Meyer flying in Premiership
22 Sep 2008
With three wins in as many matches Leicester Tigers coach Heyneke Meyer seems to be adjusting to life in the Premiership brilliantly.
Meyer lead the Bulls to the Super 14 title in 2007 and subsequently worked for a sports nutrition company USN before accepting an offer from the Tigers.
On Saturday he lead his side to their third successive victory, a close run 19-17 win against Worcester Warriors, which subsequently saw them top the table. Impressively two of those wins have come away from home.
However, while he could not have hoped for a better start to his tenure, Meyer sounded an ominous warning to those with title aspirations.
“I’m really happy with our start, particularly the fact that we grabbed two wins away from home. But there’s lot’s of room for improvement,” Meyer told keo.co.za. “We have about eight internationals out injured. We can only get better.”
Meyer’s ability to adapt his tactics to various conditions should make his stint in the Premiership a successful one. He said that with the English winter yet to take hold, his side have sought to shift the ball a lot more than they will in a month or two when driving rain will become a notable feature of most Premiership matches.
He also added that the support he was getting from a skilled and experienced coaching staff had made his settling in process a lot easier.
“The boys have been brilliant and the club has seen to everything I need,” said Meyer, who recently moved out of a hotel room he’d called home for a month and into a house close to the club. “That takes a lot of additional pressure off you as a foreign coach in a new country. I’m really appreciative for the lengths Leicester have gone to to help me adjust quickly.”
He continued: “The one frustrating thing has been that I hurt myself when I first arrived here and I’ve been in a cast since then which has limited the amount of time I’ve been able to spend on the pitch with the team in training. I can’t wait until [the cast] comes off. I want to get out there.”
The Tigers host the struggling London Wasps on Friday, but Meyer was acutely aware that the defending champions were still a very competent unit. They face a testing month with the ever improving Northampton Saints and Bath lined up after the Wasps clash.
By Ryan Vrede
48 Comments
22 Sep 2008, 09:31 am
Dragons!
22 Sep 2008, 09:33 am
The Leicester/Wasps game is on Friday night Ryan
22 Sep 2008, 09:35 am
#2 Big Hit: Cheers BH
22 Sep 2008, 09:39 am
No suprise realy , and this is only the beginning. Wait till he have more SA players under his wing.
22 Sep 2008, 09:43 am
Cant believe this guy is not our National Coach he is brilliant and were going to regret the fact that we let him go!!!!
22 Sep 2008, 09:49 am
#5 bloubull in ny: Yeah, he has really grown to be a very astute coach over time, pity his knowledge is lost to SA rugby, hopefully not forever, I predict a huge loss against the British Lions and Meyer back in SA with band-aid
I hope not, but cant see it unfolding any other way !
22 Sep 2008, 09:51 am
Good for him…. lets talk CC please
22 Sep 2008, 09:54 am
#7 THE MAULER: you a shark?
22 Sep 2008, 09:57 am
i wonder if they have prayer meetings before the game at the tigers.
22 Sep 2008, 09:58 am
I imagine all the Bulls players entering the twilight of their careers now have a home for a year or two up north. Meyer’s already looking to sign Danie Rossouw. When will the likes of Gurthro, Bakkies, Victor, Pedrie, Fourie and Habana make the move?
22 Sep 2008, 10:07 am
Meyer should look at acquiring some Boland players. They’ll teach the English a thing or two about playing in wet fields.
22 Sep 2008, 10:08 am
#8 Tisme:
Yes… but the point is…
Is Juan Smith injured??
Is Habanna injured??
Will John Smit play this weekend??
Are WP playing a full strength team this weekend???
Thats news….
22 Sep 2008, 10:11 am
Hopefully he will still coach the boks one day. At least he is getting great experience coaching in different conditions and with different player types.
22 Sep 2008, 10:25 am
I hope he gets to coach the boks in the future and is not completely lost for SA rugby! Yea when is John Smit playing again? I hope he will make end of the year tour..
22 Sep 2008, 10:26 am
#12 THE MAULER: yes, and is Butch playing kuk rugby in england or not?
Some blokes like to hear all about rugby in other countries, especially if it involved saffas
22 Sep 2008, 10:27 am
involved = involves
22 Sep 2008, 10:55 am
I haven’t seen a full match yet, but just going by highlights and news reports I’m not sure how much of the success is down to coaching. As far as I can tell, they are just playing like Tigers always have played. Flood at flyhalf is a better option than Goode anyway, whatever the gameplan.
Under Loffreda they played like this and lost. Now they are playing the same and winning.
The European games might reveal more, and at least those are televised.
22 Sep 2008, 10:59 am
#17 Alicamousa: apparently they have gone with a more “structured” approach.
22 Sep 2008, 11:07 am
#18 rangerman:
Working on a 4-year plan too?
22 Sep 2008, 11:09 am
#19 PissAnt: they have gone back to “traditional strengths” and left the helter-skelter behind.
22 Sep 2008, 11:13 am
#15 Tisme:
Ok true… Im glad to see he is doing ok but there are plenty saffas over there… it will overflow on this site… Like Justin Melck helping Munster to a bonus point win…. Where is that??
22 Sep 2008, 11:20 am
Meyer is not exactly ‘Flying’ as the title of this article suggests.
He has merely just begun his new coaching career with a team that more or less subscribes to coaching phillosophy.So 3 wins from 3 games against less good opposition is only expected.
