The fires won't go out
Last week I selected my Bok squad of choice and labelled it my ‘Dream Team’. Perhaps that was slightly misleading as I did give myself some selection restrictions, namely John Smit has to be the skipper, and there was no point in even contemplating picking Luke Watson because Jake White will never select him no matter how well he plays.
I sifted through some of your reactions with admittedly some amusement. I was told by many different people that my selections were obviously wrong, and then given a squad that would be more adequate.
Most of these squads were different in themselves, which puts paid to any belief that there is any ‘obvious’ Springbok squad.
But nevertheless, I do believe that in South Africa, our rugby is swarming with politics which often means that the best team is not selected – and I don’t necessarily mean quotas. Allow me to elucidate.
I was told by one reader that Adrian Jacobs is far too old – he is in actual fact 27-years-old.
One reader sarcastically suggested that if I field so many players of colour I might as well select Solly Tyibilika.
Most readers told me I was mad to not include Francois Steyn, saying he ‘has proven himself against the finest opposition’.
What I am driving at here is the problem with South African rugby. We generally want our Springbok players to be of a certain character and a certain playing-style, rather than analysing the genuine value they can add.
Francois Steyn has most emphatically not proven himself yet.
The kid is 19 and already everybody is building him up to be something he is clearly not.
He is talented, but he is hot-headed and simply has not learnt some lessons yet which he is going to need to learn before he has proven himself. Everybody is doing him a disservice through all this hype, because he will let you down and then you will hang him out to dry.
Solly Tyibilika, aside from the current issues, has played solidly in all the Tests he has been involved in – and he definitely never proved himself.
Adrian Jacobs generally has always been a genuine line-breaking centre, and used to be one of the Bulls only shining lights in their dark days (does anybody in South Africa remember these things!), while Jaco van der Westhuyzen was our best player by a distance at last year’s World Cup, before he had one bad game in Australia last year. Remember he played fly-half when we won the Tri-Nations…
How does one prove oneself in South African rugby? Do you score match-winning tries in the Tri-Nations like Bobby Skinstad? Clearly he never proved himself in our eyes.
Or do you underperform every time the Springbok jersey is handed to you, like Pedrie Wannenburg? He is a major fans’ choice.
It is evident that politics does not threaten only the upper echelons of our rugby boardrooms, it threatens our living rooms too.
