South Africa will come to a stand still this evening at 5pm with the Springbok rugby team taking on the Wallabies from Australia. With the Aussies winning last week this was not part of the plan.
Today the South African rugby team takes on Australia after being humbled last week due to who knows what. Some say it was over confidence and I believe it was a combination of being under prepared, over confident and the wrong selections.
The SA team was up 22 nil after 17 minutes and went on to lose 38-22 which is kind of impossible and you need to have everything go against you and the Aussies have a whole lot of luck. This does not happen that often and if you have played team sports before it can happen and it can be prevented..
This week the SA team has ten changes which is like replacing 70% of the team and looking at the team the changes have made the team more balanced and stronger. Players who have proven themselves over the years and have the experience and big match temperament to get the right result through managing the game. This is something that cannot be taught and you either have it or you don't and what makes the difference between a good player and a great player.
The SA coaching back room staff have always tried to develop the squad having at least 4 players covering each position which is great for depth on paper, but on the field this is not so. There have been question marks over certain players who featured last week and they were found wanting and have proven they cannot step up to the next level that is required. Pressure is an unknown factor and how players perform under pressure is only going to be revealed when the pressure is on. This may have been a bad result for the team, but for developing the team this was valuable information learned on who has what it takes.
The only way one is going to find out is in these types of matches and rather find out now than during a world cup pool game or knockout match. The Australian coach says his team got lucky last week as they looked dead and buried and it was a matter of how big the score was going to be. In rugby you look to get to at least an 18 point lead to guarantee safety as that is now requiring your opponent to score 3 times. With the professional level with impact players maybe that score needs to be pushed up slightly, but 22 points would be considered a zone of safety.
There are some games where you cannot explain what went wrong and during a season you do experience this on a couple of occasions. You as a team are dominating the game and somehow you end up losing and there is very little you can do to change the outcome. This is when the experience and leadership from the players around you becomes important as they know how to finish a match.
Last week the players who were regarded as good enough tried to force certain plays and these back fired and if a player was reading the game correctly these plays were not on and high risk. This is something you cannot be taught as this is instinctive and sort of like common sense. A player can be the most skilled player around, but having weaknesses in these areas of game management the player now becomes a liability.
The good news is there are at least 3 or 4 players who played last week have failed the acid test and cannot be considered for the bigger games in the future. These are next level types of games and if you have any weaknesses you will be found out no matter how good everyone thinks you are. In professional sport talent accounts for a small percentage and the rest is on the individual through commitment and development and it is clear there is a big difference between certain players.
