Jake White
Does Jake White have a valid point in blaming player fatigue on the last couple of results that went against the SA Conference leaders, the Cell C Sharks?
While it is true that the Sharks lost a few players to the national cause, it wasn’t as if it was the bulk of their side. Frans Steyn played one match, Bismarck du Plessis, Jannie du Plessis, Tendai “Beast” Mtawarira and Willem Alberts were all either rested or rotated during the 4 Test matches in June. JP Pietersen had the biggest work load for the Bok team if measured in minutes played.
In contrast, the Waratahs players who were involved in the Test series against the French, for the Wallabies, seemed to have lifted their game to an ever higher level.
The same can be said of the All Black players who were involved in a tough 3 Test series against a strong England side.
Does fatigue, when playing for the national side, only affect South African players? Not if one looks at how the Cheetahs Boks stepped up against the Sharks this past weekend. Their players also played all the preceding weeks, were involved in the training camps, played Test matches during the June Test window, but on Saturday they didn’t look jaded at all. The same can be said of Duane Vermeulen who played almost every minute of every Stormers match as well as the Tests.
The Sharks are good enough to still win the Super Rugby title this year, the pedigree of their players and coaching staff is second to none in the SA Conference, but they should be focussing on mental fatigue rather than physical fatigue. We have seen this picture play out many times before in the past, with both the Stormers and the Sharks. The Stormers have made an effort to address this issue with the appointment of previous Bok psychologist Henning Gericke, and it looks like that move is bearing fruit.
Producing one’s best rugby when it’s “back to the wall” and “underdog status” type rugby is good enough to pull off one surprise victory, but not over a sustained period of time and not to win a competition of this nature.
The following article was published on SARugbymag:
Sharks director of rugby Jake White has blamed his side’s late-season implosion on a heavy workload, but still believes they can go on to win the competition.
Defeats to the Stormers in Durban in late May and the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein on Saturday have seen the Sharks slip from first on the combined log to third. To finish second and secure a home semi-final, they now have to beat the Stormers at Newlands on Saturday and hope the Crusaders slip up against the Highlanders.
White blamed the amount of rugby his team has played over the past three months for their latest setback.
‘The Sharks players spent themselves in the four weeks that they were playing for the Springboks and also being involved with the camp leading into those games,’ the coach said. ‘Consider that those players have played for 12 weeks in a row. That is three months without missing a Saturday. Three months of having to front up on Saturdays without taking a break does take its toll. I have no doubt that it’s not the Australasian tour, it’s just the workload that is catching up to the players.’
White insisted the Sharks could still win their first Super Rugby title.
‘Everyone assumes that if you finish third in the competition going into the play-offs, you have absolutely no chance; you may as well call off the competition when the teams finish first and second. This team [the Sharks] has won the [South African] conference, they have 46 points and still have a chance of getting a home semi-final but if it doesn’t happen it’s only the first year [of White’s tenure]. Everybody is so negative about the fact that ‘gee, they can’t win the competition anymore’. I still think we have a massive chance of winning this competition and I still believe we can.’
al die spelers het die selfde hoeveelheid rugby gespeel, ek dink dis meer n geval van grootkop kry en oppenente onderskat. die verskil tussen top of the log en bottom is nie baie groot nie
@ smallies:
Fully agree. Who does he actually think he is? god? He determines the time each player spends on the field and he alone. If he overplays them, then shut up and take accountability… Plod
We mentioned in week 5 already that when you inherit a team with so many Springboks you need to plan accordingly because unless there is an injury they will play an extra 4 games… then mix that with an atrocious gameplan and what do you get?
3 @ MacroBull:
Yes Macro, but the Waratahs had something like 11 of their players in the Wallaby squad, yet they don’t look so tired.
Alberts, Beast, Mvovo and Steyn didn’t play all the matches. Bissie and Jannie were also either subbed or rotated by HM.
Lewies came in for one match.
Basically only JP played every game almost the whole 80 minutes.
4 @ nortierd:
Nortie, jou doring!
Jou 1ste Rugby-Talk Artikel as Author!
So paar minor goedjies in die formaat van daai Admin Panel wat ek en jy net moet uitsort op die foon met die volgende beriggie… maar niks om oor te stress nie!
Dis lekker om te skryf, nê!
@ nortierd:
If you look at minutes played this season of all the players in the competition and where the Tahs rank
28. M Hooper
34. Bernard Foley
40. A Cooper
42. Beale
51. Kane Douglas
75. N Phipps
91. Israel Folau
93. B Robinson
94. Polota-Nau
and compare it to the sharks
8. Lwazi
18. Fransie
46. Alberts
59. Lewies
64. Bissie
99. Beast
So I suppose our theory of overplayed compared to other teams goes out the door.
Mooi Nortie! So proud of your first effort… Why so objective… 😆
How do they measure the fatigue and when is a player over a fatigue threshold? I don’t believe that minutes played is a accurate measurement of fatigue.
Well done Norty! You broke your RT cherry! 😀
Now what would be really useful is an in-depth analysis of each Sharks player’s minutes played in the Super Comp vs the Boks, against the two local sides they lost against, and then against the Australasians and then we’ll see 😀
Still, this is an issue that has plagued the Stormers the past few seasons, if you don’t rotate your squad properly you will not have them fresh for the “last lap” portion of the tournament. This is not a Bok issue, it is to be managed at provincial/franchise level, same as everyone else. To be honest we have all been talking about this for some time now, and especially with regard to the Sharks, Jake and jake alone has been overplaying his 1st choice players.
