Rugby: Coach finds revolution slow to spark in Bok ranks

Expansive rugby is our new mantra. That call has been coming from deep within the Springbok camp and there were intriguing signs during their Nelson Mandela challenge with the Wallabies.

However, there may be some confusion about the Boks adopting an unrestrained style of rugby.

It is certainly causing some consternation in South Africa, where conservative rugby elements want more beef in the pack and a bash-them-into-submission approach.

But coach Nick Mallett is on a mission to match a game plan to the new rules and attitudes in the sport.

He wants to shift away from the behemoth forwards, one-off runners and a kicking five-eighths.

Laudable perhaps, but to some sections of South African rugby, who are even harder to please than the New Zealand public, two straight losses to England and Australia are enough proof that a rugby revolution does not work.

In talking through his philosophy, Mallett has used the word expansive and that description appears to have been taken too literally by some observers.

Substitute the words ball retention, keeping the ball alive and recycling possession and that gives a much better picture of what Mallett is aiming to do. He wants fit, athletic ball players who can adapt new plans to traditional skills.

"The modern game to me is all about controlling the ball," said assistant coach Alan Solomons.

"It is not an amazing idea - ball control, ball in hand."

Sorting out and implementing a Springbok style may be trickier than doing the same with the All Blacks. There are more disparate styles in Super 12 franchises in the Republic than there are in New Zealand.

While the five Kiwi franchises play a similar brand of football, the four in South Africa are all different. In the end, Mallett has chosen to mix the best of the Stormers and Cats, the two squads who performed the best in Super 12 this season.

Like All Black coach Wayne Smith, Mallett spoke to the Super 12 groups at the start of the season and then did not interfere any more. While the New Zealand sides showed they wanted to embrace Smith's ideas, each South African franchise went its own way.

Coaches had their own agendas, their own styles they believed in. At the Cats, former All Blacks coach Laurie Mains encouraged his forwards to go to ground in tackles so they could release the ball more quickly.

After watching Cats forward Andre Venter repeating that tactic almost with some voluntary tackles during the Boks loss to the Wallabies, Mallett berated Venter and the idea as he went through the tape of the game with some South African journalists.

Mallett wanted Venter to use his physique and smash into the opposition and then recycle the ball.

The target date for announcing the Super 12 coaches in South Africa was supposed to be the end of this month.

Coaching continuity and player drafts are high on Mallett's wishlist to help with his rugby vision.

That won't happen though, he laments, until the South African Rugby Football Union rather than the provinces run the Super 12 sides.

"Until that happens there's very little that Sarfu or I can do."