Time to wake up if Boks want to catch up

Some advice for Peter de Villiers. It's time to accept realities and snap out of your fantasy world or risk your team not making the improvements it needs to.

It's been interesting watching the South African reaction to their two losses in New Zealand, particularly the one in Wellington.

They've been looking out the window a lot and not in the mirror. When you look out the window, you look to blame others. When you look in the mirror, you're willing to accept responsibility.

There's been a fair degree of blame floating around from de Villiers in particular, and it doesn't seem as though he's handled this very well. Maybe some chickens are coming home to roost.

We copped a hiding from them in three tests last year, and I can remember de Villiers suggesting the All Blacks coaches hadn't developed their game in the last couple of years.

A year later and, well, perhaps the boot is on the other foot.

There have been some new law applications this year which have helped the All Blacks but the South African test team hasn't embraced them, which is a little ironic when you consider the Bulls won the Super 14 playing as much running rugby as anybody.

Last year, of course, we didn't like getting beaten but I think there was widespread acknowledgement the South Africans were the superior side and that was the way it was.

It appears they are struggling to accept that, maybe at this point, we may be better than them. And to that end they're looking to apportion blame other than where it lies – and that's with the team and the coaching staff.

The conspiracy theory that de Villiers came up with about the All Blacks being favoured by referees because of the bigger picture of the world cup is ridiculous in the extreme.

We know the Springboks have got some injuries and are missing their most influential player in Fourie Du Preez.

But we scored eight tries against them in two tests. Last year we struggled to score any. Their defensive system is at sixes and sevens. The Stormers had the best defensive record in the Super 14, but the Bulls were average. Somewhere when they've blended at test level they haven't got the right outcome.

Maybe the coaching staff need to have a look at themselves on the selection front too. It might be for the odd Springbok next year could be a year too far (though I'm not sure we should be alerting them to this!).

We learnt an awful lot out of last year and we've adapted. This might be just what South Africa need. But they need to stop looking for everybody else to blame and start acknowledging some facts. If they're prepared to look into that mirror rather than out that window, this could be a turning point for them, too.

One of the South African beefs has been over the foul play sanctions and there has been quite a bit of talk about yellow cards and suspensions. The Springboks appeared to be particularly harshly treated with Danie Rossouw's early sinbin in the second test, though he needs to understand he put himself in the ref's hands.

We get the benefit of slo-mo replays but the ref just gets a snapshot. Sometimes he reacts to what he thinks he saw rather than what he saw.

It was similar to the Rene Ranger penalty. The guy was on the wrong side and it looked like a shoulder charge. We had a different angle and could see it was a legitimate tackle.

Anyway, it has got me thinking about whether there's a better way to handle foul play on the field.

Instead of instantly brandishing a card for something the referee may or may not have seen clearly, is it time to use the television match official for more definitive rulings on foul play? It could be one solution.

But what about putting something on report and dealing with it later so it doesn't necessarily have a major impact on the game. A bit like they do in the NRL. Then it could be like the soccer system and after a certain number of "yellow card" offences, the miscreant would be hauled before the judiciary.

It just seems to me that something's not quite right with the way we do it now. I think at times refs might be a little quick to judge and those quick judgements might have too much impact on the game.

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