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Johannesburg - John Smit played his best game he has produced in a Springbok jersey in 2010 in the heartbreaking 41-39 defeat to the Wallabies in Bloemfontein at the weekend, and he followed it up with the usual sage words we have come to expect from the captain.
GALLERY: Springboks v Wallabies, Bloemfontein
Smit said the performances this season had been unacceptable, as a spread-sheet that reads played six and lost five in the Tri-Nations will reflect, and that it was time for each and every member of the squad to take a long hard look at themselves and reflect on where it has gone wrong.
Sadly Smit’s honesty was not matched by coach Peter de Villiers, or is the problem there just that De Villiers doesn’t understand where it went wrong? Once again the beleaguered team mentor gave the impression that there really wasn’t that much wrong, that the defensive structures are fine, and that it is all systems go for next year’s World Cup.
This after a second consecutive match where his team had conceded four tries before the half hour mark to a Wallaby team that in terms of experience and having top players out injured, is in a very different part of their development to where the Boks are.
While the Boks are still pretty much the side that won the 2007 World Cup, and are thus the finished product – some would say they are finished in another sense after their recent performances! – this Wallaby team is still on the build.
They bottled it at Loftus the week before, and their inexperience showed again at Vodacom Park as, almost unbelievably, they failed to close the game out again and allowed the Boks to fight back from a 31-6 deficit to take the lead before eventually a massive Kurtley Beale pressure kick won it for the visitors.
A more experienced side would not have allowed the Boks back in. When the Wallabies have gained some experience, and in that sense their breaking through the Highveld barrier after a 47 year drought will be a huge step forward, they will not allow the Boks back in.
Had they kicked a penalty they were presented with shortly before halftime in Bloemfontein, instead of taking another decision which eventually led to a morale-boosting try for the Boks, they would probably have buried the Boks by a record score.
Certainly it is hard to recall when last a Bok team was as comprehensively outplayed on home soil as they were in the first half. And you probably have to go back to the 49-0 in Brisbane in 2006 for the last time it has happened anywhere.
The Boks fought back with guts and character and not just a little help from the Wallabies, who made some quite comical errors when placed under pressure – the eventual match-winner featuring in two of those as first he passed a ball over the dead-ball line and later had the ball hit his head as the Wallabies tried to run the ball back from near their own line.
The game has changed under the new law interpretations at the breakdown and in the overseas leg it was clear the Bok coaching staff had been left behind when it came to innovation.
There were no real signs during the home leg that they had made up that ground as you would always expect the Boks to at least be competitive in three matches on the Highveld.
The reality is that though they came close at Soccer City against the All Blacks and again in Bloemfontein, in both those games the opposition side could easily have won by more and in both the winners were clearly the better side. And against the Wallabies at Loftus in the middle test, it was just a dropped pass that prevented the visitors from winning there too.
Close though the games were, the bottom line is that the Boks should not be losing on the Highveld, particularly not to the Wallabies, and as Smit says, it is unacceptable.
The Boks, once renowned for their defence, conceded a whopping 22 tries in six matches in the Tri-Nations. Their record since last year's Tri-Nations reads 13 matches played, six won (three of those against Italy), seven lost. And there were also two losses in Springbok clothing to English club sides.
However, the chances of the Boks digging themselves out of the morass do not look bright when the coach continually denies that there is anything wrong, and when he says things such as “If you take a really close look at the games, the only bad game we played this year was in Auckland”.
The Boks lost by double digit scores in all their away tests in the Tri-Nations, and looked out on their feet late in the matches played on the Highveld. They came close to upsetting the All Blacks in the first game of the home leg, but the Kiwis were the better side and still won a match where the hosts admitted afterwards they had played at “150%”.
This admission came from a side that last year dominated the competition, and that they have slid from there to where they are now – the defeat saw the Australians knock them back to third on the world rankings – should be sufficient reason for the SA rugby administration to give serious consideration to De Villiers’ future as coach.
What is going wrong under his charge is disturbing, but not as disturbing as his apparent failure to see it and come up with meaningful answers to the problems that are being presented.
