On Saturday, Scotland "the brave" (or is it "the flower"?!) will be taking on
the Boks at King's Park in Durban. At the end of last year the Scots beat a demotivated Springbok team and I feel that things will be very different come Saturday. In fact, you would not be able to pay me to run out against South Africa this weekend.
Pride is a very dangerous South African emotion, it is what has driven every Springbok Team since the beginning of time and when their backs are against the wall they are capable of anything. The pressure from the public is immense and expectations are always high, it also does not help that 95% of rugby supporters think that they know more than the National coach or any coach for that matter. Pride and pressure...these are the two elements that keep them at the top of the game.
There is no time for excuses (or reasons) for a loss, you play Test Rugby to win and if you cannot produce the results then you should not be in the Test Match arena. This same principle applies to teams who are ranked 30th or 100th in the world.
An interesting debate took place on the SRF web page. It concerned the Swedish National Team's performance's this season and the plans to improve their efforts. We seem to forget that proffessional rugby is a new concept and only came into effect after the 1995 World Cup. All International players before were amateurs, yes... even great players like Danie Gerber, Naas Botha, Grant Fox, John Kirwan, John Mcbride etc. They played with passion and gave up time from their families and work to be able to compete at the very highest level for their country.
If South Africa loses to any team (All Blacks, Wallabies, England etc.) nobody is satisfied, you will never hear people complimenting the team for their efforts in defeat. Even when they win, spectators will still say that there is room for improvement, and they expect this improvement by next week, not next month or next year. Why would Swedish Rugby expect anything less than success? Teams like Holland and the Ukraine are certainly not going to Hollywood. They face the same difficulties that any of the small Unions face. Why do they succeed against Sweden? Because they have a few players > playing in the Russian league? How could it be possible that these countries have "pros" in their team?
Whenever you ask these questions the people involved shoot you down. They have this attitude of " if you can do better then show us". Not one word actually sinks in. What would I have to gain by giving my opinion on the Swedish National Team? Nothing! It is only because I am interested in Swedish Rugby... believe that or not! I also believe that the mentality in Swedish Rugby is to do... nothing. Only look at all the problems and hope that one day they will go away. Remember, this is an opinion, it is not an insult to all Swedish rugby players and administrators, but if you are honest with yourself you will understand what I mean.
Just take a step back and look at the situation. I have seen many talented Swedish Rugby layers (Coming from S.A. I was surprised at some of the Skill levels) but these talents should be coached well. This is the biggest area of concern... There are coaches out there who are coaching rugby as it was played in the 70's. Even a prominent Swedish coach told me that he wanted his players to use a 3-3-2 ruck formation, which means he was going to commit 8 players plus the player on the ground to the ruck!!! This is crazy but proves my point.
Why doesn't the SRF start a student exchange program where young guys can go to school and play rugby in England for a season? This is not difficult to do. I would like you all to mail me a problem with Swedish Club / National Rugby and a solution on how to fix it! Perhaps we can start to change
things...