First and fore-most, I am a born and bred South African. I have only left the country a couple times (usually for only weekends) to visit friends and family up in Bremen, Germany.
And as most of you like to point out, I am one of those “Highly arrogant one-eyed Springbok supporters”, who goes “Bokke! Bokke! Bokke!” before every game, wearing a green minor’s head with springbuck horns glued on to it.
In the stadium you may find us eating delicious biltong and sucking alcohol from an orange.
But as a Springbok supporter I’d like to convey or unplug the blueprint if you like, on how to defeat the Boks properly. Especially in a World Cup.
Of course you may choose to learn this information or not. And please realise this information does not make me a traitor of any sort.
But it would fascinate me, to hear your thoughts. The readers. The anti-Boks.
And so here are a couple secrets you may or may not have known about The Boks.
Pieter de Villiers is not as crazy as everybody makes him out to be.
He does and speaks outlandish things in the media. He has questionable and clownish explanations, he frustrates the hell out of the Bok supporters with selection policies and tactics.
And it’s these attributes that makes him a brilliant, sane and clever coach.
He wants you to except the least of him. His mind-games has his opponents on the brink of total anger and lost of concentration.
He doesn’t mind how others perceive him and willingly do things to piss off/inspire players. Pieter is secretly a genius pleading insanity.
Believe it or not, but the Boks do not actually rely on kicking for penalties to “win games”.
They do not even rely on Morne Steyn. The Bok’s biggest arsenal/asset is their forwards.
In South Africa, we believe that the team with the best forwards will win the match, no-matter who the other side have in their backline.
Yes, with our forward play and pressure, we produce a lot of penalties and Morne usually does kick them over.
But in reality, the Boks know how to score tries. In rugby, tries, penalties and drop goals are all means of scoring points. And we do the little things well enough to get the points.
And the easiest would be to receive three points from a penalty. If the opportunity presents itself for a drop-goal, we’ll take that too. Who cares how you win when you win?
What others call boring rugby, we call smart rugby.
We understand that this form of the game (XV man World Cup rugby), and this level are not suited for razzle-dazzle all the time.
We do have some very exciting young players. Pat Lambie, Gio Aplon, Frans Hougaard, Frans Steyn, Sarel Pretorius, Juan de Jongh, Jaco Taute, Elton Jantjies, Gerhard vd Heeven, Johan Sadie and Lwazi Mvovo to name a few. And we see these guys in the Currie Cup and Super Rugby.
So, South Africa is not genetically incapable of producing hard stepping, fast back-line players. We just employ our style of play which suits us and which frustrates our opponents.
Truth be told, we know that other nations consider us boring and predictable. But guess what? We also consider you predictable (although not always boring).
We know exactly what we going to get when we meet, say, Australia or New Zealand, and that’s not South Africa. Back in the 90’s when we came back from isolation, we were first regularly beaten by the other top sides.
But instead of adopting the “if you can’t beat them, join them” idea, which refers to the running style the Australasian teams play, we adopted the “if we can’t beat them, try and beat them some more, because they’ll be expecting us to join them and so we’ll have the element of surprise” strategy. Which works more times then it fails.
The way to beat the Boks is not rocket-science.
If the Wallabies’ focus and concerns are only on the referee and weather condition, then it may be a long night for them.
Beating the Boks at the World Cup all comes down to 80 minutes of pressure, more pressure, scrum-dominance and winning the aerial battle.
You shouldn’t play running rugby in your own half. Don’t give us the ball to play. Beat us at our own game.
One must remember this is not the Bulls where you should simply run at them all night on a dry warm Brisbane night. Or the Stormers where a good first half could win you the game.
This is the Springboks. They are physical, hungry and fearless. Make no mistake.
Mike
Guest
Ivan, "When last did Australia win in NZ ? When last did Wales ? It seems only the Boks and French have done it in recent times." So what? Are you seriously suggesting that this is any guide to how any match is going to turn out today or next week? All we know for certain is that there will be a NH v SH match-up in the final! "If Snor is that bad, then Deans must be really bad." Yeah they're both totally hopeless, and there are fairies at the bottom of the garden.
jeznez
Guest
Agree, on Pretorius. He is the best signing the Waratahs managed last year. Am not sure that the addition of AAC and Sareli will counter the loss of Beale though.
jeznez
Guest
Ivan, Wales won in NZ yesterday. Australia last week.
Ivan
Guest
french held back - they planned this route to the final.
Ivan
Guest
If Allister Coetzee doesnt get it, then it will have to be Heyneke Meyer. The gaps will be filled - its time for the new boys to come through. would have been great if the boks could have ended their careers playing currie cup - sort of handing over the experience to the next generation. the loss of Sarel pretorius to Australia is huge. that lightie has talent. Bekker comes back and takes over from Matfield. Bismark takes over from Smit, Beast stays. Hougie for du preez, this new free state lightie Goosen will prob make flyhalf with morne. theres plenty of new blood to come in, and quite a few bruisers too.
