Written friday 14/08/2009

FROM MY SEAT OF KNOWLEDGE, 

THE ALMIGHTY SPRINGBOKS

Boys and girls of rugby land,  I am struggling to believe that people find the current South African side boring,  destroying the game of rugby in fact. 

Now some of you I know play in,  and want to play in the backs.  Why you want to do that is a question that cannot be answered.  The current Springbok side is one that aptly demonstrates that backs are not required for rugby,  and in fact are only there to fill up some empty spaces,  look good and maybe kick the footy occasionally.  Other than that,  as Peter Healy said at a University banquet 25 years ago,  after an undefeated premiership built on a potent,  powerful and violent forward pack that kicked,  gouged and punched anything that moved into it's path,  sometimes even deviating off the path to kick,  gouge and punch the unsuspecting,  why do we need backs?

The other thing even more fascinating than playing in and wanting to play in the backs,  is people wanting to be referees.  It is patently obvious that most of them know precious little about the game,  and in particular the bits that matter,  the breakdown,  which when playing against South Africa will henceforth be known as The Killing Fields,  the scrum,  and the lineout.  It is pretty much have a guess,  blow your whistle,  and put your hand up that the whistle isn't in,  make a couple of other signals that they teach you at referee school and move on.

Now back to the Boks,  I got a little shiver in my spine when Botha and Matfield ran out,  big,  powerful,  skilful and violent men that command and demand respect.  I know I would have given left and right arms to be in a pack with these two blokes,  they are harder than iron.  The Australian pack,  well they look about as frightening as a half toasted marshmallow on a balmy winter's afternoon.

The African pack is also much more dynamic that it was years ago with du Randt and Ollie Le Roux,  guys like Du Plessis,  Brussouw and Spies are really good,  strong athletes.

Simple game plan,  play narrow,  kick to the corners,  strong chase,  dominate the lineout,  flood the tackle zone and be very violent and aggressive there,  just smashing and wasting anything in the road,  with a no prisoners type attitude,  intimidate the referee,  take the penalties with a flyhalf that can kick them from anywhere,  and Bob,  whoever he is,  is your uncle.  There are plenty of tryscorers in the African pack,  Spies,  Du PLessis, Juan Schmidt,  de Villiers,  Habana,  so the Australians indiscipline in their own red zone lead to the Africans kicking for many goals and not too many tries being scored.  Australia were not good enough at the collision zone,  nor good enough to kick to the corners with any effect to gain or assert any dominance.

Boring,  definitely not,  destroying world rugby, please,  we have just become far too used to seeing fanciful play,  steppy,  jumpy,  fancy stuff without building a foundation.  The Africans are building a foundation and will be able to score tries if and when they want,  they just don't need to at the moment.

Tell me if you thought one Australian back wouldn't swap forward packs.  There is only one Aussie forward that measures up when the going gets tough,  George Smith.  The Hippo,  Benn Robinson goes OK,  scrummed the house down,  but the whole world knows that John Schmidt can't scrum to save himself, have a look at his shoulders in and through contact,  he is wheelchair fodder,   but needs to be there as a fantastic leader, apparently,   but man did he get busted in the scrums,  and it is always nice to see wastage come scrum time.  Jeez I love scrums.

To top that off,  while he scored a nice try late,  Mat Giteau had a poor game,  his direction,  accuracy and decisions weren't that great,  he probably won't play that badly again for a while.

Everyone is beatable folks,  and every style is beatable,  and if anyone can figure it out it will be Deans.  The Boks are now also on the road,  and a tough trip,  so will see how that goes.

Wrote this page on a Guns 'n' Roses bender,  Knockin on Heavens Door from Use Your Illusion 2,  Civil War,  Don't You Cry,  November Rain and Patience.  Long live the very great Axl Rose and his sidekick Slash.