Former Springboks prop Steven Kitshoff has hit out at Matt Williams’ comments about his career-ending injury, along with Nick Mallett and Jean de Villiers.
Williams caused a stir last month when he insinuated that Kitshoff’s life-threatening neck injury was a result of South Africa’s Bomb Squad tactics of forward-heavy benches.
The former Scotland and Leinster head coach has been incredibly outspoken about the tactic that he believes ‘discriminates against backline players’ and is a major safety concern.
He has called for World Rugby to change the laws around the use of the bench as he believes that the 7-1 and 6-2 splits in favour of the forwards lead to more injuries.
Matt Williams speculates on Steven Kitshoff’s injury
World Rugby have conducted scientific and medical research on the impact of fresh players entering a match against fatigued players and have come to the conclusion that there is no scientific evidence to alter the laws around the bench and how it is used.
However, that has not stopped Williams, who states that he will not ‘shut up about it’ and in a recent interview speculated that Kitshoff’s injury that he sustained while playing in the Currie Cup for Western Province was a result of the Bomb Squad tactics and South Africa’s heavy scrum focus.
“This is going to fundamentally change the way the game is being played,” Williams told DSPN with Martin Devlin. “People say at the top level, ‘we like big dudes running at big dudes, that’s cool’, but what’s it doing to the guys heads?”
“We know about brain injuries, what is it doing for brain injuries by bringing fresh guys off the bench? What’s it doing to the guys spines when it’s being compacted unbelievably for 80 minutes?
“What about Kitshoff, what happened to his spine in South Africa? Do we know if that is as a result of the scrummaging they are put through?”
Former Springboks react
Ex-Springboks captain Jean de Villiers raised Williams’ remarks on the Boks Office, where he was joined by Kitshoff and former Bok head coach Nick Mallett.
“There was another spat online by our big mate Mr Matt Williams, again just talking about how unfair the 7-1 split is and it’s not in the ethos of rugby etc, etc. Having a go at Rassie as well, and then Rassie actually said, ‘No, you know you don’t have your facts right here, because he also said that your [Kitshoff] injury comes down to the 7-1 split,” De Villiers said.
“There’s certainly a bit of ignorance with those comments”
Kitshoff remarked: “It doesn’t make sense.”
Before Mallett interjected, adding: “Illogical. Presumably, he was a backline player, and he is Australian, so an Australian backline player is not a good start. First of all, the comments should be made to World Rugby, if he’s got comments to make.
“He has done it as a pundit, just like we’re sitting here talking, you’ve got every right to your opinion but if you want to change it’s World Rugby who can change it and World Rugby have done a medical assessment on whether seven forwards coming on in the second half brings on numerous injuries and it doesn’t absolutely not there’s no evidence whatsoever.
“But they can do it [the opposition] too, they can match you if they want to match you, the problem is other teams apart from France don’t have the quality and depth that we have.
“So I would say that the frustration for players and someone like Matt Williams is he thinks it is unfair that a country has such strength and depth in this position where our second forwards coming onto the field are stronger than the first that they put on and their reserves are appreciably worse than their first guys so it does make a very big difference. But that isn’t something that he can change, that’s World Rugby who has to decide whether they need to change that or not.”
De Villiers continued: “His comment were saying that you got injured because you were part of the Bomb Squad but the game that you played in you were not, you were starting for Western Province in that game in a Currie Cup game and sometimes the risk lies potentially for the opposition if you come on but then to make comments like that it needs to be factually based that other players got injured because of these fresh guys coming on and make no mistake there’s no one bigger in terms of player welfare and player safety in the game than me.
“I chair the Chris Burger Petro Jackson Players’ Fund and we want to make the game as safe as possible but comments like that are dangerous to the game.”
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Kitshoff’s take
Despite his career being cut short because of injury, Kitshoff believes that the Bomb Squad actually extends players’ careers and allows them to get more back-to-back Test caps.
“If you think about the 2019 up to 2023 how many games did those two groups with the Bomb Squad in combination play together? I think it created so much depth in South African rugby, so much consistency because guys aren’t being pushed up to 70-75 minutes, they know they’re going to play 50 minutes and get subbed off,” he explained.
“They get that extra 15-20 minutes of rest and then the other guys just play so you create a squad of forwards that has the ability to interchange at any moment in the game and it creates a lot of back-to-back caps because the guys aren’t overworked, they don’t get fatigued and tired and not being selected for the following weekend because of overplaying.
“I actually think healthwise or from a rugby wellness perspective, the Bomb Squad created a bit more longevity in players’ careers.”
“Longevity for the older players and experience for the younger players”
Mallett agreed, stating that a player could sustain a serious injury at any given time whether it be on the pitch or in training.
The former Italy head coach added that the tactic also gives younger players more exposure at the international level while allowing the older players to extend their careers.
Additionally, he feels as though Williams’ comments come from his experience of how the game used to be with fewer substitutes permitted and fatigue playing a much greater factor in matches.
“Longevity for the older players and experience for the younger players,” he said. “But I mean you can injure your neck in a scrumming session at practice.
“Say the reserve Stormer’s pack is up against Steven Kitsoff, Joseph Dweba and Frans Malherbe, presumably that’s why someone like Neethling Fouche has improved as much because he had to scrum against you for five or six years so but even in those, they are very intense. You can injure yourself at any given time, so it’s not injuries or forcing injuries on others that has been proven not to be the case.
“So it is just more about the philosophy of saying that in the old days, you used to tire out your opponent. Say as a prop, it takes you maybe 60 minutes to really get on top of your tighthead and you can maybe get two or three penalties in the last 20 minutes but suddenly they bring a fresh guy on it’s more that sense that we’ve lost the traditional feel of the game but the other team can also put a fresh guy.”
READ MORE: Why Rassie Erasmus broke his ‘promise’ to give Springboks legend the captaincy
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/steven-kitshoff-rubbishes-illogical-matt-williams-remarks-on-career-ending-injury-as-ex-springboks-boss-slams-non-factual-view
