By David O’Sullivan
Tomorrow the Springboks play the Pumas at the Estadio Padre Ernesto Martearena in Salta. The last time South Africa played Argentina at this 20 000-seater stadium, they trailed by 12 points at one stage of the match, and were still one point behind with four minutes to play until Morne Steyn kicked a 76th minute penalty to give his side a slender 33-31 win.

Argentina have always been a tough side to beat at home, but now they’re a tough side to beat away from home as well, as the Boks found out in Nelspruit. Enough analysis has been done on what went wrong for the Boks, but one of the issues that gets mentioned often is that the players are still trying to find one another, they’re still trying to gel as a team.
Three weeks ago, in the aftermath of the Lions’ victory over the Crusaders in the Super Rugby semi-final, Jaco Kriel spelled out an important reason why the Lions were enjoying success. It wasn’t about how much training they had done, or how fit they were, or how much talent was in the side, or how important the video analysis had been. It was all about the spirit in the team. He said the team was “a brotherhood, it’s a family, we really care for each other, we will fight for each other.”
He spoke about how, in the beginning, they were “just a squad of different players from different backgrounds” and how coach Johan Ackermann grew the team into a close unit and created the mutual respect between players and coaches.
It’s a deeper connection than simply knowing where your teammate is on the field. It’s really knowing him: where he comes from, where he learnt his game. It’s knowing his family, his work, his sacrifices. Getting to that depth of understanding takes a lot longer than learning your lineout calls.
It’s something the Springboks will be working on, and for a team with so many newcomers and so many new partnerships, those deep bonds have yet to be established. It’s something all rugby teams have to work on, not just national team.
Take for example a team further down the rugby food chain – the second oldest rugby club in the country, Villager FC in Cape Town. Villager (more commonly known by the plural form of its name – Villagers) is in a rebuilding phase. It’s 140 years old and has produced the second most Springboks (58) after Stellenbosch University. The first Villager to play for South Africa was also South Africa’s’s first captain – HH Castens. Other ex-players include Morne du Plessis, Nick Mallet, Joel Stransky and Percy Montgomery.
The glory days are in the past, and Villager FC currently finds itself playing in Super League B of Western Province Club Rugby. A club with this much history can’t be relegated to the dustbin of history, and the rebuild is slowly underway – and showing signs of success.
The current director of rugby and head coach at Villager FC is an ex-Matie, Paul Reeves. A bulky centre, Reeves played for Stellenbosch University, Western Province u/20 and for Wellington, before going overseas where, at the top of his game, he played for Leicester Tigers under the captaincy of Martin Johnson in one of their most successful years when the team won the Heineken Cup and the Premiership.
Well played Villager Football Club teams lovely results pic.twitter.com/o6PbN2NnvT
— Villager FC (@VillagerFC) August 22, 2016
Reeves is in his late 30s and might have lost a yard or two of pace, but he’s not averse to pulling on a Villager jersey and getting stuck in to show his players he knows a thing or two about the game. But his philosophy about what builds a team is where he really shows his players how much he knows about the game.
The players do the hard graft in training and on matchday. But Reeves says there’s more to building a team and it can be quite simple stuff. Like wearing red socks.
Every Friday, the players and management of Villager FC wear red socks and they circulate photos of themselves in their red socks on Red Sock Friday.
Donald Crawford is a vet and plays on the wing for Villager FC. He sends a photo of himself wearing red socks while operating on an animal at his practice.
Zubayr Abrahams is a final year medical student. He’s the scrumhalf. He sends a photo of himself in the University library with his red socks on.
Well done to Saturday's Player-of-the-Day – Zubayr Abrahams. pic.twitter.com/jSv6Plc5Rx
— Villager FC (@VillagerFC) August 15, 2016
Fullback Jason Underwood is a mechanic. He sends a photo of himself working on a car, red socks visible under his greasy overalls.
Lock Mike Mdumelyma is not working at the moment. He sends of photo of himself on a hike up a mountain.
With each photo, this mix of players from such different backgrounds and occupations build a common identity as they share something about themselves and what they do when they’re not playing rugby. With each photo, they say “I’m a Villager, and I wear red socks on a Friday.”
The #RedSocksFriday initiative has quickly gained so much momentum that even former Villager players have taken to wearing red socks on a Friday. This seemingly insignificant, sartorially inelegant gesture makes a surprisingly strong statement to create team spirit and brand the wearer as a Villager.
35% of the 120 Villager players are Muslim. This year, Ramadan fell over a 6 week break in the rugby calendar, but Reeves wanted his squad to continue with their conditioning training over that period. It was a tough ask for the Muslim players who would be fasting from sunrise to sunset. But they were up for it, so Reeves decided to fast with them to better understand what they were going through physically.
The result was far more meaningful. He learnt about the lifestyle of the Muslim players and their religion and spirituality. He sat with his players during Iftar, the evening meal when Muslims break their fast, and chatted to them. He and his players got to understand each other on a deeper level. The fasting brought them closer together. Reeves reckons the experience made him calmer, more patient and more understanding of his players. It did nothing for his weight. If anything, he put on a couple of kilograms.
Reeves wants the club to be a home away from home. To do this, he added another dimension to the pre-match handover of jerseys. Usually the club would invite an ex-player to do the honours. But many of the youngsters knew little about Anton Chiat or even Gert Smal, and the significance of the occasion was somewhat lost on them.
So Reeves secretly contacted family members of the starting 22 players to do the job. On the Thursday before Villager FC’s big game against Union Milnerton, the club hosted the players and, unbeknown to them, their families. At a meal at the clubhouse, the players were surprised to see their loved ones waiting for them. Emotions ran high as Moms and Dads handed the jerseys to the players. The family of one of the players, Nick Vetsos, embraced the occasion so enthusiastically that 15 family members came along.
If the players are to be a band of brothers, the families need to be along for the adventure. Reeves believes that, at this amateur level, rugby is an outlet which can’t be enjoyed without the support of family and friends. He told the gathering that night that fortitude and strength of character are required to be a good rugby player. But he was referring to the families, not the players. This is a tradition that will now occur once a year.
Villager FC is enjoying a resurgence. It’s not quite there, but the results are starting to show. So far this season, Villager FC has played 13, won 10, lost 3, scoring an average of 4 tries a match. The club has just missed out on promotion, but the band of brothers is starting to form, the players are starting to understand one another, they’re starting to gel, and the club is becoming their home away from home.
And part of the process is wearing red socks on Friday.