The late, great Springbok coach Kitch Christie once said:
“Look in the mirror.
You can never fool yourself.”

Current Springbok coach Peter de Villiers and his side would do well to heed his advice, rather than feed us the constant dribble they have this week about how good they were against the Al Blacks and almost won the game.

Almost does not win games, does win World Cups, and does not satisfy the rugby public.

Since the match against the All Blacks in Soweto, this is some of what has come out of the Springbok camp:

“What I saw today (Saturday after the All Black game in Soweto), we can beat any team on any given day. We can dictate territory and possession and for the best part of the day we did it today” stated de Villiers.

The fact of the matter is the Boks did not deliver. Even a 79 minute effort where you lose the game means that you weren’t good enough, end of story.

“In the second half we went a bit out of our structure and became a lot more defensive and didn’t see the ball much.”

“There was just one kick between us and an easy win. The result didn’t go our way but we were within five or seven minutes of pulling off a great result” continued de Villiers.

SHOW ME THE BABY!

There is a quote I often remember when thinking about sport. It is: “The world doesn’t care about the labour pains, they just want to see the baby”

de Villiers would do well to remember it. All we’ve heard since the first loss in this Tri-Nations is excuses and how well the side has done, yet what have we got to show for it?

After the test against the All Blacks in Wellington, de Villiers said he did not know what else the Boks had to do to win, as he felt they had played well.

“I have watched the video of the match over and over again and what I have realised is that I got too caught up in winning and losing last week and didn’t focus enough on the team performance” said De Villiers.

A 12 point loss is all that matters. I don’t care if we play badly, just show me the baby! (winning result!)

De Villiers also went on to say, “If I was to make it personal and to say they played for me then I would have to say the players really stood up for me. That makes me feel really good.”

All I can say is I feel like utter crap after any Springbok loss, let alone 4 on the trot, and one on our home turf in the magical kingdom of Soweto on our Highveld.

In showing his strategy for the match against the Wallabies, de Villiers stated, “There were just one or two critical errors against the All Blacks and that does not convince me that major changes are needed”

THE BENCH

I also said I was concerned with the makeup of the bench last week (and this week) with no specialist player to cover the back three. de Villiers did not use Butch James because he did not want to take off Morne Steyn and lose his ace goal kicker.

“That was one of the reasons we did not give Butch (James) a chance last week, Frans will make a difference by bringing an extra option with his goal kicking. We all know what he can do” said De Villiers.

I question why have Butch on the bench then? After the first test escape against the Lions last year de Villiers admitted he got his substitutions wrong and had learnt a lesson.

This week he said he had made an error in not using all the reserves at his disposal.

“Sometimes those decisions work for you, but there can be other times when they don’t. Injuries forced me to make some moves. As for the others, one can debate whether it was a mistake or not” de Villiers said.


I question if de Villiers has learnt anything in his time in charge of the Boks. Whilst I don’t think he should copy anyone else as he has his own strengths, he would be wise to take note of Kitch Christies advice, and look within.

Like most Bok supporters, I would rather hear less excuses and just be given the results we are all looking for!