Blitzboks' formula for success
Four finals, three wins. The Blitzboks team is a shining light on the South African high-performance landscape.
The Blitzboks are off to the best start in a World Sevens Series season since New Zealand won five tournaments in a row back when most of our current squad could not even contemplate boarding a plane to Sydney to play Sevens rugby for South Africa.
The Blitzboks team is a shining light on the South African high-performance landscape.
It has been this way for a lot longer than many people might appreciate, from the perspective of the processes and "design" of the system - that's the stuff people don't see. What they do see are the outstanding results, achieved by a team so clearly doing the right things the right way, which has thrust quality into the consciousness of more people than ever before.
Results usually come last, of course. They're preceded by frustrations and failures, and always require just enough of a glimpse of potential to assure doubters that the journey is worthwhile and the map and compass are working!
Those glimpses include 2008, when a team under former coach Paul Treu won the first two legs of the season in Dubai and George to set up an overall World Sevens Series win, South Africa's first. In fairness, that was more than a glimpse of what we could do in Sevens - it was a pinnacle moment, one that history should record as a giant leap forward for the credibility of Sevens in South Africa.
The reason it's so significant is because of who was involved. Among the players back then were Neil Powell, the current coach, and Kyle Brown and Philip Snyman, the most recent captains. Other senior players from that team are now in influential positions in the South African setup, running academies and working with the generation of players who we hope will be winning in Sydney in 2022.
Even off the field, the integrity of that system is clear - the physiotherapist Hugh Everson and the strength and conditioning coach Allan Temple-Jones were there in 2008. And yes, it's taken many years, and more than a few valleys with the odd peak, but our success now is a result of the thinking 10 years ago.
And therein lies a key element of success - the Blitzboks have unrivalled continuity, and that's not by accident. It was a very deliberate plan, perhaps forced on the system because Sevens back then was, and I'm being kind, a "niche" sport. Treu was picking his players last, having to queue behind provincial and even university teams. Specific coaching for Sevens was also non-existent.
What did exist, however, was a base where players could live and train together in a classic elite sport daily environment, and so the Sevens setup evolved almost in isolation, unencumbered by conflicts of interest and opposing agendas. What emerged is one of SA's great "fit for purpose" systems.
The end result of sustainability is that wisdom acquired through success and failure is not lost. It is reinvested, harvested and understood as though it were financial wealth. When people are given the right environment and optimal conditions to learn, provided they're good people, they will succeed.
Powell as coach has been "perfect for purpose", too. Exceptionally thoughtful and emotionally attuned to the players, he has solved the great coaching problems of finding the balance between simplicity and complexity, and also of empowering the players by letting them lead. That's no mean feat, but it has resulted in a team that has exceptional clarity of thought, all of whom take responsibility for playing their specific roles. That they play them so well is the reason for the success we are seeing.
There are, of course, lessons to be learned here. Ultimately, it boils down to good people, and a commitment to developing and reinvesting knowledge. The Blitzboks represent that. Most South African sports represent the opposite. The contrast is grating, and so are the results.