We might not have achieved the outcomes we were seeking in two of our three matches, but there was still much good to come from the just completed South African tour.
From a championship perspective, we did secure seven points on the trip. As the results that the South African sides achieved away from home last weekend showed, the competition is incredibly tight this year, with the teams from the Republic clearly benefiting from a growing belief in their ability to compete. That being the case, no touring side is going to have an easy time of it touring South Africa. It may be that the seven points we gained are seen in an even better light down the track.
As far as the development progress of our side is concerned, the three weeks away were also exceedingly valuable. We grew significantly as a group on tour. This was evident in the performances in the last two matches after the setback of the first up loss at Ellis Park. It manifested itself in the growth of a number of individuals, who made big steps forward – both in terms of their contribution within our environment, but also as far as their own career development is concerned.
Sometimes personal development can include learning lessons the hard way, and that was certainly the case at Durban on Saturday where our failure to kill off play after the final whistle handed the Sharks an opportunity to nail the result – which they did. That was unfortunate, and is certainly a situation that we hope we don’t experience again. Sometimes some of life’s best lessons are also the most painful.
As a coaching staff, looking at the game as a whole, we certainly couldn’t fault the commitment and energy the players expended. The final moments against the Sharks are not something we will unduly dwell on. To commit more time and energy to a situation we can’t now change would be detrimental to the progress of our campaign as a whole. Essentially the last act turned the emotions from jubilation to despair but did not change the detail within the game. There are still aspects of our game that we have been working on and need to continue to work on.
Looking ahead, we will lighten the load for the players for the rest of this week. We only returned to Christchurch on Monday night, so the team has been given two days off to get over the travel and to reconnect with their families and friends. We’ll hit the training track again on Thursday and have two days work, prior to giving the guys another two days off over our bye weekend.
From next week, we will have an added challenge as a group, in terms of incorporating the six players from the All Blacks’ conditioning programme, back into our mix. Leon MacDonald, Aaron Mauger, Daniel Carter, Richard McCaw, Reuben Thorne and Chris Jack will join us for training on Monday for the first time in the campaign.
It is exciting to have players of their quality involved, and they are no doubt eager and possibly anxious to return to rugby specific training after a sustained period working solely on a strength and conditioning base. Their re-entry does present some significant – and unique – challenges. The conditioning All Blacks are not available for selection until our match against the Stormers in Christchurch on March 24. In the interim, it is critical that we get them up to speed with our strategy and method, while not compromising the needs of the rest of the group, whose focus is solely on our home match with the Bulls on March 17.
To achieve both outcomes, and ensure that our preparation for the Bulls match is not distracted by the return of the All Blacks, we will prepare them as a group both with us, and also separately, until they are once again eligible for selection. That in itself creates some logistical issues for our staff. We are effectively going to have to run two groups – which will be time consuming, and won’t be easy, but that is the best way we believe we can get the conditioning All Blacks up to speed while limiting the impact on our ability to perform well against the Bulls. Although there is naturally going to be an increased level of public and media interest in how the conditioning All Black players are coming along, the Bulls match is the Crusaders only focus.
It has to be. No one can afford to take any short cuts – in either preparation or performance – in a competition as tough as the Rebel Sport Super 14 is. As the Bulls showed last weekend [when winning 19-7 against the ACT Brumbies] in Canberra, they are a force to be reckoned with, and now have a level of belief in their ability to perform away from South Africa that has not always been present in the past. That is going to make them a major challenge, but it is one we must meet head on if we are to keep the pressure on the teams who are currently ranked above us on the competition point’s table.
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