‘Boks won't cut it due to quotas’
The Springboks “are gone” due to the fact that half of the squad must be black for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, former All Black coach Laurie Mains said.
|||Cape Town - The Springboks “are gone” due to the fact that they have a selection policy that dictates that half of the squad must be black for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, according to former All Black coach Laurie Mains.
The 70-year-old Mains believes that the quota system served its purpose in the late 1990s and early 2000s to help develop more black players at the highest level, but that it was now time to abandon it as there are enough black players coming through the systems.
Mains has intimate knowledge of transformation in South African rugby, having coached the Cats to the Super Rugby semifinals in 2000 and 2001 after coaching New Zealand to the 1995 Rugby World Cup final against the Boks.
He warned that if South African rugby doesn't ditch the quota system, the Boks will suffer against the likes of the All Blacks and Australia in the Rugby Championship.
“For my money, they're gone, with racially selecting teams, they're not going to cut it,” Mains told foxsports.com.au in Australia.
“With the quota system they have, I think the days of them being top competitors are over.
“When I coached over there, I could see the reason for it (a quota system). It was a genuine attempt to create opportunities for the black and coloured players and I respected that because there hadn't been big numbers of them.
“But heavens above, that's 15 years ago. And the reality now is that they've had plenty of time to develop. The ones that are playing at the top level now are getting the advantage of what happened in the late 90s, early 2000s when they first brought in this system at Currie Cup level.
“It no longer needs to be there, it should now revert back to the best players get selected because all of the players in South Africa in the last 15-18 years have had the opportunity to develop. It should go back to straight merit selection and then we would have a world power in South Africa again.
“You can't go on forever favouring the position of one colour against another. While I supported the original decision for the quota system, it's had long enough now for it to all even out, which it has, and it should be straight-out merit selection now.”
The Boks have been in a rut in recent years, bombing out of the 2011 World Cup in the quarter-finals to Australia and in the semi-finals to New Zealand at the 2015 tournament. Under new coach Allister Coetzee in 2016, they lost the first Test against an injury-depleted Ireland in June, but a remarkable comeback in the second Test saw them claw their way back to an eventual 2-1 series triumph.
But their Super Rugby teams have also battled this year, with just the Lions reaching the semi-finals after the Stormers and Sharks were thrashed by the Chiefs and Hurricanes respectively.
The Stormers conceded 60 points on home soil, while the Sharks gave away 41 in Wellington. Mains believes it doesn't bode well for the Boks' chances in the Rugby Championship, which starts on August 20.
“I would have to say New Zealand looks odds-on to take out the championship because of the depth. You could select two All Blacks teams when you see the quality of the players that don't make it.
“This is all being developed at Super level and when these players go into All Blacks camp, that environment just takes them to another level as well,” he said.
“When it comes to set-play, you wouldn't say that the New Zealand teams are way ahead of Australia or South Africa. So then it comes down to general play, which boils down to skill and fitness.”
African News Agency