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'Black players in South Africa are getting better and better... it's going to be a scary proposition'

Lions' Aphiwe Dyantyi celebrates after scoring against the Hurricanes at the weekend in Johannesburg (Photo by Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Former Sharks talisman John Plumtree has left South Africa with an enthusiastic nod to what he describes as a ‘scary’ future due to the calibre of improving black player talent emerging in the country.

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The Hurricanes boss, who has an intimate knowledge of the South African game from his time with the Sharks as a player for a decade and later as a coach from 2007 in Durban, guided his New Zealand team to back-to-back victories over the Sharks (30-17) and Lions (37-17) during their recent two-week Super Rugby tour.

However, while an air of pessimism exists among some people in South Africa due to the ongoing player drain due to attracting offers from European clubs, Plumtree doesn’t share those concerns due to the effects that transformation is having in producing a new wave of professional standard players.

“I know it’s a struggle to keep players in the country and that’s similar to New Zealand,” said Plumtree to rugby365.com.

“However, we back our talent, we back our development, we back our schools and our clubs and that won’t change in this country [South Africa]. It is going to get even better.

“The black players in this country are getting better and better. It’s going to be a scary proposition if it keeps happening like this. South Africa, as long as it’s well organised and the coaching is good, it is always going to be a hard place to win.

“There is still so much talent here,” continued the former Ireland assistant coach in the wake of the Hurricanes’ weekend win over the Lions. “It’s good to see so many young backs in this country, they are so quick.

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“The talent train in this country will never stop… but there are some great young players coming through that I don’t know, that have developed over the years.”

WATCH: Jim Hamilton visits South Africa in the RugbyPass series, Rugby Explorer

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Flankly 2 hours ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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