South Africa have kept more than 20 first choice players at home for their tri-nations games against Australia and New Zealand. While the rested players’ mammies may be delighted, that their “little” boys are being kept out of harm’s way - the rest of the rugby viewing public is furious.
The springboks were convincingly beaten in both games, including a record 40 – 7 defeat against the All Blacks. The official reason given for the mass withdrawal is injury, however the union have admitted that the players are together in a facility in Rustenberg, rehabilitating themselves before the world cup. Many sinister observers see this injury epidemic as a farce and believe the players are there to rest up before their defence of the Webb-Ellis trophy.
This policy will keep athletes fresh and reduce the number of injuries before the world cup begins. However the team will lose match fitness and the majority of their warm up games. Therefore the side will arrive at the world cup in desperate need of game time and with reduced morale.
Ireland and New Zealand promoted a similar policy before RWC 2007, in both cases it was blamed for their poor displays and respective early exits. New Zealand rested their top players for the first seven weeks of the Super 14 season and Ireland travelled for a tour of Argentina with a second string squad.
Obviously there is medical evidence that it works, teams pay fitness coaches and medical experts large salaries to assess these policies. Nonetheless it is a high risk strategy for a coach: because even if it has the desired effect of starting the competition fitter and fresher, any poor performances will be blamed on a lack of competitive games, prior to the tournament. Players earn all the plaudits for good performance, but coaches get most of the flak when things go wrong. Eddie O’Sullivan bore the brunt of a disastrous world cup, while Ronan O’Gara’s poor displays slipped the collective memory.
Scotland also excused five of their squad: Allan Jacobsen, Ross Ford, Richie Gray, Alastair Kellock and John Barclay from club duties, at the start of April. It is no coincidence that their director of performance, Graham Lowe, held the position with the All Blacks, in 2007.
Scotland are fortunate: in that they have nothing to lose – they are the Connacht of international rugby, no matter how many times they under-perform, they retain the “plucky” tag.
South Africa and Pieter de Villiers do not have such a luxury: if they don’t have a strong world cup - that means winning the competition or losing narrowly to New Zealand, they will not be forgiven. The coach will be sacked and wholesale changes will occur.
However despite the fury that resting players evokes, there is undeniable evidence that it works. The Irish team has won a grand slam, its first since 1948, and been competitive in the majority of six nations campaigns, since the union gained the right to rest players, whenever it was deemed necessary. Brian O’Driscoll would never have survived the knocks he has received without the player welfare programme and ironically Johnny Wilkinson has kept himself fresh by being constantly injured (his rest periods may have been imposed by mother nature, but he is still competing at the top level).
But try telling that to a sports fan – he will simply jump upon the prevailing theory at the time and he always manages to shout loudest. So when the world cup is done and if South Africa, as expected by the bookmakers, do not win the trophy, allow this sports junky his fifteen minutes about resting players and its pitfalls. Calmly ask him if he laid South Africa before the competition and then smugly mention the Irish model.
M.C.
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