Don't lose: Lessons from the Springboks and Dricus du Plessis
The best way to win is to make sure you don’t lose. That’s why Warren Buffet’s number one investment rule is: “Never lose money.”
In 2018, merely 18 months before the 2019 Rugby World Cup, Rassie Erasmus inherited a Springbok team that had won only 44% of their matches in 2016 and 2017.
With so little time, Rassie couldn’t fix it all and had to focus on where he’d get the most bang for his buck: building a rock-solid defence.
And so, by the time the 2019 Rugby World Cup came around, South Africa didn’t have the best attack, but defensively, they were a fortress.
Just before half-time of the World Cup Final, trailing 6-3, the English hurled themselves at the Springbok try line for almost four uninterrupted minutes with wave after wave of attack. It was a critical moment in the match.
But the Boks didn’t miss a single tackle (see the remarkable video below). In fact, the Springbok defence pushed the English backwards. Their defence was so good that it became offence.
After this exchange, the England team was spiritually crushed and capitulated in the second half, losing to the Springboks 32-12.
John Danaher, one of the greatest ever Jiu-Jitsu and combat sports coaches, has this to say about defence:
“All offence creates risk.
Only defence mitigates that risk, and thus, ironically, defensive skill is the seed from which all offence springs.
Work hard in your fundamentals of defence.
Only when you are defensively sound will you ever actually show what you are offensively capable of.”
During Dricus du Plessis’s recent UFC 305 title fight against Israel Adesanya, the reigning champ kept his hands raised next to his face at all times. Why? Because Dricus could only beat Adesanya if he didn’t get knocked out by the lethal kicks and fists of one of the most accurate strikers in the UFC.
The moral of the story:
In business, sport and life, you can only win if you don’t lose.