What is the value of a Springbok jersey? And how do you keep it from being devalued, as more and more of the players who wear it are tempted to move overseas?
Picture working for a big multinational company. You are based in South Africa, with the local side of the business going as well as can be expected in tough economic times.
The international divisions or brands are generating foreign currency and thus a bigger portion of total turnover, but the SA component is seen as a vital cog in the business.
That is until a big pitch comes along. A few local guys might be included on the periphery, but it’s always the overseas-based guys who are called back to SA to lead the charge for new business.
This even though many of them have been out of the SA business for a while and fully entrenched in a new brand and divisional culture overseas.
But how sustainable is it? How do you better your local staff contingent if you don’t let them attempt the big stuff? What sort of company culture is being established? Not a great one, would be my guess.
Were we not doing exactly this by picking the overseas based players for the Boks? To my mind, one of the fundamental issues contributing to Annus horribilis for the Boks last year.
“The Bok jersey should be worth a lot more than any money you get overseas,” says former Bok coach Jake White in a column on All Out Rugby. I agree.
The All Blacks have a great mantra, believing that the jersey is only on loan to the player, and that it’s that player’s responsibility to leave it in a better place.
For various reasons, that has not happened to the Bok jersey, and it has been devalued.
How do we get that value in the jersey back? Jake reckons the only way to get it back is to win, and that this can only be achieved by picking the overseas based players given that all our top players have flown the coup.
A bit like flying in the “Pitch-brigade” to handle the big pitches?
What we should have done from the get go is pulled a “Kiwi”, been brave and ballsy, and not selected players who choose to ply their trade overseas. Not to snub players who make this choice, as they have every right to choose money over the Bok jersey, but to instil a culture in SA rugby that places the green and gold at the top of the food chain.
But it’s not too late to make that call, and as seen in the recent series against the French, a series that saw coach Allister Coetzee pick only locally based players in the run on XV, the Boks can win without the overseas based players.
Not only win, but thrive. I do think new skipper Warren Whiteley has played a massive role in reworking the team culture, but that was also facilitated by the fact that he was working with many of the Lions players he plays with week in and week out during Super Rugby.
Let’s stop trying to match overseas salaries, because we can’t, and instead use the money to improve local and grassroots structures, players and coaches.
It will take time to reap rewards, but it’s the only sustainable model.
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