"The Boks have lost killer instinct”
Dawie De Villiers in Action against France. He led the ‘Boks to a two-one victory, but both Okey Geffin and Doug Hopwood say he should make way for Tommy Bedford.
Three Former Springboks look back on the French rugby tour and come to the conclusion:
Dawie De Villiers should be axed from the captaincy because of his negative play: flyhalf Visagie was a flop: Natal’s Tommy. Beford should Captain the next Springbok side…
these are some of the points made by former Boks Okey Geffin, Ian Kirkpatrick and Doug Hopwood in a highly critical analysis of the recent series.
By NORMAN CANALE, one of South Africa's most experienced rugby writers, who covered the 1955 British Lions tour, the 1958 French tour, and the 1960 All Blacks tour.
Okey Geffin
ΟKEY "The Boot" Geffin, the tough front-row forward who kicked an in-credible 51 points in seven Tests for 'South Africa 17 years ago, is not at all impressed with the Springboks' 2-1 victory in the recent four-Test series against France. "It was a hollow victory," he says. "On this form the British Lions will eat our boys for breakfast next year. And I shudder to think what the All Blacks will do to this team. Yet it appear's that our rugby chiefs are well satisfied that we won two Tests and drew one against the Tri-colores."
Geffin felt that the 1967 Springboks had played defeatist rugby against a French team that had the odds stacked against them right from the start of their lightning one-month tour. "Look at it this way. First of all the tour took place in their off-season - and what happened to the Springbok team that toured Britain in our off-season in 1964 they never won a match. - "Then the Tricolores had to leave some of their best players behind and face a strenuous instant-type tour with a team that was below strength to the one that won the European Five-Nations championship. "The Springboks capitalised on all this good fortune by playing brilliant attacking Okey "The Boot" Geffin, star performer on the tour of Britain and France in 1951-52. rugby in the first two tests and they won handsomely.
But what happened then? - "Their approach seems to have been based on safety- first tactics. 'We are leading 2-0 so let's sit back and let the Frenchmen make the mistakes,' they must have reasoned. How else can you explain their negative tactics in the Ellis Park and Newlands Tests? Their attitude was not to lose, rather than to go for victory at all costs. It's the old story that has plagued our rugby in recent years." GEFFIN places the blame for these unimaginative tactics squarely on the shoulders of skipper Dawie de Villiers. "He just hasn't the qualities that go to make a captain of the type of Hennie Muller, Basil Kenyon, Danie Craven or Bennie Osler.
To-day's skippers seem to think they are just there to run on to the field. At Ellis PArk De Villiers should have shuffled his lineout forwards around when Dauga dominated this phase of the game. And why didn't our chaps pull Dauga and Plantefol down on to their aide of the field when they bad the ball? They obviously forgot the basics of the game. "And at Newlands, when he was playing with the strong wind, why on earth, did De Villiers close up the game? I have read that he might have been influenced by the shallow lining of the French backs and their move of pulllng a forward out of the pack as an extra defender.
"If that ls so, why didn't he use the up-and-under in that wind? And why didn't he tell Visagie to use a few grubber kicks? No matter how shallow a defence lines up, they can ‘t counter clever tactical kicking. The 'Boks would have won by 10 clear Points if De Villiers had used these elementary tactics. "And at Ellis Park our forwards should have pushed through the French pack when they pulled two men out on defence. Instead, they just stood still. It was unbelievable."
Geffln would like Natal's Tommy Bedford to captain the Springboks against the Lions next year. "Bedford ls the type of thlnklng player we need to lead our team," he said. ''His leadership of Oxford University last season impressed all the British critics. A really good captaln must be a man with his own mind - provided that mind ls flexible. He must be able to play the game by ear when pre-conceived tactics fall.
Tommy Bedford
"LIKE Jan Lotz, for example. He was a really great captain of those mighty Transvaal teams In the 1940s. Once we were playing Northern Transvaal and we were up against It. We just couldn't break through. Then Lotz switched our big, thrustIng wing Jimmy Kotze to fiyhalf and Instructed him to go for the line from the next 25-yard movement. He burst through Just as Lotz had believed be would and we won the match. "Then take Hennle Muller. It was Hennle who was responsible for that crushing 44-0 defeat of Scotland at Murrayfield on the 1951-2 tour. "Scotland had held South Africa well for the first 20 minutes. But by then Muller had spotted a weakness in the mid-field defence. 'Don't worry about fancy side-steps with these blokes,' he said. 'Just run straight through them.' Well, that's just what we did all afternoon record one of the most stunning victories in test history."
Geffin wants to see the Springboks going back to the style of play that made South Africa the greatest rugby nation in the world on the 1951- 2 tour of Britain and France. "We played positive rugby on that tour," said Geffin. "Defeat never entered our minds. There is a story going around that Dawie de Villiers told his players to hold on for a draw in the final Test when the score was 6-all with 20 minutes to go to full time. Have we now lost the 'killer instinct' that all great sides must have? "This could never have hap- pened with the 1951 team. At a stage like that Muller would have been telling us how to get the WINNING points. Draws didn't interest us. We could close up a game if we had to, of course, but we liked to win playing attacking rugby. "We moved the ball out to the wings and often played back to our mobile pack who could handle like three- quarters anyway. When last have you seen a South Afri- can pack indulge in those dangerous hand-to-hand passing movements or dribble the ball down the field? We have got to get back to that type of play if we are to regain our once lofty position in the rugby world." GEFFIN pin-pointed the fly- half position as the real weak link in the 1967 Springbok side.
