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How are SA Tactical Teams so Abysmal?
19:24
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Let's talk to the Boks first since the pain of the loss is still really fresh . First of all let me point out that I have absolutely no problem with our teams playing boring, test match rugby if it gets us wins. The problem for me arises when you continue to utilize the EXACT same game plan no matter the opposition. South Africa could have won the semi final last weekend had we implemented just one strategy that veered from the norm...but we didn't. When our usually dependent line out maestro's struggled, and we couldn't get good driving mauls going, we did not skew from the norm at all. It's actually on the borderline of arrogance to think the best team in the world hadn't done some sort of recon to realize that we do the same thing game after game. New Zealand on the other hand, came through into the semi finals having dazzled every other opponent with their amazing passing and risky offloading maneuvers. When they reached the Springboks however, they probably had one session of game film review and noticed that it wouldn't work against a team that utilizes double tackling as opposed to a rush defence. Therefore the All Black team the Boks faced was completely different, and instead played a steady, tactical kicking game. There's no way that SA went through any situation drills in the practices leading up to the semi final, if they had we would have seen something different at the end of the match when we were down by two points in our own 22, running short crash balls in an attempt to score in the last minute. Anyone could have seen that that was not going to cut it.
This next case actually really frustrates me. After Bafana Bafana lost to Mauritania in that dismal AFCON qualifier back in September, goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune came out and stated that Bafana basically didn't know anything about their opposition and that he had to personally look up YouTube videos to get an idea of how their players played. Ok, so what exactly is the tactical team getting paid to do if not come up with specific tactics to implement against a specific opponent? I mean call me crazy for expecting a national team's tactical team to be professional enough to have some game film to watch on the opponent, let alone know the names and positions of their best players. In this day and age it's egotistic to assume that because a team is rated lower than you in the latest World Rankings you can rock up and just "play your game" and come out successful. It's 2015 - It is literally somebody's job to scrutinize every strength and weakness of every player on a team . When it comes down to it, it is a lack of effort and accountability. Following the Mauritania loss, Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba revealed in an interview with MetroFM that "Our Video Analyst did nothing… we didn’t have videos of Mauritania… it’s an internal problem… we never sent anyone to monitor Mauritania…" how do you call yourself an analyst when you didn't analyse anything? I just don't get how these people get these jobs to begin with. Until they stepped onto the pitch for warmups, Bafana players reportedly didn't even know that they were going to be playing on astroturf. I would think that is a pretty important thing to bring up before a game right? Wrong! I mean I could've delivered a better pregame analysis - "Hey guys, we are travelling Mauritania, their number 7 is fast, it's going to be hot as haides, and we are playing on astroturf so beware of the ball bouncing unpredictably." Boom; Siyabonga Zulu's Red card avoided, Khune doesn't concede to that amazingly awful free-kick and we come out with a 1-0 victory. Okay, okay maybe it's not that simple, but you get the drift, there needs to be a change in mindset or we will never compete with the best.
Ok, my rant is over and here is my advice to our national tactical teams: get with the times or get left behind.
