The All Blacks are still the best but this Springbok fan is not worried about it

Rugby union supporters are an odd bunch, this much we all know and proudly accept it as fact. In some ways we are unique, in other ways we are horribly predictable.

In reality we all fall under the term of sportsmen and with that comes the habit of a sportsman

Ofttimes the nature of our resolve is always to live in the here and now, discarding history as nothing other than just that – history. But then you encounter the rugby fan that embraces history as the building blocks and status of our teams.

We reminisce about the days of old and the golden age of heroes that gave us so much hope, so much heritage. Sometimes we falter when accepting that times change and so too do the teams we support.

I find myself in the living room on a typically chilly South African July evening with a cold one on the left and a steaming cup of homemade soup on the right. The wind howls outside, singing its solemn songs of sedative melancholy, the illuminating rays of fading sunlight cascading off the still waters of the pool outside.

I look to the heavens and find a myriad of colors painting the sky, tainted blue, purple and orange, the kind of sunset that only Africa could offer. T’was a scene of change.

I felt nothing but indifference. Indifference yet somewhat satisfied, yet eerily disturbed. A feeling of mixed feelings, a touch of twilight enlightenment, the definition of bittersweet. The reflection of my mentality regarding the Ellis Park Test last weekend.

First things first, the reiteration of my most sacred of mantras in sport. There were no could’ves, would’ves and should’ves in that spectacular All Black triumph. There were no odd calls from any of the officials that swayed the outcome of the game, there were no contradictions that merited notice, no outside interference that tarnished quality of the match. We found two teams that gave their all, two teams that pursued victory, two teams who played the game in the true spirit of rugby.

The All Blacks emerged worthy winners, the Springboks bent the knee and the rest was scripted into the history books. The Boks lost of their own accord despite what others will tell you about uncontested scrums and dodgy lineout calls. The New Zealand invaders deserved the win, the South Africans deserved to lose and both of them took from those realities what they could. Lessons learned, that is the undeniable truth.

The words of Bryan Habana summed up that truth when questioned by former Springbok Bob Skinstad.

“We either win or we learn, we never lose” a tragical Habana claimed. Hands on hips, he refused to turn his gaze upon the camera. Instead he stood fixated on the ground beneath him, the celestial ground of Bok rugby personified on which he just lost. The heritage he failed.

“Well, I’m tired of learning Bob,” he continued, perhaps too vehemently. “We’ll take from this what we can, but as for myself, I know that we just weren’t good enough tonight. We just weren’t good enough.”

This had me thinking. The Springboks threw everything they had at the old foes, they fought tooth and nail, they resisted to the best of their abilities. Then they lost, just as they had lost in 2013 at the same ground.

A quote exists that I am quite fond of. It says that sometimes we should stop trying to outsmart the truth and let it finally have its day. The moral of the story is knowing your limits before trying to exceed them, that moment when you should just relax, soak in reality and then rebuild from there. Leave the past in the past, discard it and rise from the proverbial ashes.

This is what the Boks must do, as strange as it may sound in a World Cup year.

The All Blacks have been the better side for years now, this weekend was proof enough. One win in nine Tests is not a good stat, but it is the stat that tells the story.

It is easy to look at a losing performance that was well played, a performance where your team shows guts and heroics galore. Everyone will always remember the day when you put your body on the line and fought with all your strength. You will always be remembered as the battle hardened soldier that defied the odds. And then they will remember that you had lost.

I plead guilty in the first degree. I had thought, like so many others, that the Springboks were well and truly so close to the All Blacks that if they decided to spit, it would hit the Kiwis on the back of their heads. There were so many instances that reinforced this belief, so many instances that inspired so much. But I was wrong. The Boks, like every other team in the world, simply is not in their league. Not yet.

As I mentioned earlier, I am trapped in a state of indifference. This is not a knee-jerk reaction to an agonising defeat to the mauling marauders of New Zealand. This is not a submission to a lost cause, I still have faith in my team.

The truth has its day today. It seems a romantic gesture to consider the Boks so close to the Blacks when the proof points otherwise. There is simply no team in the world that matches the All Blacks in stature or consistency. Not the Springboks, not the Wallabies, not the English and not the Irish.

Can either of these teams beat the All Blacks on any given day? Of course they can. But can they do so consistently? The simplest of answers remain no, and that highlights the great downfall of world rugby’s goals of overthrowing this benevolent black behemoth. The Kiwis will remain the undisputed best team in the world until someone knocks them off their perch and keeps them out indefinitely. That is the only way.

It is perhaps now that I fully understand the sentiments of my South African companion in crime here on The Roar, Biltongbek.

Bilt has often been criticised over his apparent negative attitude regarding the beloved green and gold. I too have accused him of pessimism only for him to claim it realism.

