Springbok rugby needs a few Percys
Taking a young Bok squad to Europe would have been an investment. Who knows, maybe a few new heroes would have emerged.
|||In times of austerity, it pays to think of the future and the eternal promise of better days to come.
When Mamelodi Sundowns had several players haggling over money, they looked into their reserves and plucked a promising youngster by the name of Percy Tau, who was on loan in the lower ranks at the time.
Coach Pitso Mosimane, despite a pantry of precocious weaponry, saw fit to entrust ?
Tau with a starting role in his side.The glorious upshot, of course, was there for all of Africa to see last Sunday, as Tau sat in disbelief, clutching African club football’s rarest treasure.
Little Percy, whose mother takes even more pride in his academic professaptitude than his football prowess, was a picture of contemplation, as his teammates went nuts at the sight of their loot in Alexandria.
Tau, though, sat like a kid who had just met Superman in the flesh, and hitched an Uber with Batman to complete the dizzy picture. Even in fairy tale films, dreams are not supposed to become rapturous reality so hastily.
Tau took a moment, soaking it all in. And you can be sure the experience will galvanise him, and the experiences will make him an even bigger player for club and country.
That all comes down to the trust his coach entrustedhad in him early on.
The rewards will be reaped for a long time, and it won’t just be Sundowns lapping up the fruits of that labour. With that humble thought in mind, one couldn’t help but think that Springbok rugby coach Allister Coetzee and his lieutenants missed a trick for the end-of-year tour.
The squad named for the Barbarians’ affair ought to have been the bulk of his touring party.
South African rugby, obsessed with preserving what remains, even in times of austerity, stubbornly refuses to take two steps back, before the wheel moves forward once again. South African rugby just doesn’t do Percy Tau stories. And before the quota police blow their wary whistle, a “Percy” is not code for players of colour, either.
There may never be a better time to blood the Free State Cheetahs and Blue Bulls class of 2016 at the next level, if only to see if they can cut it.
Just as the series against Ireland was the time to field bullocking Golden Lions centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg when he was brimming with confidence.
Routinely, South African rugby misses these free-hit moments when they have nothing more to lose.The year 2016 is already a write-off.
Even a clean sweep won’t dilute the pain of a record trouncing by the All Blacks, or the no-name brand style the national team currently employs.Taking a young Bok squad over to Europe would have been an investment in the future, even in defeat. Who knows, maybe a few new heroes would have put their hands up and given an embattled rugby nation the promise of a better 2017.
Goodness knows, we need a few rugby Percys.