If he does maintain his unbeaten record at the end of the season or better yet win the premeirship title,then indeed he would have achieved great success.
Anyway,there is no SA coach who has more humilty than this man.Good luck to you Sir,Keep winning and hopefully we’ll see you coach the Boks yet.
22 Sep 2008, 11:23 am
# 21
Justin who ?
22 Sep 2008, 11:24 am
#23 Anvil:
Exactly……..
22 Sep 2008, 11:35 am
better then the clown we have coaching Boks.
credit to the clown though for surviving
22 Sep 2008, 11:39 am
# 25 – Ja. blackmail notwithstanding
22 Sep 2008, 12:16 pm
#23 Anvil: Melck, promising loosie from the poofters!
22 Sep 2008, 12:27 pm
#4 Andre_WP: At the moment he only has the injured Liefling and Marco Wentzel.
22 Sep 2008, 12:34 pm
Just saw now that Danie Craven played for WP, EP & NTvl….!
22 Sep 2008, 13:15 pm
Keo
I would like to see an all encompassing summary of all the results and match reports of all the Northern Hemisphere matches. Especially those including the SH players. I just read a very short summary of the French T14 on Planet rugby which provided great snippets on the SH players eg Big Joe Van Niekerk scoring on debut after receiving a pass from Jerry Collins!! I don’t comment much on the blog but visit often and by reading the bloggers there there appears to be a lot of interest in the NH competitions. How about a survey?
22 Sep 2008, 13:19 pm
#30 BMM: I agree, would ne nice to have a bit more info about what is happening in the Northern Hemisphere especially with the SA players (and couches).
22 Sep 2008, 13:24 pm
It could open up a lot of peoples view as to the quality and professionalism of the game up there. A lot of people in SA have this impression that the standard up there is kak!
22 Sep 2008, 13:41 pm
#32 BMM: We might think the standard of NH rugby is ****, but there is no question that the game is more professional up there, both players and management. I just can’t stand that one French team with the PINK outfit! Not even Western Poofters would be caught dead is that!
22 Sep 2008, 13:45 pm
whats the quality of the opposition he’s been up against it in the 3 matches thus far?
22 Sep 2008, 13:49 pm
#22 Anvil:
hello, long time, u been following leicester?
if he wins the premiership and/or picks up 1 or 2 other medals, some serious questions will have to be asked. think Mallett rates him highly.
22 Sep 2008, 13:51 pm
Yikes! Imagine the accent he is going to return with!
22 Sep 2008, 13:53 pm
#34 cab: the away win at Gloucester was pretty big as they finished top of the GP log last year, London Irish made the semis of the Heineken Cup but you’d expect Leicester to win that game at home and the away win at Worcester was a good result because they’re an expensive side and its normally a tricky fixture.
They’re going well so far considering they have so many top internationals out but things are going to get much much harder when they lose most of their first team for the Autumn internationals. Thats no doubt why they’re trying to sign Roussow and Caucau
22 Sep 2008, 14:00 pm
#25 greatest13gerber:
Credit to you for surviving in NZ
22 Sep 2008, 14:11 pm
#33 Darquan: Fair comment on their jerseys not becomming of the rugby playing image!! But those Frenchies have taken professionalism by the scruff of the neck – but if you watch much of the French T14 you will notice that they still have a serious discipline problem there with many a brawl breaking out and punishment very lenient. There was a match with Toulon and “can’t remember” couple of weeks ago with players running in from all sides throwing punches at whoever was around and there was 2 yellow cards one for each side and thats it. It was like the big punch ups of old – incredible. Apparently a lot on You Tube!
22 Sep 2008, 15:06 pm
#37 Big Hit:
thanks, glourcester and irish not bad, 2 away wins pretty good, you know who the internationals out are? rossouw and caucau are pretty damn good buys imo.
22 Sep 2008, 15:11 pm
#40 cab: Rabeni, Moody, Castrogiovanni, Ellis, Tuilagi, Hipkiss, Hougaard, Deacon are the internationals and there’s a couple of others to come back like Erinle, Vesty and Blaze
22 Sep 2008, 16:11 pm
#41 Big Hit:
cheers
quite a team there, cant be many excuses, dunno what lofreda was up to, that team could take on most of ours.
22 Sep 2008, 16:23 pm
#42 cab: yea, if you add Mauger, Varndell, Murphy (Ire 15) , White, Corry, Flood, Kay and Ayerza (Arg prop) he definitely has the quality to work with, Roussow and Caucau would add to that.
22 Sep 2008, 16:43 pm
what a machine…
22 Sep 2008, 16:46 pm
watch out for liefling…if snorre kan get over dollie and rose, liefling could be our no.10 for the next world cup
22 Sep 2008, 16:57 pm
#43 Big Hit:
yip i know most of the NH players, murphy is good. Ayerza i dont know, but castrogiavani is a powerhouse. damn good side that, think could go all the way in europe if injuries recover esp with rossouw and caucau.
22 Sep 2008, 20:33 pm
Please can we have more coverage of NH rugby, particularly as there is now so much SA interest!
23 Sep 2008, 03:08 am
#47 wooden spoon: I think this would be great as well. As a minimum just having the tables would be interesting.
Perhaps the coverage might even encourage some “internationaliste” (beyond Biggles) to visit an see what we think ala Aussies and Kiwis.
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