Buying time: Bok B-team selection is a smart tactic to take pressure off struggling Nienaber
Confession time again. I am the type of guy who, when I see someone trying to skip the heavy traffic I am sitting in by driving past all of us in the yellow lane (without his or her hazards on indicating that it’s an emergency), I will move to the shoulder of the road a bit.
I will block them. Hoot maar, maar reg is reg en verkeerd is verkeerd. That’s on a bad day, other days I let it slide.
But one thing is for sure, I am upset with those guys because they have the balls to break the rules and then still get away with it.
I’m sure that the moment I try to do the same, the blue lights will start flashing behind me.
Sport, that’s what this column is about - not my gripes with society breaking the laws left, right and centre and accepting it to be the norm.
It’s not a problem restricted to the borders of South Africa, though. Just last week we saw a klein mini kicking up a helse fuss by stretching what is acceptable on a rugby field in Adelaide.
Yes, I am talking about Nick White and his Neymar-like antics that led to Faf de Klerk’s yellow card in the test between the Springboks and the Wallabies.
For those who have been sleeping under a rock this past week, White got the kleinste of klappe from De Klerk after he tried to slap the ball out of the Wallabies No.9’s hand.
White then acted as if Faf just bit off his ear - Mike Tyson-style.
He won the penalty and Faf was sent off.
The hele South Africa reacted in anger to the incident, with John Smit tweeting: ““Yellow 9 just killed a little piece of Rugby’s soul today.”
Here’s the thing, White is like those drivers driving in the yellow lane during peak hour and he got away with it.
That, unfortunately, is the lengths Australia had to go to in order to beat the world champion Springboks. They had to bully South Africa. And they did.
So just like yours truly, who has a plan for these shoulder drivers, the Springboks had to adapt and think on their feet. They couldn’t and when they woke from their slumber it was too late.
A big problem last Saturday was that SA was on the receiving end of the bullying and they couldn’t adapt.
Bullying takes on a number of forms and is not just about a big guy hitting a small guy. Daai kleintjie kon die grootte bully by tarting him - think White.
It’s the ability to get under someone’s skin and then ultimately getting them to pay the biggest prize - some call it being streetwise, a characteristic completely lacking in this Bok team.
The Wallabies also smashed South Africa with their physical intent. They were pumped up for the match. The Boks, on the other hand, spoke about how tough it will be to break a near decade-long drought Down Under.
I’ve seen many strong men fall to klein mannetjies who have more reason to win the fight than their bigger opponent. The will to win was greater in the Aussie camp - it’s that simple.
So here I’ve highlighted three off the field things that lacked in that match - the inability to adapt to opposition tactics (whether their bullying or a change in tactics to cope with the backline line speed on defence), the lack of hunger which leads to poor starts in matches and a lack of general ‘streetwiseness’ in their own tactics.
How do you fix it?
The simple answer would be to get a new coach. One who can adjust tactics on the day, can inspire hunger to get a hoendervleis start (bring the hunger) and one who can get vuil when he has to (streetsmart). Rassie Erasmus is that guy, not Jacques Nienaber.
Anyway, Rassie is pal Nienaber’s boss, so he will be in the post at least until next year’s World Cup. So what do they do to divert attention from Nienaber being under pressure? Flip the script and send in a B team.
To be honest, as soon as the final whistle blew last week, I wondered what Rassie was going to do to take the attention away from the under-performing Nienaber. We saw how things went down against the British and Irish Lions.
Nienaber is under fire - whether he wants to admit it or not. With a win record of 57 percent - worse than Andre Markgraaff (61), Peter de Villiers (62), Rassie Erasmus (65), Heyneke Meyer (66) and Jake White (66) - the knives are rightly out.
But if he loses on Saturday, the excuse will be that the Boks tested their depth.
If he wins, then he buys some more time.
Either way, I’d like to see that sort of streetsmart tactics on the pitch, not outside of the four white lines…
dudley.carstens@inl.co.za