Can South African sides turn it around?

Picture: Supersport

Oh man. It is demoralising being a South African during SuperRugby season.

This is my first post in a while. Frankly, there has not been a lot to write about.

I was at two of the Stormers' early matches of the season. I watched the first at Ellis Park and flew to Cape Town to watch the third.

I feel I have every right to be angry as a Stormers' supporter.

But I wonder if that is part of the problem with SA supporters and coaches. It is interesting to contrast someone like Rassie Erasmus with Nick Mallet. See the effect on Gaffie du Toit. It is a well known fact that Nick Mallet thinks that Gaffie is the most limited rugby player on the SA scene. Getting away from Nick has done Gaffie the world of good, and he is looking rejuvenated again.

But that doesn't explain all of it, because Gaffie got more than a fair share of support from Carel du Plessis and he was pretty kak then.

On the subject of Carel, I wish he was somehow involved with WP/Stormers rugby. Kobus van der Merwe and Gary Gold appear to be doing wonders with the forwards, but the backs are looking the worst they have in many years. I felt that Carel often got a raw deal when involved with the Boks (especially) and WP (although I think Gert Smal deserves a fair share of the blame there).

The Stormers backs look worse than an average school side. It must be said that injuries to Marius Joubert and Jean de Villiers have been the major contributor - although, given Marius' form last year, maybe that is just the De Villiers' injury.

However, the point is that the Stormers line has looked absolutely woeful, and the locus of the problem rests squarely around Gus Theron. It is absolutely shocking that a player can have a record like his and still be backup in a Super 14 side. His defensive running has put the whole Stormers line out of alignment. His fumbles have caught on and now seem part of the Stormers game. How can the Stormers excuse this. Not only does his selection mean that there is no better player in the Western Cape, but given the draft system, no better player elsewhere in the country. I just don't believe that. I remember Grant Esterhuizen being used through the draft two years ago and being the stand out player in the Stormers line. If that doesn't present a solution, then why has Werner Greef not been moved to outside centre and a replacement fullback found?

On the subject of Werner, these return chip kicks are now so well known (they were well known three years ago) that it is now a opposition tactic to kick downfield, chase hard, and collect Werner's return chip. Not only that but the disease has caught - De Wet's chip resulted in the beginning of the end for the Stormers last week - it resulted in a 70m opposition try.

While the improvement in the Stormers forwards has been pleasing, I don't think that the experiment of Schalk Burger at blind-side flank is working. Certainly Luke Watson is enjoying his run at open-side. I still believe Schalk's best position might be eighth man. He has many qualities that remind me of Tiaan Strauss. And frankly, Adri Badenhorst has looked below his best there this season. Even when Big Joe returns, I'd like to see him at blind-side and Schalk behind the scrum.

Apparently Nick Mallet conducted a video session (in Kobus van der Merwe's absence - where the hell was he?) with the Stormers on Monday after the Highlanders' match. He pinpointed a first tackle miss rate of close to 50%. He also pointed out that the Stormers were overcommitting to the rucks.

I can't argue with the missed tackles - the Stormers have been woeful on defense this season. I'm not sure whether to be upset or delighted with the forwards in the rucks though. I believe that South Africa's biggest issue on attack is slow second phase ball.

The Sharks' loss against the Brumbies today showed exactly this. Our attack looks prosaic. By the time the ball is cleared to the backs, opposition teams are lined up and pick off our attacking runners. It was delightful to watch Tony Brown and Ruan Pienaar combining on the loop around to put Ndungane away - and the stunning pickup by Adi Jacobs to score. It was without doubt the best bit of attack from a South African side this season. Sadly, the Sharks slow ball killed other chances of attacking success.

I must say, that despite the Sharks strong defensive showing, I think Adi Jacobs and Henno Mentz are frail in defense and opened things up for the Brumbies.

But the best thing about today was the difference in attitude from the Sharks coaching staff to the pathetic comment from Kobus van der Merwe. Dick Muir called a win against the Brumbies this week. And the way the Sharks started, you could see the players believed it. Van der Merwe phoned the Boots and All studio to call their criticism of the Stromers' performances unfair - after all, "the Stormers are building a young side." Naas Botha correctly challenged this and said the place to do that was in the Currie Cup, not the Super 14.

Rassie Erasmus is another coach who could turn things around - he's not looking for any excuses for the Cheetahs in their first season of Super 14.

Sadly in the post match commentary, AJ Venter was happy, praising his young inexperienced side's performance. Contrast this to the comment from Brendan Cannon - part of the Western Force in their first season of SuperRugby - "Ah, mate - every week there's something positive - but that's not good enough, we need to be winning."

By all means, let's keep it constructive and build the confidence of our young layers, but let's see some acocuntability for poor performances too. If these were businessmen, they'd be out of jobs. In South Africa, we've seen the big unions close ranks against the new relegation format. Personally, I'd have loved to see relegation. Sure it would be sad to see Ellis Park not hosting Super 14, but is it good to see their non-committed abject performances there instead? Let's see some consequence for poor performance rather than gifting players like Jorrie Muller a salary for weekly shockers.