Normally posted on a Thursday, but given that we were honouring the ladies in our lives yesterday, this Friday sees the sneak preivew of Tank Lanning’s column that will appear on Sport24 later this morning, no doubt ruffling a few feathers at Newlands …
Tank Lanning
Hands up those who know the Currie Cup fixtures for this weekend! Right, no need for a deodorant sponsor there, then? Can’t sleep due to the excitement? Thought not …
That is what you get when you make Super Rugby longer than a tapeworm, turn the Tri-Nations into the Four Nations, and try and squeeze the once proud Currie Cup between the two …
So the Currie Cup is the new Vodacom Cup, and it becomes the perfect time to experiment with new players and game plans, perhaps with a view to entertaining the crowds by scoring tries … Surely?
Not down in the Western Cape …
“We want to do well in the Currie Cup, but the management team sees it as the first phase towards next year’s Super Rugby competition,” said Allister Coetzee.
“We won 14 out of 17 matches in the Super series – and that shows that there’s not much wrong. There will be one or two small changes, but we don’t need to change a lot,” he said.
This after failing to secure a single four-try bonus point win and scoring the fewest tries of all the teams? Don’t need to change a lot? What planet are they from?
And if they are going to use the conference trophies of the last 2 years as proof of how well they are doing, then they are in a deeper hole than I thought.
Defence might get you through the league stages of Super Rugby, but unlike Test rugby, history has proven that you actually need to score tries to win the play off matches. So based on their inability to do this, there was no way they were going to win a playoff match, even at home as log leaders. And while the Sharks played really well, to not beat a side that had travelled to Brisbane to win a quarter final the week before, in front of 50 000 adoring fans, borders on the criminal!
Besides that, what has happened to the proud WP tradition that used to see the Cape side playing open, attacking, attractive rugby? With all the talent that comes out of the schools (Paarl Gym top the national rankings), universities (Maties and Ikeys dominate Varsity Cup), clubs (Hammies won Club champs recently) and the institutes, this province should not only be dominating, but leading the way by doing so through improving player skills and scoring tries!
Throw in the much talked about boardroom politics that saw Rassie Erasmus depart the union saying that he was spending more time fighting the politics than he was on rugby, and sees the coaches having to defend their teams to the blazer brigade, based not on skill level but ethnicity and the club they play for, and it becomes apparent that a rot has developed that needs a strong dose of antibiotics!
They are yet to fill the post of High Performance Manager, which means the role – surely vital in a pro era – remains shared amongst the coaches and administration. This saw Allister Coetzee – who remains at the helm during the Currie Cup, unlike in some other provinces where an up and coming coach takes the reigns – was explaining Duane Vermeulen’s Post-it filled contract to his new agent this week instead of preparing the team for the Sharks game on Saturday.
Bryan Habana, Juan de Jong, Gio Aplon, Jean de Villiers, JP du Plessis, Marcel Brache, Danie Poolman, Joe Pietersen … And you can’t score tries? No man, pull the other one, it’s got bells on it!
So right with the depth and talent in that part of the world ..just all politics and poor indecision in applying management principles !
WP Rugby is run by a guy with no teeth, thus wp has no teeth.
You are hitting the nail centre on the head – As a Blue Bulls supporter I just hope they never wake up.
So right with the depth and talent in that part of the world ..just all ‘politics’ and poor indecision in just applying basics in good decent sportsmanship (which is what it should be about), finance and healthy management principles!! And also its not just about winning or loosing !!its about using talents that allow sportsman to play above their potential!
Spot on Tank, its so easy to see from the outside that boardroom politics are the crux of the chaos. Even the simplest of the fans can see it as well (the ones that see it fit to ‘boo’ at every game), personally would hate to know how it is affecting the morale of the players.
And its worrying that the inner circles are so busy playing politics that they’ve not realized that they are choking WP rugby…. if only it were as easy as binning the lot of them, and starting off with a fresh board and fresh coaching staff… we already have all the talent in the world, and the biggest fan base. Its a no brainer. We should definitely have started collecting silverware this year, starting with the S15 cup….
As so often is the case…full marks Tank! Think of all the guys who left our shores, Sadie, Whitehead, Engelbrecht to name but a few. What do they have in common? Ethnicity yes. Why? The WP/Stormers hierarchy is being led by a man who ever so often shouts/critisizes the coaches for a team not being representative.
I am a season ticket holder and want to see a winning team – with tries – NOT a representative team. Take note.
Brilliant article Tank! The Blazer Brigade rule WP Rugby in the same way the ANC rule the country – me, my stomach and my wife’s catering company first, Rugby, its players and fans as an afterthought!
The irony is they are all representatives of the clubs, but apart from the odd centre of excellence and politically significant clubs, the rest are falling apart or squeezing into illogical mergers. ALL IS ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF DENMARK!!!