Marcell Coetzee was named man of the match, although the highlight of the game was a try scored by Ruan Pienaar who started the attack off of turnover ball in his own 22 to finish it off at the other end.
Wiehahn Herbst came on for a useful contribution and in the engine room Franco van der Merwe was his usual hardworking self. For Glasgow Brandon Thomson scored for Glasgow. Thomson being on a short term loan from the Stormers.
Morne Steyn along with Will Genia had very quiet games as La Rochelle spent long periods attacking and putting Stade under pressure. Although Steyn looked solid under pressure and found some good long touch-finders he was unable to spark the Stade backline.
Victor Vito stood out as the best loose forward on the park.The sun was out and the field was dry so conditions probably suited Vito. Brock James had a good game in the pivot position for La Rochelle.
For SARU to get rid of Allister Coetzee it is going to cost them R13 million to buy him out of his contract. Now surely there must be a villain in all of this mess? Who got us in this mess? How come we can’t get out of this mess?
Is AC the villain? Well SARU never advertised the position of Springbok coach, Jurie Roux their CEO appointed AC as Roux felt AC was the correct man. AC already had a job coaching the Kobe Steel Kobelko Steelers. SARU sought out AC and offered him the job of coach of the Springboks. Why would AC turn down this offer?
Jurie Roux
Roux had taken his time about considering who would be the correct man. Heyneke Meyer had resigned from the post on 3 December 2015 and AC was appointed over four months later on 12 April 2016.
In that four month period you would have thought that Roux would have thought about including a performance clause in the contract he was about to offer to AC. It appears that there is no performance clause in AC’s contract.
If you were given a job and offered a contract for four years by the end of which you would have earnt R13 million, whether you do that job well or badly the company has to honour the contract and pay you R13 million, then would you do the honourable thing and resign? Not a chance in hell you would ! You would be saying things like what AC has been saying “I think I am the man to turn things around”
The thing is this company (SARU) that gave AC this contract are responsible for millions of Springbok fans happiness. Not only does SARU have to buy AC out of this contract to the tune of R13 million but now we hear that SARU can’t afford to buy him out. Even worse SARU has gotten itself into financial difficulty with the governing body reportedly being R19 million in the red.
SARU is going to ask it’s partner, Supersport, to pay the R13 million. I have suggested to people that I have spoken to that Jurie Roux should come up with the R13 million especially if SARU continue to employ Roux. Roux had previous to this huge blunder been accused of misappropriating funds, guiding money to his own rugby club in Cape Town.
I think if SARU jettison Roux it will be a positive step toward regaining the public’s trust. I feel Roux is the villain in this instance. He never advertised the job, he procrastinated over the appointment, he never included a performance clause and he appointed a coach that already had proven whilst at the Stormers that he can’t do the job.
A huge worry is the state that SA Rugby is in. Financial ruin didn’t happen as a consequence of the AC tenure, it has been a long time coming and the excuse of, we don’t do things that way as South Africans and as South Africans we can only work in certain confines, just doesn’t cut it. We need to start doing things correctly.
Players that played so well in Superugby looked terrible against an out of form Wales. Springbok rugby is in an awful way…….it needs to be fixed.
I feel a bit embarrassed for writing an article bigging up Rohan Janse van Rensburg because he had a bad game. His first Superugby game wasn’t good either and then he made a comeback and became one of the stand-out players in Superugby.
I am sure most Bok supporters are feeling the pain as this year comes to an end. It has been awful.
How many tries has each team scored so far in the November tests?
New Zealand 23
England 13
Ireland 13
Australia 11
France 10
Argentina 10
Japan 9
Canada 7
Wales 6
Tonga 6
By the way South Africa have scored 4. Any ideas of what the Springboks are not doing? Maybe we need some fairytale rugby.
I contradict myself don’t I? I have just written a post claiming Heyneke Meyer was the 2nd placed ‘Domkrag’ coach now I write one saying he was a ‘Modern rugby’ coach. The three tests the Springboks played against the All Blacks in Johannesburg in 2013, 2014 and 2015 were all quality performances where South Africa played a much more attacking brand than what we are used to. In addition to those performances was an outstanding victory over the Wallabies in Brisbane in 2013. Brisbane a city where South Africa had not beaten Australia since 1971 Continue reading
at the ground 