Another cold cold cold rush…!

Don’t you just love SA rugby? I think it is fantastic. DSTV should use its plethora of vacant channels to dedicate one purely to the intriguing, captivating, bizarre and hilarious saga that is SA rugby. Only problem is it’ll be funnier than the Dave Chappelle show so probably shouldn’t be found around the vicinity of channel 28.

---------------------------------------What's the rush?
You have to agree that the most common trend in our rugby-phile nation is that everyone has an opinion on that state of the national rugby team. So here is mine. Has anyone noticed how they are all so very different?

A synopsis of the knee jerk reactions to the Brisbane Slaughter looks like this:
- Jake White: Honiss had a shocker and was the reason I rush-defense failed.
- The Rapport headline: Jake must go!
- Divan Serfontein: The faster White resigns, the better.
- Frik Du Preez: Blame the coach! If I was Jake White I would resign.
- Burger Geldenhuys: Firing the coach now, won’t change the immediate situation.
- Paul Honiss: Who am I the scapegoat for this week?

Thankfully the voice of reason belonged to Nick Mallet who rightfully slated White’s pre-game antics of trying to lengthen his post-RWC contract by bluffing the media into speculating he might have stood a chance against Sir Clive Woodward to claim the directing position in England.
Mallet also frankly hit the nail on the head regarding the reasons for the hammering citing, no openside flanker, an underperforming flyhalf and fielding inexperienced players in key positions in a major game.

White had a tactical shocker and his preparation was abysmal. Hopefully now he will abandon this rush defense bullshit, finally admit he needs a fetcher and concede that Jaco has underperformed at 10 and warrants a change.

The whole reason rush D can work (and I am paraphrasing its master mind Gary Gold) is your line rush up from the outside then moving in on the attacking player making a spot tackle on him, in his blind-spot. Key elements? Rush, blind-spot, tackle! So it isn’t working cause key elements 2 and 3 aren’t happening; they know you coming from their blind-spot so the element of surprise is nullified and the players aren’t making the tackle. Think Habana getting shrugged off by Giteau on his way to score his 2 try!

So for all White’s faults and cock-ups in the last 5 games is it still worth firing a coach when a World Cup that is only 11 months away? The level of retardation needed to answer yes to that question is higher than the average I-eat-with-a-cork-on-my-fork yardstick. White has been extremely successful up until these last 2 months. Replacing the coach now would be suicide. The rugby equivalent of Vince Lombardi couldn't mould a side in that short a time even if you gave him Dan Carter for fun, yet all these ‘ex-players’ are baying for his head!

SA rugby is fickle and still has the mind set that changing a coach solves problems. The ‘fire the coach’ attitude is as worthwhile as blaming a loss on the ref, and that might be why I support the All Blacks.

Shut the gates, see you on channel 21!