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Mind Games: You’ve got to run strrraight!

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Naas Botha, who has been a rugby commentator for more than 20 years, is not one to hammer home a message.

As one of the most naturally gifted and instinctive players of his – or any other – era, Botha’s knowledge of the game is undeniable, yet he seldom adopts that “you better listen closely now” assertiveness.

Instead Botha dispenses pearls of wisdom in a throwaway manner.

One of these is a statement he makes on almost any given Saturday: “You’ve got to run strrraight!”

He should add, “if you want to create tries”. He seldom does.

Botha, like me, is clearly perturbed by the state of South Africa’s backline play.

There seems to be little acknowledgment that something needs to be done about the level of attacking play in almost all our teams.

In his playing days, Botha might have been denigrated for kicking the ball too often, but his detractors did not realise how accurately he kicked, the variety of kicks he unleashed and how this put the opposition under pressure.

He also knew a bit about running the ball. Northern Transvaal set a record for tries when Botha was in the blue No 10 jersey. I once overhead him silence a heckler who was banging on about how much he kicked and how seldom he used the backline. “Jaaa,” said Naas, “but did you notice that, when I kicked, we scored?”

As I recall, the bloke didn’t get his message – but I did. Botha meant there must be a good chance of something coming out of a team running the ball.

He constantly scanned for opportunities and – if the defence was disorganised, short on numbers or on the back foot – would let his backs have a go.

That’s what he’s getting at when he harps on about “running straight”.

Botha is pointing out the habit that South African backs have of running towards touch; each player turning his shoulders and moving towards the next man until they’re all crowded on the touchline and nothing can come of the move.

Botha is calling for someone to straighten the line; to bring it square again to hold defenders and create space on the outside.

He is asking for players to make the opposition guess. Will the fly half break? Will he feed the ball back to a forward?

That’s what he did so well and it concerns him that local teams are so predictable – either trying to drive through the forwards or having a forward crash headlong into the first defender to set up another ruck.

When Morné du Plessis was once asked by a British pressman who had dubbed Botha “The Naasty Booter” whether the fly half was overrated, he said: “There’s only one way to rate Naas. Will you rather play with him or against him?”

Last week, two backline players from the same era of Springbok rugby were cast in contrasting roles.

Pieter Rossouw announced his resignation as the Bulls’ backline coach, ostensibly because he could not make his influence felt, and Franco Smith was elevated to head coach of the Cheetahs.

Here’s hoping that Smith is successful in returning the Free Staters to their natural running game and Rossouw resurfaces where he can make his ideas gain some traction.

Follow me on Twitter @retiefdan

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