The Bok impersonators
This year has been a disaster for SA’s once-famed team — and there is only one way situation can be remedied
Cardiff — So where to from here for the Springboks? After an eighth defeat in 2016, ending November’s northern hemisphere tour winless for the first time since 2002 was another addition to a growing list of embarrassments for South African rugby in 2016. Allister Coetzee’s Boks played three Tests, losing 37-21 to England, 20-18 against Italy and 27-13 to Wales to rack up defeats six, seven and eight in the calendar year. They also drew 31-31 against a makeshift Barbarians team. This touring party was not even an impersonation of a Springbok team; it was a shallow facsimile of a once powerful former rugby collective. SA has been playing Test rugby for 125 years and there has never been a worse season. Since the historic indaba, Coetzee has spent the last month hammering home the message that SA rugby’s structure is weak and the Springboks’ problems are the symptom of those weaknesses.
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