Lack of imagination cost Boks
2015 was a year in which South African rugby tripped and tumbled both at franchise and national level.
|||In a year in which the fall of unwanted things was all the rage, it was South African rugby that tripped and tumbled both at franchise and national level.
The Springboks may have walked away from the World Cup in England with the bronze medal but shock defeats to Argentina in the build-up, and Japan in their opener led to coach Heyneke Meyer falling on his sword.
South African rugby was stuck in philosophical quagmire as the teams went into battle with an outdated game plan against opposition already ahead on the evolutionary chain.
The country’s franchises’ failings in Super Rugby did not aid the Springboks in their cause but Meyer seemed to increasingly lose the plot since last year’s end-of-year tour.
The nuts on the Bok bus loosened on that tour with a defeat to Ireland before they lost to Wales in a match that was scheduled outside of the international window.
Injuries compounded Meyer’s woes with inspirational captain Jean de Villiers suffering a horror knee injury in that final match of the season against Wales.
It was perhaps the Springbok coach’s blind faith in players that were past their sell-by date or were in a race against time to recover from injury before the start of the global showpiece that augmented their slide.
The Springboks went into the World Cup with clouds of doubt hanging over players such as De Villiers, Fourie du Preez, Willem Alberts, Duane Vermeulen, and Pieter-Steph du Toit.
His questionable transformation record had been a constant theme during his tenure, and the dissenting voices over his contradictions on the matter grew to a choir ahead of the World Cup.
Selecting lock Du Toit in the starting line-up as flanker ahead of specialist Siya Kolisi in the opening match against Japan and his reluctance to give debutant scrumhalf Rudy Paige an extended run further fuelled the perception Meyer was stifling transformation.
On the pitch nothing seemed to go according to plan with the Boks losing 24-20 to Australia in Brisbane before suffering a 27-20 defeat to the All Blacks in Johannesburg in the Rugby Championship.
At that point there was no need for panic stations as the results could have gone either way but it was the poor performance in Durban which led to South Africa’s first-ever defeat to Argentina that suggested a serious decline.
A week later the side made amends with a victory in the return fixture in Argentina but it was little consolation on the eve of the World Cup.
The Boks’ wonky wheels came off in their World Cup opener against Japan when they became the East-Asian nation’s first victim at the global showpiece since they defeated Zimbabwe at the 1991 edition.
The Brave Blossoms’ tenacious fight to topple one of the giants of world rugby 34-32 provided the biggest highlight of the event.
South Africa bounced back from the shock defeat by beating Samoa, Scotland, and the United States to top Pool B for a place in the quarter-finals.
Captain Du Preez saved the Boks’ blushes when he scored in the 75th minute of a nervous quarter-final encounter against Wales to book a place in the semi-finals against archrivals New Zealand.
The Boks came painstakingly close to upsetting the defending champions but ultimately went down by a narrow two-point margin with the All Blacks becoming the first nation to successfully defend the title.
Beating Argentina in the third-place play-off was no consolation for a disgruntled rugby public and with mounting pressure Meyer eventually abandoned his plans for a contract renewal.
The Super Rugby competition proved to be a precursor for what was to come for the Springboks with the South African franchises failing to launch.
The Stormers finished the league phase in third place only due to the fact that they were the top South African franchise and not by virtue of superior log points. The Cape Town side hosted a home play-off - despite having only the seventh most log points - suffering a crushing 39-19 defeat to the Brumbies.
While the Lions have been hailed for their entertaining and expansive style they only managed to finish in eighth place on the log, four points ahead of the Bulls in ninth.
The Sharks and the Cheetahs finished the season in the bottom third of the log in 11th and 12th place respectively.
A new trend of teams experimenting with a more expansive game plan emerged in the Currie Cup thanks to a crop of young coaches taking the helm of the country’s top provincial unions.
The Golden Lions were in a class of their own winning all 12 of their matches in the season to become the first side since the 1990s to go undefeated in a season when they beat Western Province 32-24 in the final.
The Blue Bulls proved to be the surprise package during the early stages where they dazzled with enterprising performances only to run out of steam in the semi-final where they reverted to a conservative style against Western Province. - The Star