The greatest rugby rivalry is supposedly between the Springboks and All Blacks. Books have been written about their clashes, heroes have been made and the history goes back for many, many years.
Sadly, the Springboks haven’t kept their part of the ‘bargain’ in recent times.
The Boks have really just made up the other part of this famous battle, hardly being an equal member or participant in this rivalry. The Springboks are no longer among the top two teams in the world; they’ve slipped back to be simply among all the teams challenging to beat the All Blacks.
They’re not even trying to be No 1, or are they?
If we’re honest with ourselves we’ll accept Springbok rugby has taken a good few steps backwards in recent years, but with a new coach now in charge and a bunch of new players set to make up a big chunk of the Bok team in the next year or two, these are exciting times for our national team.
This is also an opportunity now for Allister Coetzee and his coaching team and all the players to put the last disappointing eight years behind them and focus on a new dawn, a new era where, hopefully, everyone in this country will get behind the national team and support them.
I don’t think there is a country in the world that has the potential that South Africa does. We have got huge numbers of players playing the game and thousands more who’re eager to take it up and make it a part of their lives.
When you consider the numbers and the quality of junior structures (and they could be so much better if the departments of sport and education joined hands to take the game to more people) no-one in the game should come close to matching the Boks.
This is an exciting period in South Africa’s rugby ‘development’.
In Coetzee and his coaching team and the players he’s picked for the series against Ireland, there is an opportunity to lay the foundations for a successful four-year-period, ending with the World Cup, and beyond that.
A good number of the older players have been omitted by Coetzee and he’s instead backed young, vibrant, skilful, in-form and hungry players. Ireland will always prove to be tough customers, but they should never come to our shores and win.
Yes, there is uncertainty around the team Coetzee will pick for the three Tests, there is uncertainty around how well the players will gel with each other, what sort of captain Adriaan Strauss will be, and what sort of game the Boks will employ - will it be a little conservative or will it be ball-in-hand-look-to-score-tries, or a bit of both?
The All Blacks will come later in the season; for now the Boks must make a statement against Ireland.
Coetzee must show South Africa and the world his team are to be taken seriously.
Because, for far too long now, the Boks have had to listen to how great the All Blacks are. It’s time the Boks became great again ... and it starts now against Ireland. - The Star