I believe I can now see why.

It is not that he doesn’t see the good in his team, it’s not that he just sees the bad. It’s not that he doesn’t rate or trust those entrusted to do the job and it’s not that he doesn’t see the silver lining around the edges of that colossal black abyss in the sky.

Instead it is the realisation that what is and what was are two separate things. We cannot keep holding onto what was because what is marches on and waits for no one. We also cannot be content with heroics and bravery while we lose because those leave a taste in our mouths that is naught but ash.

We must be honest with ourselves. We want to win. We want the Springboks to win. The Australians want the Wallabies to win. That is the nature of the sportsman.

Of course this doesn’t mean that we can’t be optimistic in our approach because without optimism we will never win. It just means that we need to be optimistic within the realms of reality.

Call a spade a spade. Don’t just stop the wheel, break the wheel.

Despite what you might read in the comments sections of various articles here on The Roar, the Springboks are far from a disaster and farther away from an era of mediocrity.

It is only in our nature to overreact when recent results question the true position of a team in the world scheme of things. In 2009 when the Boks beat the Blacks thrice consecutively, there were talks of a new era descending upon the world where black was only just another colour and the number one spot was there for the taking.

Similarly, many dismissed the Wallabies as true World Cup contenders in 2014 only for them to reignite their belief after two very solid wins in 2015.

Subject to a lot of discussion has been the Springbok bench. Many claim that the Boks have no depth and that their bench will be inadequate moving forward. Strangely, the opposite was said a year ago when more or less the same Bok bench dismantled the Wallabies at Newlands and played an integral part in beating New Zealand in Johannesburg.

At the time the Bok bench was regarded to be equal to that of the All Blacks’. Suddenly now you’ll find that after two misfiring games, the Bok bench is in tatters. Doesn’t make much sense does it?

In the same vein, the Wallaby bench was castrated for their poor showings in 2014, only to be praised for their part in their last two victories. The moral of the story is that two matches is now regarded as the yardstick of success.

It took the All Blacks three games, three losses in 2009 for rugby fans to claim a downfall for them only to be pleasantly surprised in 2010 when they were back in black. Two wins is all it took for Wallaby fans to restore their faith in their team, it took two losses for the Boks to become a spent force, open to all sorts of criticism.

Now my point in this is not claiming that those supporters who claimed that are wrong, my point is simply that there is no consistency in our views because we become engulfed in the here and now. But consistency has a way of being consistent.

South African rugby has absolutely no problem with depth whatsoever and the injuries to Francois Louw and Jannie du Plessis will prove that again when Meyer calls in either Jaco Kriel or Jacques Potgieter to fill the void. Depth is not a problem, the quality is there.

The real question is why wasn’t the bench one hundred per cent committed when they took to the field in the past two games?

Another point of notice has been the favourite old versus young debate the past two games. Fortunately, results have gone both ways so far this year.

Several young guns have put their hand up and stood accounted for the past two weeks. Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel have been standouts as has young Lodewyk de Jager, Eben Etzebeth and Willie le Roux. But several youngsters have been shocking to say the least.

Handre Pollard’s tactical and goal kicking has been shocking, Cobus Reinach has shown absolutely no mettle. Who passes the ball forward in the dying moments of the game after you’ve seen the ball carrier two metres in front of you? Be honest now, Pienaar would not have made that mistake, not in that position.

In the same vein, why is it that I am still searching for Warren Whiteley in the replays of the past two games? And do not tell me that he is the silent workman-like type who tackles and links with his outside players. Schalk Burger also plays such a role, but his contributions are noteworthy, Whiteley, in my opinion has done his best to imitate a ‘Spies’.

I have not been impressed with him at all when he was on the field, not even against a mashup World XV team. Vincent Koch has now knocked the ball on twice in crucial moments when the game could have been won.

It’s easy to blame the old heads in the team, but when a youngster makes a mistake then it can’t be that bad. Had Pienaar made that pass, I assure you there would have been quite the song and dance about it.

The old saying remains, age is just a number. Pick those who are playing good rugby, axe those who are playing bad. That’s simplicity at its simplest.

Confused as you may be reading me say that we must embrace the here and now in one sentence only to recall the days of old in the next, you must put my sentiments in context.

Past performances teach us lessons that we must take forward. What didn’t work for you yesterday must be fixed and perfected. This does not mean that we must play the game the way we played back then because the game moves forward, but it does mean that we can refer to past mistakes to remind us of what went wrong.

We will need a lot of this if we are to face the All Blacks with renewed pride the next time we meet. The Springboks have not been convincing against the Kiwi men for years on end now, it is a fact that must be rectified.

Yet still, there is no real reason to fear for the men in green and gold. Twenty minutes. That is all that stands in their way of becoming a complete team with a complete performance.