Why do the Blitzboks get so much right about rugby, when the Boks seem to get so much wrong? The secret to their runaway success lies not just in the way they play the game, but in the way they think about winning.
Read: #BlitzBokke extend @WorldRugby7s Series lead, despite #Singapore7s stumblehttps://t.co/SgmcmjOHB1
Pic: @STcom pic.twitter.com/kCWuGUrDoc
— 7s in South Africa (@BlitzBokke) April 17, 2017
Imagine taking the top 45 rugby players in South Africa – the top three in each position – contracting them centrally in an open and honest way, preferably not via agents, an basing them at a world class facility tailored to their every need. Imagine assigning them one of the top three head coaches in the world, with access and funds to recruit assistants, consultants and conditioning coaches. Imagine and using this base of players only when a 23 man squad is needed to front up in one of the 12 Tests the Springboks play each year.
These guys would never play Super Rugby, let alone Currie Cup or club rugby. Only the 12 or 13 Tests the Boks play each year. There would be no outside influence as to playing style, and no outside political interference give that the group of 45 players would be contracted according to a transformation charter agreed upon by government.
Ridiculous? Height of insanity? Well, this is exactly what the Blitzboks do. And how many times have you been asked why the Blitzboks are getting things so right, while the Boks are getting things so wrong?
Well, there’s your answer. The Blitzboks are an island of sorts, free of any provincial meddling given that the players are centrally contracted to SA Rugby. They have a world class coach, world class facilities, world class conditioning and a single goal that they are totally focussed on – winning the World Sevens series.
In a nutshell, they chase excellence in an environment conducive to doing exactly that. The Bok environment is almost the complete opposite.
The players are contracted by provincial franchises or unions, most via agents, plenty of whom are in it for commission rather than what is best for the payers. Their focus is thus to perform for their franchise, who all play differing styles of rugby, often with a view to staying in once piece so they can also cram in their pocket filling stint in Europe or Japan come the end of the domestic season.
A call up to a Bok camp is almost an inconvenience these days. Not only are they disorganised, but put together by a head coach who was the only one willing to accept the non-rugby interference that comes with the modern day job. And now made up of multiple voices, perhaps not all of the same hymn sheet, given the slap-dash, plasters on a wound, nature of the management appointments.
Chasing excellence in an environment conducive to doing exactly that? Hardly.
The other thing that Blitzbok coach Neil Powell has got right, is team culture. Together with his fellow coaches and leadership team, he has instilled not only squad and team structures that are simple to follow, but also a set of team values that everyone not only has to follow, but is proud to follow.
Former skipper Kyle Brown speaks often of the family type culture, and of the Blitzbok brotherhood that sees them always looking out for each other. There is no hierarchy that sees older or more capped players as more important than the new guys – something that remains prevalent in a lot of 15-a-side changing rooms.
As such, this culture not only influences which players they contract, but makes the integration of new players into the team and environment incredibly smooth and simple.
It’s incredibly difficult to get right, especially given the different backgrounds our players come from, but certainly simpler to instil in the environment the Blitzboks have created for themselves.
And yet so very key to success in any team sport, but especially rugby.
The Boks are way off the pace on team culture right now. Were I the coach, it would be my primary focus in 2017. Let’s get some definition going!
The Lions have got it right, hence their success on the field. And I see glimpses of the Stormers getting it right. Coach Rob Fleck spent some time with the Chiefs in the off season and has returned with a clearly defined vision of what he wants from his players, as human beings and as rugby players. And that is half the culture battle won – having a clear vision.
I saw a great quote on culture, with the source sadly not revealed: “Losers assemble in small groups and complain about the coaches and other players. Winners assemble as a team and find ways to win.”
How right! Gossip and complaining are culture killers. Great coaches and teammates don’t allow it to happen in their team. Over to you, Springboks.
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