Eric Tinkler weighs in on rugby vs football debate after Springboks success

South Africa remains in a state of jubilation, thanks to the Boks' exploits over the past few weeks, which culminated in their successful defence of the Webb Ellis trophy over the weekend.

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This has sparked conversations over why football, and Bafana Bafana in particular, continues to lag behind when it comes to competing on the international stages, with Tinkler sharing his take on the matter comparing a situation to Barcelona's 16-year-old rising star Lamine Yamal.

"Rugby development is very, very strong in the schools. Football development is very strong, but through clubs, and those structures, in my opinion, are failing," said Tinkler.

"The level of coaching that they're getting is not to the same requirements. We were talking about it in the change room – you've got a 16-year-old boy at Barcelona.

"Is he a freak of nature that he's playing [professionally] at the age of 16, 17? No. He's been at La Masia [Barcelona academy] since the age of 6, so he's got all that development, and by the time he reaches 16, 17 – he is developed to represent Barca."

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The Africa Cup of Nations-winning former Bafana Bafana midfielder, whose playing career also took him to Portugal, Italy, and England, exposed the development challenges he still faces as a senior head coach in the country's elite professional ranks.

"Me, as a head coach, I'm still having to deal with development issues of players [in the first team], and that shouldn't be happening," he added.

"At the PSL level, I should be primarily worried about results, but I'm still having to worry, 'Can this guy cross a ball? Does this guy know how to finish? Does this guy know how to make a 20-metre pass, or a 5-metre pass? Does this guy know when he has space to turn?'

"All of these things were supposed to happen when they were younger, but yet we're still having to deal with them today, and we say, 'We've got late developers.' Ja, there's a reason for the late development, it's that the development hasn't been good enough at younger age groups."

The simple solution to football's quagmire, Tinkler believes, lies in established structures in schools, where discipline and education is reinforced in players, while a uniform standard of infrastructure is also prevalent.

"Possibly, why has rugby been successful? Because of the school's system. Because it brings two things: one – the education side, two – the discipline," he highlighted.

"Discipline is extremely important, it's not something you get at an amateur football club, but you do get it through your schools, so possibly growing our football through the schools is where we should be looking, similar to what you see in rugby and cricket."

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