"I can't understand how the selectors persisted with Piet Visagie. He simply isn't an international-class flyhalf - and he never will be. The flyhalf position is the most important position on the fleid because it is the pivot of all movements be- tween forwards and backs. Yet Visagie hasn't the tactical kicking ability or scheming rugby brain to dic- tate play from this position.”
If the selectors were mainly concerned with winning this Test series they should have played Keith Oxlee. All this talk that he is too old is so much rubbish. He is still the brainiest flyhalf in the country. Otherwise I would have played either Jannie Bar- nard or Alan Mentor, who are both attacking flyhalves. "I wouldn't have played Jan- nie Engelbrecht on the right wing. Jannie is well past his best. I would have given little Kobus Koorts his chance and I'd guarantee he would have given the French plenty of headaches. Of course, he would have had to have got the ball more than poor Engelbrecht did at Newlands. He never got the ball ONCE from an orthodox movement. "I also liked Eben Olivier. He is a clever centre with a fine turn of speed through the gap. I can't say our forwards impressed me at Ellis Park, Jan Ellis is the exception. He is an outstanding forward, fast and intelligent.
"I am not worried that we haven't got the players to win next year we most certainly have. But we must not be complacent over the victory in this series. We still have a long way to go before we wear smiles of satisfaction again." After keeping a watching brief on the last two Test matches, I am forced to agree with Geffin's views.
IAN KIRKPATRICK, coach to the Springbok side in this series, told me in Cape Town, that his main task was to get his players to THINK on the field of play. Although he didn't say as much, he was obviously worried about their lack of improvisation. He said: "We most certainly got them to think at Durban but they had already stopped thinking at Bloemfon- tein. At Ellis Park they stopped thinking. My task to- day (shortly before the start of the final test) is to get them to think again." Newlands cannot be a happy hunting ground for Kirkpatrick. It was there in 1958 in the first Test against Lucien Mias's French team that he got the slow hand- clap for persistently kicking into touch in the first half. I covered that Test match and there was no doubt in my mind that he played to in- structions. It could have been a happy occasion for him on his return to Newlands as coach to see his team win with attacking rugby. But all he saw in the second half was de Villiers and Visagie persistently kicking away the good ball when they could have vindicated him by playing "The Kirkpatrick Way"-which, these days, is running rugby.
It is this type of rugby that has made Griqualand West one of the top rugby provinces in the country and it is no coincidence that Kirkpatrick is their coach. This is what a disappointed Kirkpatrick said after the fourth Test: "I was disappointed with the fall-off in the Springboks' form after the first Test at Durban, One cannot change the pattern of a country's game in one season, But I think it has been proved that running rugby is the way to win." Yes, Kirkpatrick must have been a bitterly disappointed man at Newlands.
Winger Jannie Engelbrecht summed it up well when he was asked after the match whether he was going to retire. "Why retire," he countered. "All I had to do today was throw in the ball at the line- outs. I should be able to keep doing that until I'm 40."
Doug Hopwood, one of the greatest number eight forwards in South African rugby history. He wants to see Tommy Bedford captain the'Boks against the British Lions next year
DOUG HOPWOOD, that phenomenal number eight forward of the 1961-2 tour of Britain and France, thinks the Springboks will do well against the Lions next year - "provided we pick the right players and find a good captain." Hopwood is amazed that Gert Brynard, the best wing on the new Zealand tour a season and a half ago, was completely overlooked. "They played him in one trial AT CENTRE and then ignored him. And the off-handed treatment of Jannie Barnard was even worse. He didn't even get a trial chance - yet he was the ideal type of fly- half to have played against the Frenchmen. "Visagie was a big disappointment, He is a good defensive flyhalf but is sadly lacking in attack. He has little tactical sense and this is essential for an international flyhalf." Hopwood emphasised that Dawie de Villiers was still the best scrum-half in the country. "But he is not a good captain and the duties of captaincy obviously affected his play at Cape Town, He wasn't the De Villiers I know so well." Hopwood, like Geffin, wants to see Tommy Bedford as captain. "Apart from being a great loose forward he 'sees' a match so well. He has a rugby brain and our selectors should waste no time in grooming him for the сар- taincy next year.
"In Bedford and Jan Ellis we have two forwards as good as any of the past, Ellis is fast and strong, Bedford intelligent and tricky. But the thing is we must play off a five-man tight pack or our loose forwards won't have a springboard for attack. "
In 1961 we could do this because we had tight players like Piet du Toit, Abie Malan, Fanie Kuhn, Johan Claassen and Avril Malan. Our problem could be with our tight forwards.
We most certainly must find a number three line-out man like Claassen; solid and unmovable. Frik du Preez is ideal at number five.
"But there remains one big question mark. Will our players ever be able to think again? Our search must be for intelligence as well as playing ability and brawn."
SCOPE | SEPTEMBER 08, 1967
*Produced in the apartheid era, this publication reflects the language, attitudes, and social context of its time and may contain content that some readers find offensive or distressing.