A weekend of madness

It seems that South African rugby players lost their minds this past weekend with a few bizarre situations occurring. Apart from the fact that the Springboks went down to a less than best All Black team in Dunedin on Saturday. They employed the same game plan even in the face of defeat, kicking with no aim to allow their back 3 an opportunity to run it back at us which they did to good effect. Heyneke Meyer has been criticised for his persistence with this style of play and of his persistence with Morne Steyn. Many including myself are calling for the promotion of Johan Goosen to the starting position as well as that of Patrick Lambie. Putting in Goosen with his natural style will add greatly to this Springbok side but if Meyer tries to force him into his style of kick, kick and more kick then it will be pointless. The inclusion of Lambie would be purely because he offers more in terms of attacking flare. The game plan which Meyer is implementing is clearly not working and will continue to not work unless he changes something or someone. Albert Einstein classified insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting the same result.

 

The insanity that incurred during the Springbok game was almost unbelievable to watch as replacement prop Dean Greyling came on to make the worst appearance in a Springbok jersey in a long time, giving away a penalty in his first 5 minutes followed by a yellow card for hitting Richie McCaw in the jaw with his Elbow. Common sense was not so common for Mr Greyling who I rate as one of the worst props in South Africa. The madness did not stop there however, in a water logged game between the Sharks and Western Province drama continued. A game where Province seemed to be keeping with their new expansive style of play was frustrated by the Sharks as well as the officials who were poor at best. Jebb Sinclair a Canadian international was red carded after he punched Jean Deysal after he provoked him. Now you would think they would have learnt from this, well you would be wrong, flank Tyrone Holmes was too red carded for punching Jacques Botes. That was not the end of the madness however as Wilhelm van der Sluys was yellow carded for a late hit which I believe was unjust. These cardings put a bad tint on the game and the game as a whole.

 

Watching a video the other day of Naas Botha being knocked lights out by an opposing player and receiving only a penalty really made me think about how the game has changed. Another incident was the 1995 world cup where a full on brawl broke out between South Africa and Canada and not one player was sent off. Some people of the old breed would say that they have gone soft  and back in the day it was all part of the game.

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