By Kabelo Mollo
Fortunately, Boks rugby is in a good place going into this year’s World Cup.
Most are surprised by the increasing chat in the “peanut gallery” about the transformation of the Boks. The transformation debate in South Africa will rage on for a long time. There will be many academics who will better postulate on the matter, but in the meantime, we laymen will offer our opinions as we always do.
The Boks are not in my opinion in the position they’re in owing to transformation or to put it bluntly, the increased number of darker hued individuals in the team. The Springboks have got to this place because of the refusal of the previous coaching regime to evolve the Boks rugby playing style. The insistence of Heyneke Meyer et al to continue with the so-called strength to be physically aggressive and “front up” did absolutely nothing to take Springbok rugby forward. You need not have been a scholar of the game to see that the game had evolved and as such those not evolving would be left behind.
If everybody’s moved to email but you’re still using a fax machine, then you can’t be surprised that you’re unable to communicate.
Too many rugby writers supported the Meyer administration in spite of the indifferent results and more importantly, uninspiring playing style. In recent times whenever fans bemoan how poor Springbok rugby has become in amongst the shocking results comes the loss to Japan in the world cup. That loss came in the Heyneke era…
I am worried that there are folks out there who genuinely believe an individual with a darker hue cannot know rugby as well as that with a lighter hue. Particularly in the South African context. There are so many black people in the republic. SO MANY! Loads of them are scholars of the game and have actually played the game from two and three years old. They think the game, and love it with the same passion those who played “kaal voet” do. Encourage more of them to play rugby I promise it’ll be for the betterment of rugby in the country. Volumes man. The more people play, the bigger the pool of potential stars. There should already be hundreds of thousands of kids who play the sport but no one’s taken the transformation agenda seriously so we are where we are…
The Boks are definitely not great right now. Last year was one of the worst in Bok history. But this year has gone pretty well. Certainly, better than last year. As I write this the Boks have still only lost one game. Sure that game was an annihilation, but the Boks bounced back and played a lot better against the Wallabies in Bloemfontein. I agree the Boks should be beating Australia, especially at home, but such is life.
As an aside, did anybody else notice how post the successful French series so much was written about the Boks brilliant coaching staff? How having Brendan Venter and Franco Smith in the ranks was undoubtedly a factor in how the Boks had fared? Any of that narrative still around in the current discourse?
It may be that I’m hyper sensitive as a black Bok fan, but it’s difficult to look passed those little things when you know there is an anti-transformation mission alive and kicking.
In closing let me be candid. The Boks are going to lose in Cape Town during the weekend. The All Blacks are too good and the Boks are still too early in the development of their new game and era. However, that loss should not put paid to the idea of transformation, and development of more fluid rugby…
