Manie Libbok is one of South Africa’s best attacking fly half’s but sometimes he doesn’t get the credit he deserves in a Bok jersey. The Former Stormers Inaugural United Rugby Championship winner often gets unnecessary and unfair criticism for his poor goal kicking at poles with plenty of kicks either costing the team dearly or a vital kick being missed in the context of the game result.
But what fans, coaches and pundits need to realise is that no player is perfect and all players make mistakes. What makes Manie different to other flyhalfs is his ability to distribute (pass) and get the backline going in a really efficient manner, his amazing cross kicks, his ability to create something out of nothing, his flair and most importantly his communication skills. Furthermore Manie is a match winner more than anything and would walk into any other national team.
On Saturday against the Wallabies, the Springboks suffered a very bad defeat 38-22 at Ellis Park for the first time in 14 years and Manie was singled out and crucified unfairly by fans and more specifically, former Springbok coach Nick Malett. Speaking on the Talking Boks podcast, the former South African head coach Nick Mallett said the Springboks’ lack of direction at scrumhalf and flyhalf contributed heavily to the Ellis Park defeat.
From there, our halfbacks [Grant Williams and Libbok] never managed the game.
Nine and 10 have to control a game, and they’ve got to sense when the game is moving in a certain direction. What happens sometimes with Manie, and I think he’s done it with the Stormers too, is that when things are going well, he’s brilliant on front-foot ball. His selections are really good. But when the ball isn’t so quick, he still tends to try and play that fast game, that wide-passing game, trying to play at pace. That was when we started playing, in my view, the incorrect style of rugby against Australia.They’re very good on transition, they’ve got very skilful players, and we made a lot of mistakes in that second half. This was a game crying out for more game management – kicking into corners, mixing in the driving maul, keeping Australia guessing. Instead we played into their hands.
However, Springboks Head Coach Rassie Erasmus came out to defend Manie Libbok at the press conference addressing the media and was very clear as to why his side suffered the bad defeat.
A lot of people point fingers at Manie, about how the game was played. I think the centres and the wings contributed to that. (Fullbacks) Damian Willemse and Aphelele Fassi, us as coaches, and the forwards could’ve helped Manie. Handré is obviously the oldest of our fly-halves and hopefully he brings what he always brings. When Sacha gets his chance, he can bring that Sacha excitement.
Another journalist came also to Manie Libboks defence on social media Rugby writer and pundit Paul Williams pointed out that Libbok could not be solely blamed for the defeat, insisting: “Can’t blame Manie Libbok for that defeat. But some will. So weird,” while one Springbok fan reminded fans that “he didn’t lose seven lineouts.” Some observers argued it was unfair to scapegoat the DHL Stormers flyhalf, pointing instead to the Boks’ malfunctioning set-piece and defensive fragility.
The bottomline is Manie Libbok was not the main cause of the defeat. Rugby is a teamsport and the Springboks are a team. They were poor in almost all aspects of their game. The set pieces, defence, kicking game was all poor and to blame one player for a defeat is absurd and wrong. Manie should have been praised for the 22-0 lead as he was involved in the build up to the tries and the beautiful running rugby was a sight to behold. In the future fans, coaches and pundits should support, value and cherish him as he is a true match winner and an asset to the Springboks.
