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Springbok 2010 itinerary is a recipe for 2011 failure
With a decision that leaves many South African fans – and quite a few sport scientists – flabbergasted and bemused, South African rugby administrators have embarked on an untenable workload for the Springboks, particularly toward the latter part of the year when they should be gearing themselves for the defence of their Rugby World Cup title in 2011.
Opting to add to the itinerary a match against Wales in Cardiff in early June, a mere five days after at least one South African possibly would have been involved in a Super 14 final – simply does not make sense.
South Africa’s top players will be asked to play in 14 Test matches in the pre-World Cup season, starting with the aforementioned game against Wales on 5 June and ending their commitments only three weeks before Christmas, against the Barbarians.
According to sport scientists, top players should be expected to be involved in only eight of those Tests.
Coach Peter de Villiers, according to a report in the "Sunday Times", was unfazed by all the noise about resting players before a World Cup. “The one thing that we are not going to mention again in this country until 2011 is resting, because are they really so tired? There’s only one thing that makes a player a better player, and that is playing rugby. A golfer doesn’t become a better golfer if he doesn’t play golf.
“I would rather use the word 'managing' because there is no way a highly paid rugby player can go and sit for two months or three months and do nothing, and then be at his best at the World Cup,” De Villiers told the "Sunday Times".
It is true, of course, that resting for three months may be counterproductive. The South African cricket team suffered because of that passive approach in 2009 – a season in which they played only six Tests.
And sure, rugby is a professional game, and there is money to be made while the going is good, particularly because the home unions are queueing up to play against the World Cup champions with good money in their pockets.
The Grand Slam tour at the end of the year, and the added Barbarians fixture a week into December, are sure money-spinners, and South African Rugby will be compensated very well for the appearances of the Springboks.
As "SuperSport" reported: “One has to feel sorry for poor De Villiers. Talk of resting players in the Super 14 and Currie Cup has been overtaken by the wooing of the pound; and with bank balances filled, there will still be a demand for the best performances from our professional stars.”
But there is a price to be paid, and that may come in the coveted form of the Webb Ellis Trophy.
On 13 January, Professor Tim Noakes, world-class sports scientist and a founder member of the Sports Science Institute of South Africa in Newlands, met with De Villiers and the 25 top players in South Africa.
He explained to them that the top players need to rest for approximately eight weeks annually and only indulge in about eight Tests annually, otherwise it would catch up with them.
Take Marius Joubert, for example, who played 37 games in 2004. It was a year in which he scored three times against the All Blacks in a Tri-Nations Test at Ellispark. He briefly featured in 2005 before he disappeared off the radar screen.
The reasons for his departure had more to do with overexposure and a lack of rest, than with a lack of quality.
Many members of the current Springbok team – which has been described by Jake White, a former Bok coach, as arguably the best-ever squad – have suffered because of a heavy workload.
Players such as Juan Smith, Bakkies Botha, Fourie du Preez and John Smit spring to mind.
De Villiers has said that he wants to rest some of the top players for the Wales fixture in order to give his northern hemisphere players such as Butch James, Wikus van Heerden and Joe van Niekerk a run – treating the match as a trial.
The national coach can attempt to sidestep the impossible player demands by using top players in the six Three Nations Tests against France in June and for the Tests against England and Ireland at the end of the year. For the remainder of the Tests, he then could opt to put his reserve strength to the test, using the second-stringers against the other Six Nations countries as well as for the Barbarians clash.
Obviously, there would be tremendous negative media coverage about this, and the home nations would demand an explanation as to why they have to fork out millions, simply to be denied the services of the Golden Boks.
By using his overseas-based stars such as CJ van der Linde, James, BJ Botha and others, De Villiers will fill a void left by some members of the core group, and give him an opportunity to gauge their form.
One school of thought would suggest that De Villiers will have to use a larger pool of 37 players for the end-of-the-year tour, much like the British and Irish Lions did for their tour last year to South Africa.
Bottom line is that the coach will have to find creative solutions to manage his core group of players, otherwise he will be an early casualty come the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand.
One thing that is extremely worrying, though, is the remarks made by De Villiers such as: “There is only one thing that makes a better player, and that is playing rugby.”
These naïve remarks one hardly can associate with a seasoned professional coach such as De Villiers.
Players become better by finding a professional balance between resting, reinventing themselves and playing.
As Noakes told "Leadership Intelligence Bulletin": “If South Africa’s premier players are not going to be rested for some matches during the Super 14 campaign and for close to half of the Tests in 2010, we are going to pay for this dearly come the Rugby World Cup in 2011.”
