecstatic with his team’s win over England the weekend, dropped the bar below the belt as far as supporting one’s team is concerned. The man’s medieval actions (see quotes below) made a mockery of the term ‘ball-carrier’… and this ‘off-the-ball’ incident should definitely be discouraged!

All in all, RF is looking forward to another great rugby year and your brilliant efforts in writing and commenting are always highly appreciated – do not hold back! And any suggestions are most welcome! 

Lucas

lucas@rugbyforum.co.za

For all the latest rugby news visit sarugby.com

Back to Reality by Desmond Organ
The opening weekend of the Six Nations marks the start of the international rugby season and with it the views of the armchair pundits from around the globe. It sets the scene for the annual North vs. South debate and is in fact the beginning of a year of banter as far as the game that is played in heaven is concerned.

If anything the past weekend was an absolute revelation of how the game should and should not be played, it also highlighted how teams employ strategies during the game to ensure that victory is achieved in the midst of many diverse factors such as weather conditions, strengths and weaknesses and match officials. What a pity then that the first match of the weekend was from a layman’s perspective an absolutely painful experience, usually close matches are absolute crackers and this is typically the case when the top nations are playing.

The quality of rugby produced was not something worth spending a lot of time writing about; simply because one side was content on making no mistakes and thus denying themselves many opportunities to score and the other side was made up of players that were clearly not the best available. Scotland despite the pain of watching them grab defeat from the jaws of victory were quite simply not up to scratch. It is one thing to play a conservative game and quite another to have a third rate flyhalf spend the majority of the game kicking away whatever possession they had. In general the kicking out of hand was not up to standard and this is also true of the other matches.

Bernard Laporte’s decisions to omit players like Michalak came back to haunt him in more ways than one, who has heard of a modern era top nation going into a test match without a recognised kicker. It might have been Scotland who was the opposition, but this could have ended up as the biggest surprise of the whole weekend. Several of my rugby friends in the USA would have been screaming for the lynching of the match official, but to be frank Scotland have done nothing to convince me that they are capable of beating sub standard opposition. It was an exercise in damage control and had it succeeded they might have lost any opportunity to get rid of a coach who has done very little. 

I was amused by the facilities that the Scotland coach has access to at Murrayfield during my visit there last November, a private box when most coaches are content to sit in the stands; come of it, this guy has got some serious issues when it comes to producing a decent performance. 

If the first game was a disappointment from the perspective of a seasoned fan, the second was a cracker because Wales pulled off a great victory. I always had the feeling that the big one would come eventually and if they had realised it earlier in the game it might have been a bit of a belting. England will not lose by large margins to Northern hemisphere opponents, but if they take the majority of that team to represent the Lions in New Zealand in the test matches they are going to have a serious problem. 

Wales’s performance was quite outstanding as far as slowing down opposition ball is concerned, Matt Dawson was restricted to individual forays into the oppositions territory and his lack of a decent pass combined with the inability of the forwards to recycle the ball efficiently put an end to the attacking capabilities that have been a hallmark of England in recent years. What it did for rugby was to remove the aura of invincibility that has been part of England’s psychological warfare and perhaps Jake White will think again when he says that England are so much more physical than South Africa. On a slightly less positive note, several of the England players are developing a reputation for simply being dirty players; South Africa might have now passed that baton over to somebody else.

England’s forwards were technically inefficient in the rucks and mauls and their body positioning looked like the Springboks of several years ago, Wales on the other hand had their loose forwards operating like a unit and disrupted and niggled and tackled at every opportunity. The Welsh backs were effective as a unit, but were it not for the individual contribution of one very impressive inside back they might well have let this one slip away as well.

There are very few people that could have predicted the Italian forward supremacy in Rome, my goodness is John Kirwan the only coach that had his notebook available during the games in November. It was a clinical performance only to be negated by the individual brilliance of O’Driscoll. Ireland will be hard pressed to win the whole thing if they lose key players for any significant period of time. Italy never gave up and if they can find some more effective three quarter players then they will end this season ahead of teams like Scotland.

Sir Clive Woodward will be both a happy and a worried man after this weekend, happy because he got out at the right time and worried because the majority of his team cannot at this point in time be English.

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Quotes
For me this tour is just as big if not bigger than the World Cup. This has to be the best-ever prepared Lions squad if we are to have an chance of winning in New Zealand.       Clive Woodward

When I look back over the last 10 years of my playing career in New Zealand I feel incredibly satisfied all I have experienced and achieved.       Justin Marshall

The unions want to manage the Super 12 teams themselves, but this kind of childishness shows there is a still a long way to go.     André Markgraaff on where Solly Tyibilika should play his rugby - Sharks or not.

It could drive me insane not being able to practice the kicking, but I have accepted that this is the case and am trying to keep it in the back of my mind.     Jonny Wilkinson on his latest injury

The gloves are off. I know that Van Rooyen has been talking to all the provinces, getting them to rally around him.        South African Rugby Vice-President Mike Stofile 

There is no place for Africans in SA Rugby, in administration or on the field.      Mike Stofile

SA Rugby will not be dictated to as to how it runs its business. No political interference will be tolerated, not in the selection of teams, not in rugby decisions and not in any management decisions.       André Markgraaff

A Welsh rugby fan cut off his own testicles to celebrate Wales beating world champions England at rugby in Cardiff for the first time in 12 years.       True story....

In essence it will be my job to take on all rugby decisions in Western Province.       Nick Mallett

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Letters
Hi Lucas

How long did it take for south African rugby to realise the value of one Nick Mallett? Arguably the best coach in the world today was sitting at our doorstep and SA Rugby did nothing about it! Congratulations must go to WP for snapping up a prize asset in the world game and one can be sure that their results will soon reflect an excellent decision.

Regards
Gavin Ford

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