SAZI HADEBE | Polishing the ball and showboating won’t win you matches

The success of the world champion Springboks makes 2023 one of the most successful and unforgettable years for SA for sporting achievements. 

How we wish we could say the same about our country when considering the economy, load-shedding, crime and various social ills, which are, of course, a consequence of inequality. Pity we leave that to some unscrupulous people, masquerading as politicians and our leaders, to sort out.  

That the Springboks have won the Rugby World Cup for a record fourth time is a huge highlight in a year that could still get better if our cricket team, the Proteas, can do the same in the Cricket World Cup that’s ongoing in India. 

Bafana Bafana have a mountain to climb at the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast if they’re to emulate Neil Tovey’s class of 1996, which wasted no time in following Francois Pienaar’s Springboks that won our first Rugby World Cup in our first time of asking in 1995.  

Those were the heady years, those Nelson Mandela inspired years. We had a weapon called Madiba Magic that made us fearless.  

Things started to look rosy for SA in August/September when Banyana Banyana did the unexpected at the Fifa Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, where Desiree Ellis’s team qualified for the knockout stages for the first time.  

Such was the success of Banyana that their performance stimulated a hot debate in SA about the need to professionalise the women’s game. It has not happened yet, but we all hope the relevant people leading our football will surprise us soon. 

What we can learn from the Springboks is that success doesn’t come to those without a sound plan. Every time you listen to Springboks’ outgoing coach Jacques Nienaber, you get the sense that this is a focused man, working well with director of rugby Rassie Erasmus. You also get a sense these men went beyond coaching our boys but concentrated on making them far better than that — men among men off the field as well. 

The Springboks are four-time world champions because each time they got onto that pitch they respected their opponents and played them having done thorough research on where they could exploit their weaknesses.  

Nienaber’s decision to use the unfamiliar  7-1 split on the Springboks’ bench speaks of someone who wants to think outside the box to outfox his opponents. But it all depended on the type of players available and of course things like the weather and other intimate rugby details that ordinary followers of the game or sports in general would never think of.  

But that’s what we pay sports coaches for, isn’t it? These are people who should be way ahead of time when it comes to where the game should be going. On the Springboks' bench we were lucky to have that. 

Attention to detail is one big thing we lack in our football. That we have a Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates that have battled for years to catch up with Mamelodi Sundowns, is down to both clubs not paying enough attention to detail and not moving with the times. 

You only have to look at how these Sowetan sleeping giants prepare for their opponents. You get the sense that by merely appearing on the field they think opponents will quake in their boots and freeze at the sight of their kit. But no, winning doesn’t work like that in sports — not even Manchester United or Barcelona enjoy that these days. 

The Springboks are four-time world champions because each time they got onto that pitch they respected their opponents and played them having done thorough research on where they could exploit their weaknesses.    

At clubs like Chiefs and Pirates some fans get excited by having players who can “dribble and polish” the ball. We forget that “polishing” that ball doesn’t win matches, but you do that rather by outplaying your opponent and scoring goals. 

We see the same fans who cheer for nonsense in the stands getting angry and violent when they don’t get the desired results. They only realise when the game is over that they’ve being cheering for gimmicks that don’t put results on the table. 

That we have Sundowns flying our flag in the money-spinning African Football League is down to their owners having invested in the future of their club. That it is not Chiefs or Pirates representing us in that competition is quite a shame for these clubs. 

Chiefs and Pirates can only change their course when they start playing with a purpose and have players who play for results not gimmicks. People supporting clubs often forget that legends such as Jomo Sono and Ace Ntsoelengoe did not become popular in football because they stood on top of the ball. 

Look at the pair's playing stats to realise how big they were when it came to influencing results for their teams. Showboating was the last thing on their minds, and they only did that right in the end when they knew the game was secured.  

Some of the useless but popular players playing for Pirates and Chiefs these days will start standing on top of the ball as soon as they have their first touch. Whether their team is winning or not, they just do that and their supporters cheer and only become angry at the coaches once they’ve lost the game.    

What we can learn from Sundowns is that attention to small details can take you far in football. Gimmicks take you as far as where we find the giants of Soweto these days.  

These two clubs only have themselves to blame.