Sean Fitzpatrick: Return to traditional values puts the spring back into the Boks

COMMENT

There are two rugby events really creating a buzz in the UK - one is the arrival of the Springbok team and the other is the quality of the UK Rugby Premiership and the Heineken Cup.

The Springbok team would have to be one of the most eagerly anticipated here for some time. Earlier this year, I had a game of golf in Singapore with John Hart, playing against Springbok coach Jake White and former Springbok World Cup star Joel Stransky. Jake was saying even then that he wanted to get back to the traditional values of Springbok rugby.

He wanted big forwards and athletic players. He wanted them fitter than they had been for quite a few years. And he wanted to get back to the traditional pride in the Springbok jersey. I think he's achieved that - I have been impressed with the Springboks this year. I like what I see. He has brought back big, strong players like Os du Randt. The pack is full of forwards who play like forwards should and the backs play like backs. The pack are putting it on people and the backs are playing like they really want to hurt the opposition - not illegally but through the quality and fierceness of their tackling and running. There is a touch of the Danie Gerber about the players.

I spoke to Jake again after the furore in South Africa about the selection of a number of black players and the debate was raging about quotas and cheapening the jersey. Sound familiar? The two countries really are quite similar in a rugby sense.

Jake was really disappointed about the reaction. He feels he is bringing in the next generation of talent - the next Paulses and the next Willemses.

But, in spite of all the controversy, the Springboks are aiming at doing the grand slam - beating Wales, Scotland, Ireland and England. I hope they do it. A strong South Africa is good for world rugby. I love beating them but it's sweeter when they are a force.

The other major rugby focus is the Premiership and the Heineken Cup. I'd have to say that both these competitions are an excellent way to prepare provincial players for the rigours of test rugby. The length, intensity and quality of competition is impressive. I can't say that the rugby is always as watchable as in New Zealand but I'd also have to say that maybe we should look at using these competitions to build our players up. Times have changed.

The days when players like Martin Johnston came to New Zealand to be toughened up have gone. We lose top players to the northern hemisphere in their prime. It would be better to get players like the young Auckland prop John Afoa over here and give them a year or two in the hard, long, intensive school of these two competitions - and then get them home.

I think New Zealand rugby would benefit. I talked to (former All Black and Canterbury centre) Nathan Mauger the other day and that's what he is planning to do - he'll be here for two years and then he is going home and trying to get in the All Blacks.