Many of the other franchises have benefited from injury enforced rest, but the Sharks squad (lambie and PSDT aside) have been comparatively injury free this year, with the result that the players are overplayed.
The problem with Jake is that he has always suffered from an overly prominent “Eternal Locus of Control” when it comes to taking accountability, i.e. the failings are always someone els’s fault and not his own. As a result he comes off as petulant and finger pointing when it comes to this sort of thing.
8 @ leon:
I suppose it all revolves around clever player-management…
I agree with you that minutes on a field does not translate into fatigue alone.. it also varies from player position to player position… a front-rower or lock or loosie (all forwards) are far likelier to fatigue compared to backline players.
Managing players with injury niggles better also adds to less fatigue and teams tend to rush players back too quick sometimes after injury… and maybe that’s where the Sharks could be blamed.
Rotation or should I say better rotation amongst the forwards could have seen them in the same position on the Logs, yet with fresher players. The Sharks depth is awesome, yet the Cheetahs forwards were all over most of their much-vaunted players in the pack.
We’ll see how things pan out but I do not think the Sharks have the petrol left in the tank to go all the way in this competition. I could well be wrong of course.
Stormersboy wrote:
In other words he’s a typical teacher / headmaster?
That appears to be their general modus operandi!
@ grootblousmile@10:
I don’t think the players are really fatigued. They might just be suffering from the Frans Steyn syndrome or just an excuse for being nafi
@ Stormersboy:
Glad to hear that the family is getting along here, the winters are also not as wet and windy as Cpt.
Financially it is also a smart move.I am so glad you chose Pta and not Jhb and surrounding areas. Which area in the east did you buy in? Glad you found some good schools aswell.
@ grootblousmile:
@ Gumboots:
@ Stormersboy:
Thanks!
leon wrote:
Agree, each person is different and then it stands to reason that players will have different levels of when they reach the fatigue stage.
Stamina can’t be measured in minutes played, some players like Brussouw and McCaw will do more on a field in less minutes than for instance a wing or center.
@ Fern:
Thanks man, yes the East is a great place, has a very similar feel to where we stayed in the Cape, we are in Faerie Glen basically opposite the Boardwalk Meander estate. Not in it unfortunately but we are keeping our eyes open to see if we can’t move across next year. Close to the amenities, good security in our complex, traffic is ok, no worse than Cape Town and in some ways better.
@ Scrumdown:
Basically yes.
@ Stormersboy:
Great area, pity we aren’t neighbors anymore.
Saturday morning breakfast and watching the SR at Rivals, just down the road. Best peri-peri livers around.
@ nortierd@15:
correct, but then again, if a wing run at full speed he fatigues about 10x more than a forward who only runs at half pace. For a smaller player to make a tackle on a bigger player will also make a bigger difference in fatigue than a big on big player.
Well done Norty, promoted from onder-korporaal to Korporaal!
BrumbiesBoy wrote:
Ha ha
Speaking of which…..can you guess who is missing in action today, shame, his beloved Bulls got whitewashed and his second favorite team got klapped in Bloem.
I’m so looking forward to chatting rugby with him, but I suppose he will deny that Saturday the 5th of July ever happened and it has been deleted of his calendar. 😉
20 @ BrumbiesBoy:
No, not Korporaal….
He has been promoted to “Hoofman oor Honderd”!
@ leon:
laat ons kyk na werks verrigting…. meeste vleuels staan en koud kry en hol in kort bursts op top spoed, die spelers wat die hardste werk is die loosies, en dan die vaste vyf, gevolg deur die scrummies senters ens ens……mens sien dit dan ook aan beserings, meeste beserings is aan loosies gevolg deur die vaste vyf……
Stormersboy wrote:
You still on holiday mood…Been here for 22 years and can’t wait to get back to Cape Town… The people here are really friendly and accommodating – unlike Cape Town…
21 @ nortierd:
Hehehe, it can only be Brigadier BlouBul!!
Shame, he must have spuitpoep after watching that lot!
25 @ BrumbiesBoy:
To be honest, as a fellow Bloubul to Brigadier Macro, I am a bit constipated after this weekend…
Ek het meer gate toegestop as wat die hele Bulls lostrio toegestop het Saterdag!
26 @ grootblousmile:
He he
Daar is een van my werksgenote hier wat verskriklik Bloubul beneuk is en dan hou hy nog baie van die Sharks ook. O ja, en natuurlik haat hy die WP, so jy kan jou indink hoe sit ons twee vas.
As die Bulle gewen het, sou hy seker voor my kantoor tent opgeslaan het om my gas te gee, maar snaaks genoeg, vandag is hy missing in action 😀
27 @ nortierd: And GBS, I believe t’s so bad that if it’s a Monday & he sees Norty waiting for the lift up to their “penthouse offices” on the 27th floor, he doesn’t hesitate…he heads straight for the staircase & traps instead…
Question is; have the Sharks players played on average significantly more minutes than the rest?
I doubt it
To me it’s more of a ‘Neutral Referees’ allergy than Players’ Fatigue, JW’s concern about the players well being sound hollow, for instance, how many minutes did he play his reserve front row?
Many consider his reserve front row equal or even better as a unit to his run on unit but lack any real game time.
for the past couple of weeks I have had to work from my tablet while my laptop was “reconfigured” by our IT suppliers.
this caused a problem because I couldn’t log on to this blog without the log on details stored on my laptop.
I did manage to read the comments though – mostly about the sharks boys boycotting this site.
let me tell you all that charo does not run away from criticisms of his team or players or supporters.
so, here I am boys – give it your full go
😈
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