Old Bok values live again

By CHRIS LAIDLAW

The Springboks have finally found their own Grizz.

Rudolf Straeuli, the new Springbok coach, is the product of a conscious decision by the South African Rugby Union to hasten back to basics.

After some controversial flights of fancy by several of his predecessors, Straeuli is set to wind the clock back and impose some old-fashioned Afrikaner discipline.

Straeuli bears a more than passing resemblance to Grizz Wyllie, and he has been chosen for much the same reasons.

A broad, beefy, aggressive character of few words and a single-minded determination to impose himself physically on the opposition, Straeuli is Wyllie Mark II, and then some.

The only real difference between the two is that Wyllie was in charge of an amateur outfit whereas Straeuli has the much harder task of trying to bang professional heads together to get results.

He has made it abundantly clear that this is no frills, no prima donna time for the Springboks. Straeuli is the modern embodiment of old Springbok values, of the time players were expected to die for the fatherland, an era which seems to have slipped out of fashion amid the glitz and the glamour of the new Rainbow nation.

Although, like most Afrikaners of his generation, Straeuli has a rather less blinkered view of the world than the Springboks of old, he is no radical.

His approach is every bit as fundamental as that of Wyllie. The players have been told already that they can drink, but he will not be drinking with them.

They have been told in words of single syllables that anyone who does not physically deliver for seven days a week will be down the road before you can say Danie Craven.

He has made it plain that it is Mr Straeuli and not Rudolf they are dealing with.

It is refreshingly different and it might just work.

Straeuli's success with the Sharks, notwithstanding an indifferent start this year, has been built on iron discipline. Keeping modern players on this particular treadmill is not easy.

Straeuli is only too aware of the extent to which commercialism has complicated the lives and the commitment of today's players.

In South Africa, that commercialism is considerably more up front than in New Zealand, and players' agents and various other financial reef fish are given short shrift by the new coach.

Every member of any squad that Straeuli coaches is told that money can intrude only so far into the camp. Beyond that it is blood, sweat and loyalty all the way.

So far as tactics are concerned, the first and over-riding priority is the achievement of physical dominance over the opposition, something that any old Springbok - or any old All Black for that matter - can comfortably relate to.

The Fancy Dan approach of his predecessor, Harry Viljoen, will be jettisoned.

He will seek and find heavyweight forwards who can impose themselves on all others and canny, error-free backs who know how to convert a half-chance into hard points.

The present period of tenure of Springbok coaches is just over a year. I have a feeling that the revolving door will stop for longer than that while Straeuli is in charge.

I hope they pay him well. He will be earning every rand of it.