Is Victor Matfield the right man to captain the Springboks? It was clear in the Tri-Nations Test against the All Blacks at Newlands last week that he did not have the cool head required to lead his men in tight situations.
He failed to control his temper on several occasions when disputing Australian referee Matt Goddard’s decisions. It was not merely a matter of his trying to get clarity on the referee’s actions, which I think should be the right of the captain. No; he openly argued with the referee in a somewhat intimidating manner.
He was definitely not a good example for the rest of his team. It deteriorated to the extent that television commentator and former Springbok Joel Stransky remarked that “Matfield should stop arguing with the referee – just now the whole team starts to do it …!”
And his words were barely out of his mouth when it happened! Fourie du Preez and Bryan Habana also chimed in, openly differing with Goddard.
Goddard is a referee Springbok fans love to hate – together with a whole bunch of others, particularly when the Boks are on the losing side. Yet, this was one of his best Tests. I strongly urge someone in authority at the South African Rugby Union to have a quiet word with Matfield.
It has now been reported that even the International Rugby Board is furious about the way he constantly questioned Goddard and argued with him. It has warned that it would take steps to root out this type of behaviour by players. This is ominous, because the IRB always seems only too eager to bend over backwards to please the Springboks.
IRB referee boss Paddy O’Brien condemned the Springbok captain and suggested that Goddard should have taken action against him for persistently questioning his calls. “Captains don’t have the right to question decisions. But Matfield was questioning almost every decision and argued with the referee.”
O’Brien said this was often done to deliberately delay the opposition and had to be stopped.
I watched a television replay of the Test on Tuesday night and am now more convinced than ever that Matfield’s actions were quite uncalled for and probably added to the Boks’ poor performance. He also didn’t perform particularly well himself – another indication that he cannot handle the pressures that go with the captaincy job.
Some will disagree because he has been quite successful as skipper of the Blue Bulls. But here we are talking about captaining the world champions – an entirely different kettle of fish – and this may be just that one rung too high for him.
It is reported from Cape Town that Springbok coach Peter de Villiers has also been questioned about Matfield’s captaincy but he was not willing to be drawn into a public debate and has merely said Matfield has his support.
Well, we can only hope Matfield displays better captaincy against the Wallabies in Durban on Saturday – and that he ups his own play a few notches and leads the Boks to victory.
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