South Africa’s victory over number 2 in the world Ireland has been in the news not for the magnitude of beating one of the strongest teams in the world but rather for the style of play employed. Rassie has always been a visionary when it comes to his uber detailed planning for the Boks 4 year World Cup cycles and this one will be no different. The writing is on the wall, the loud voices from pundits and ex players alike have been beating the drum to have the rules changed to favour attack over defence, flash over brawn, poetry over plodding, everyone else vs the Boks.
This week had Mark Keohane rattle off about how this was an awful performance moving so far from the very strength of the Bok game, its brutal power. One thing Rassie loves doing is winning and he has heard the rumbles of changes ahead so he is positioning the Boks to be ahead of those changes. Tony Brown is without doubt one of the most innovative backline/attack coaches in the game and will be a very in demand commodity when the changes really come into effect. These changes are not about winning now, they are about winning in 3 years time. For Keohane to go so far off the reservation about the direction the Boks are going shows me he cannot hear the clambering for change coming from parts of the world that hold more sway in the dark corridors of power within World Rugby.
The Springboks are in essence the same team that won the RWC and with an embarrassment of riches in the forwards could easily turn the screws on Ireland and come out on top. Will Rassie have an Eben or Frans Malherbe or bomb squad depth in the next World Cup? I doubt it. This current squad of players is a once in a generation collection of forwards that won’t be repeated for years to come. Couple this with the inevitable changes in the laws to favour the attacking teams one has to evolve or fall behind. The law changes that have been passed at the moment are small fry in comparison to what is coming down the line which will greatly change the way the game is played.
The international media have been gargling vinegar whilst singing the praises of Rassie for making the game more attractive and as one plonker said it’s the responsibility of the World Champions to play attractive rugby. What utter rubbish. The game is played to win and winning is what Rassie has done and will continue to do. He has made the strategic decision that will best suit the Boks to win the next Rugby World Cup, nothing more nothing less. To suggest that he has some deep yearning to give back to the game by sprinkling fairy dust on the game plan is almost laughable. Rassie will also be looking at the next generation of players coming through as he is very closely aligned with the player identification and monitoring of young players. He will know what he has to work with when the current crop start pushing the wrong side of 30 where form and injuries can play a large part in selection. Sir John Kirwan said it very succinctly, if any team in the world had the Bok pack would they play any differently? No. So if the Boks have Damian Willemse, Canan Moodie, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Kurt Lee-Arendse in the future would you not want to use them? Of course.
This is nothing more than a smart move by Rassie by looking at the future and weighing up the ever changing world to predict what will work best in the future, like a CEO future proofing his or her organisation. He happens to be very good at analysing the future trends and I happen to think that he has foreseen the future better than anyone else. Mark Keohane can beg for the Boks to beat teams over the head because it worked in the past but this is a new world and it favours the brave.
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