Recently, Last Word on Sports caught up with Rugby World Cup winner Kobus Wiese to share his views on the current state of the game as well as his RWC 1995 experience.
LWOS: SARU has left the appointment of the new Springbok coach very late. What do you see as the downstream issues this will cause in preparations for the Irish tour to South Africa?
KW: SARU has left it really late, as Meyer resigned a while ago. We need to start building a team for the next Rugby World Cup in Japan and it does not happen overnight. Saying this, we have enough talent (young and experienced) to build a winning team.
LWOS: Super Rugby has become a complex competition with four conferences and effectively an incomplete fixture list as we don’t see each team playing against each other in the group stages, simply because of the amount of games that would involve. Has Super Rugby outgrown itself and would a pool system not be a more effective and understandable format, such as used in the European Rugby Championship?
KW: Super Rugby is a great competition, but as you say, becoming complex! The danger is, it has grown too big ( too many teams) and players are playing too much rugby. The competition starts in February and ends in September, with The Rugby Championship in the middle, as well as some tours. I believe it is the best provincial competition in the world, but all teams need to play each other.
LWOS: Although their results do not bear this out yet, have SANZAAR possibly created a potential problem in that Argentina and Japan can throw all of their resources in future into one team as opposed to spreading these resources across 5 or six teams?
KW: Well, I think it was the right thing to bring Argentina and Japan into the “brotherhood”, because not only does their constant improvement in terms of results justify this, but it will also better their rugby. Also remember, the next RWC is in Japan. Yes, having one team only in the competition can be to their benefit, but they are also inexperienced in this very tough competition.
LWOS: Any interview with a Rugby World Cup Winner would be incomplete without broaching the subject. The Springboks run to the final was not smooth sailing. There was the close game at the Boet Erasmus Stadium that put a black mark on the Boks disciplinary record, then the waterlogged pitch at Kings Park. If that semi-final against France did not take place because of the waterlogged pitch, the Boks were out. In your opinion, what held this side together and carried them through to eventually lift the William Webb Ellis Cup?
KW: We were a very focused, determined, fit group of players and coaching staff! We were a family on and off the field, willing to sacrifice for each other, our country and one common goal, to become the best in the world. We truly believed this.
LWOS: What did winning the Rugby World Cup mean for you personally, for your playing career and life after rugby?
KW: I will always be indebted to the great game of rugby, the players I played with and against, all my coaches , my family and the Good Lord for the talent and opportunities. Becoming a World Champion is obviously the cherry on the cake, what you have sacrificed for, trained for your whole career, therefore it is very rewarding. It made all the blood, sweat and tears worthwhile.
LWOS: Finally, if you could change just one thing in rugby today, what would that be?
KW: Make it compulsory for all fly halves to play in the tight 5 for a whole season, so they think twice in future before kicking away hard earned ball by the forwards!
Last Word on Sports would like to thank Kobus for taking the time to answer our questions. Give him a follow on Twitter: @4KobusWiese .
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