Ivan
Guest
When last did Australia win in NZ ? When last did Wales ? It seems only the Boks and French have done it in recent times. Also - latching onto a previous comment about results etc. Im going out on a limb here, but im almost sure that Pieter de Villiers (the Joker) has a greater winning percentage than Robbie Deans with Australia. If Snor is that bad, then Deans must be really bad.
Ivan
Guest
Google translate totally messes that little speech up. I was just rhyming in plain old saffa. the translator really gets it wrong. heck, it wasnt even that funny in afrikaans, even less so in englands language. Beale tos te veel. Pocock se naam vertel wat sy gunsteling paastyd is, Cooper sit te veel op die poeper, O connor kort n goeie donner. Nee kyk as die bokke nou besluit vandag donner ons, dan gaan die aussies pak kry. Maar as die pak teen ons kan opstaan gaan hulle agterlyn ons n nuwe poephol kerf. Direct Translation - which is even less funny, because its not rhyming. Beale touches himself too much, Pococks name tells what his hobby is, Cooper sits too much on the toilet, o connor needs a good smack, if the Boks decide today we getting stuck in, the aussies will get a hiding. But if the aussie pack stands up to the Boks, the aussie backline will carve them a new a-hole.
Mike
Guest
Interesting to note that France managed to lose two pool games, yet still managed to turf out England in the quarter finals tonight.
Mike
Guest
*LMAO* Truly multi-skilled...
kiwidave
Guest
Google translate, not entirely convinced of the accuracy though. Some of what Ivan said sounded pretty funny.
kiwidave
Guest
I just fire it into google translate, although I think it got the bit about cooper's pooper wrong.
Mike
Guest
You are kidding yourself Trevor. By far the worst at talking themselves up on this blog are the kiwi fans. "quiet strength" - what an utter joke. DCs post above is an excellent example of kiwi hubris: "the boks are also the one team that can win in NZ" - OMG And I have no idea where you get your ideas about Rugby from: "any other team losing as often and in such terrible ways (ireland / samoa) would be a little bit insecure about their abilities" - what, pray tell, does this have to do with how Australia will go in this world cup? I suggest taking a leaf out of the Saffa supporters book. They are generally realistic about prospects, and able to discuss strengths and weakness of both teams in a rational fashion.
Klippies
Guest
Bring on Meyer as next bok coach
Scot Free
Guest
I do admire your ability to type one-handed, though.
Scot Free
Guest
Wow, Trev. What complete codswallop.
jeznez
Roar Guru
Trev, I agree with you regarding the teams - I wish mine would shut up. I latched onto the "us new zealanders" part of DC's post - I am assuming he isn't Dan Carter - so took the commentary to take in the fans where I think all three countries are about as bad as each other at talking up their teams and defending their losses.
Uncle Argyle
Guest
Bremen for a weekend. That is big commute. Anyhow GL good on you for an honest appraisal of the Bok's. I am not anti-Bok but i do find Bok rugby really boring, but it has had is successes so I should not be critical. Mate I reckon if the Bok's are up 17- 0 after 25/30 minutes they will win, however as the match goes on I think the Wallabies are a fitter side. It has never been a secret on how to beat South Africa from an Australian point of view. Forget the ref and the weather, they are neutral. Commitment and parity achieved at 1st phase. Patience and patience and a little more patieice becuase if the game is not going their way the Bok's do have a history of giving away silly penalities. Secondly run that big Bok's all over the park and run at Morne! May the best team win!
Klippies
Guest
I think next year will interesting for the boks A lot of pkayers hanging up the boots Who will fill those gaps ? Also who will coach ? Let's get Meyer in But I think the anc has made it clear they want Black coaches
trevor deangelo
Guest
Jeznez, their is difference in the quiet strength that the Saffas and ABs bring to the game (usually based on large winning %) compared to the kind of statements coming out of the wallabies and Aus medias mouths (and often after low winning %). They have been outstanding at talking themselves up - which is amazing when you think about it - any other team losing as often and in such terrible ways (ireland / samoa) would be a little bit insecure about their abilities - but not the wallabies and their supporters. The Wallabies are only ever 15 minutes of a good half away from being the best team in the world, with the worlds best players. And that is not a bad thing either - its probably that self talk and self belief that makes the wallabies dangerous on their day.
jeznez
Roar Guru
DC - nice respect for the other six teams still in the comp if only NZ and the Boks can win in NZ. Will these two teams tear any of the other six apart? And the Saffa's only count World Cups from 1995, the earlier ones apparently didn't count, that is excellent respect for the '87 and '91 winning teams. I'm not saying Aussies aren't cocky - hell not many teams can lose 10 out of 11 tests and still reckon they are a chance every time they take the field BUT to be accused of arrogance by Kiwis and South Africans is laughable. Take that piece of two by four out of your eye.