It is the burning question that would seemingly answer a lot of perceptions in the game of South African rugby at the moment.
Questions have been raised about the apparent – no wrong choice of words – obvious, lack of depth South African rugby has when Peter de Villiers’ “second string sides” lost badly to both the British and Irish Lions in the third test, and most recently against a very under-strength, and rather average British club side in Leicester.
The same question has been asked for the last 4 years with talks of forming a 6th franchise in the SA Rugby structures (Spears and Kings) whether our player strength, or player depth, can support such a venture without hurting the game.
Comparisons have been made to New Zealand (who has a small player base) and England (who has the largest player base) to either confirm, or deny that South Africa indeed has, or has not got the depth that we seemingly believe, or rather hope we have.
With regards to New Zealand, who has a very small registered base to that of South Africa but still manages to successfully sustain not only 5 Super rugby franchises (with 3 or 4 consistently up there in the top half of the Super rugby table) and also, dominate world rugby at test level where in 2007 they proved they can field almost 2 different test sides and still beat most comers.
Although England does not share the same success at test level, their club (union in South Africa) rugby scene suggests that the game is doing pretty well over there, albeit with a lot of foreign players but the fact is, they can sustain successful structures with large numbers with the game at club level there being very healthy – so healthy in fact it has at times threatened the national cause.
From a numbers perspective South Africa is similar to England, with the difference being our domestic game centering around 5, perhaps 6 unions in South Africa only with 8 to 9 unions basically just making up the numbers – in other words, we do not seem capable of sustaining large numbers in our structures.
From a quality perspective, South Africa has been up there in the top 3 rugby playing test nations for the last 5 years, currently enjoying our best patch in decades with World Cup, Tri-Nations and Super rugby titles.
So it seems in a sense, we are stuck between the best (or worst) of both worlds – the question is – which is it?
I suppose the only way to answer that is to pose another question, the burning question I mentioned earlier.
“Does South African rugby indeed have the player depth some of us believe it to have?”
I have personally mentioned before a lot of this comes down to a simple numbers game for me.
If you only have 2000 registered players to choose from, you will be hard pressed to pick 200 players capable of performing at the highest level. However, if you have 20 000 players, you chances increase exponentially.
I have been fortunate to have been in an environment where a rugby team had to be chosen from very little resources (playing numbers) as well as being in an environment where there was a large pool of players. What I noticed is that it is far tougher to get the best 15 guys from a large pool, than what it was getting it from a smaller pool, simply because the methods needed to identify and develop players from a large group, to that of a small group.
In short, without proper structures and proper identification and development of players, the smaller group has a distinct advantage in the game of rugby.
So my question to you is;
“Is the lack of depth in South Africa our problem (for developing a quality Bok squad and sustain a 6th Super franchise), or is the identification and development of depth that we have the problem?”
I will leave that to you to decide.
The gap exists between High school and Club level where a lot of players simply disapear… and between Club and Provincial level where a lot of Club Players with potential simply do not get the chances they deserve.
In addition, the Big Unions are allowed to contract far too many senior players, seriously diluting the Power base of the smaller Unions.
Many instances can be mentioned, but let’s take the Bulls this year… having Fourie du Preez, Heini Adams and young Francois Hougaard contracted, all vying for the same position. Same situation exists with fly halves.. next year the Bulls will have Morne Steyn, Jacques-Louis Potgieter and Francois Brummer competing for fly half, which effectively means that the No 1 and No 2 fly halves in SA are vying for one slot… resulting in the fact that J-L Potgieter would probably have to move to centre to get proper exposure and game time.
At some of the other Big Unions, Sharks especially, the same dilemma exists….
Great, great article, Morne – thanks!
And how big is the Oz player pool? I reckon Aussie can teach us a thing or two about player identification – and that together with development is where I believe our problem lies.
We’re so spoilt for player talent it not true. And that’s why we’re so %$&# at player identification and development. We know there will always a new batch coming through…
SA has enough talent for 2 quality Bok teams. What we don’t have is the luxary of picking the best 30 players to fill the 2 quality teams.
Wian / Straus / CJ
Danie / Bekker
Potgieter / Vermeulen / Alberts
Ruan
J-LP
Mapoe / Nokwe
Bosman / the laaitjie from WP
Oupa
Not a bad team at all. There are still players like Nel, Liebenberg, De Villiers, Sykes, the 2 WP locks, Deysel, the Lions and Griqua’s scrummies [and Kakhot] who are very very talented players.
Agree agree agree!!!
Look at this year. The Cheetahs somehow manage to outplay the Sharks, a team with manjingi baie player depth, and not just outplay them, but run them down at KingsPark in a CC semi final.
Province came THIS close to upsetting one of the, if not THE best team in the world, with a bunch of no-names really. Look at the Grikwas. With ZERO depth they manage to get within one win of the CC semi-final.
Look at how close Province and the Cheetahs, as well as the blerrie high-veld XV came to beating the B&I Lions. Even the Kings manage to get some respect out of the game in the first half.
Now, lets say that Kings to the party (whether you like it or not), because of all the money the apparently have, can manage to lure back a few big names like CJ and Big Joe, and in time Jean de Villiers.
So do we have the teams? Yes. Do we have the Player depth? Yes.
Do we have the business and management common sense to identify talent and develop players? Absolutely not.
BTW, on this point… its funny how people can bitch and moan about poor admin and the lack of player development in SARugby, but when someone like Rassie comes along to help develop the Boland, and use business skills in a business world, its “unfair” and what else. I’m just saying… get of Provinces case.
#1 GBS.
You make a great point about the Bulls. How are smaller teams to compete with the bigger ones. How are players to get game time to practice and develop? How are big Unions to call on their back ups when the Back ups have not played in 2-3 months?
In this regard, I really think Rassie is on to something. And I really think that the Kings will be a good thing.
Lets say the Bulls loan players like Hougaard to the Pumas. He gets game time, the smaller unions get better players, and the standard of rugby across the country stand to improve.
Furthermore, if the Kings really do have a player budget the same as the avg. SA team, it should be in the region of a few million. Enough to again, spread out the talent and not only create more players playing opportunities, but also a more healthy competitive environment.
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