Dear South Africa: Shut up and get behind the Bokke, they do battle for us

22 September 2015 - 13:17 By Ray Hartley
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South African rugby fans watch the Castle Lager Outgoing Tour match between Italy and South African at Stadio Euganeo on November 22, 2014 in Padua, Italy. File photo.
South African rugby fans watch the Castle Lager Outgoing Tour match between Italy and South African at Stadio Euganeo on November 22, 2014 in Padua, Italy. File photo.
Image: Photo by Steve Haag/Gallo Images

Chaps, Like most of you, I am a couch-based expert on rugby.

And, like most of you, I thought Heyneke Meyer was making a mistake to pick so many older, injury prone players for a tournament where speed and tactical nous are going to dominate. Not to mention that he missed a golden opportunity to add some really dynamic black players who have more than proved themselves to his squad.

With these mistakes, Meyer has revealed his weakness - an age old one which eventually overtakes most coaches - loyalty to his senior players at the expense of youth and verve. No question, we have set ourselves up for a difficult tournament.

But once Jean de Villiers had made his farewell speech at Montecasino and the team headed for the airport, it was time for us to shut up and get behind them. Because, whether you like the coach or not, whether you agree with the selections or not, that team was going to pull on the national colours and do battle in one of the world's most fiercely contested tournaments.

Losing to Japan was a shock. It exposed Meyer's aforementioned weakness in a stark light, but it was not the end of the world. If anything, it illustrated how vastly improved Japan is under a new coach and how badly a team that is too complacent and too tactically inept can do when surprised by a game opponent with a savvy manager.

Meyer believed the game was won before the first whistle. He chose to give those coming back from injury a run. He clearly did not take the game seriously enough.

I don't think that will happen again. It was not long ago that this team, with all its faults, ran New Zealand close. We lost to Argentina, but after their close run against the All Blacks I think we all know we were up against a quality team. And we adjusted our team and our tactics to beat them in the next encounter.

Calling for the coach to be replaced or the for the captain to be fired or for a whole bunch of players to be dropped is naive and frankly, just plain silly. There is no way a new coach can arrive at the World Cup a few days before our next game and turn the whole setup around. And you can't change the squad now.

We need to accept that we have the team and the coach for the rest of the tournament and that they are our team and our coach and our only chance at achieving something glorious.

They have got a mountain to climb. We need to help them climb that mountain. We've had our fun on social media, we've all shared the jokes and the demeaning images. Now let's move on and get behind this team.

If they don't succeed, we should say we stood by them when the chips were down. If they go on to greater things, let's be able to say it was because a great nation stood behind them in their darkest hour.

This article was first published by Rand Daily Mail

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