Boks must make mental shift
25 Jun 2012
MARK KEOHANE, in his weekly column for Business Day, writes the anger Heyneke Meyer will feel this morning is that a new group of Springboks mentally couldn’t front for a Test match because a three-Test series against England had already been won.
The Springboks never had the mongrel to beat an opponent that – by rights of a season that has been going since the 2011 World Cup last September – should have been the disinterested and reluctant participant.
England’s players had the appetite for Test rugby in Port Elizabeth. They had the collective will to play for 80 minutes, motivated by a first win against the Boks in 10 starts.
That they didn’t get the win was because they were not good enough to put away a Bok team whose forwards were ordinary in what they produced as a unit and who individually offered very little intent in the collisions.
The Springboks, when dismissed as pretenders, invariably always rise to the occasion and find the extraordinary in ambition, persistence and resistance, but in 20 years of writing about South African rugby’s elite the one consistency is that when the players believe there’s nothing at stake there’s never quite the same urgency.
Springbok midweek teams, so many of them a collection of outstanding players, often played like a bunch of clueless club players and rarely produced performances worthy of their provincial pedigree.
Watching the Boks in Port Elizabeth was like watching a midweek Bok team with individual ambition but not collective hunger or cohesion.
Attitude is everything in Test rugby because with attitude comes intensity, confrontation and refusal to be beaten in the collisions.
We saw it with the All Blacks against Ireland in Christchurch a fortnight ago. Mentally they lacked the urgency because of a disregard of Ireland’s challenge and they nearly lost.
Not so in Hamilton where they apologised with the most emphatic performance in humiliating Ireland 60-0.
It was not the nine tries that spoke of New Zealand’s ambition and desire for sustained excellence. It was the refusal to give Ireland any consolation in the final minutes of the Test – a passage of play that saw All Blacks captain Richie McCaw chase down an Irishman with the urgency of a man whose team was defending a one point lead. Instead the All Blacks, 2-0 up in the three-Test series, were leading by 60 points.
McCaw, who as captain of the All Blacks, has won everything and lost just 12 of 106 Tests, was a man possessed in Hamilton, such was his embarrassment that the All Blacks had let themselves down in Christchurch.
McCaw’s attitude epitomised why the All Blacks are the only team in the world with an 80 percent winning record in the professional era. There is no such thing as a meaningless Test. He defended his tryline in a supposed dead rubber (with his team leading by 60 points) with the same conviction he did in last year’s World Cup final.
Meyer, if you asked him what he covets most as Bok coach, will tell you that every South African player understands the importance of every Test match – not just the ones at the World Cup.
The Bok coach has said he knows his team will lose matches, but he will only accept defeat when he knows his players were not good enough to win; not because it wasn’t important to win.
The mentality in South African rugby for too long has been that it is okay to deliver mediocrity as long as it does not happen at the World Cup or in a series decider.
In Port Elizabeth the Boks showed Meyer that the fight within his own camp to change this mentality will be his greatest challenge.
No Bok player ever wants to lose and there wasn’t a lack of individual commitment in Port Elizabeth. There just wasn’t the bloody mindedness you would have seen had this been the series decider.
The usual clichés of inexperience, human error in decision-making and a failure to adapt to the wind and rain were offered as mitigating factors, if never as an excuse.
Don’t believe any of it and don’t believe the purple prose so willingly offered in respect of England’s performance.
The visitors had determination, desire and enthusiasm, but they didn’t play particularly well. A team with greater attacking pedigree would have embarrassed the Boks and would have won comfortably.
South Africa’s determination and refusal to be beaten at home has historically masked the limitations of many a Bok team, but the greatest positive for Meyer is that nothing was masked in Port Elizabeth.
Some of those who wore green on Saturday are not good enough to wear it with the necessary authority if the Boks are to consistently be among the game’s best and the Boks will never reach the consistent level of winning that Meyer so desires if they can’t reach a consistent level of attitude the players need take to every Test.
It was a poor result for the Boks but it was also a very necessary one because it will force Meyer to acknowledge that he has players who talk about consistently being number one but he doesn’t yet have a group who plays with the belief and conviction every Saturday to be number one.
274 Comments
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25 Jun 2012, 11:38 am
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever)-87: They are as rigid as the coach they worship.
I don’t think they or the coach can see beyond the bubble.
Being stubborn, conservative and rigid does not get one anywhere, in life and definitely not in international rugby.
25 Jun 2012, 11:40 am
@CharlesM(CharlesM)-92:
how often does lambie play 10 with the sharks?
not often from what i have witnessed, in fact, the truth be told, the sharks play better with freddie at 10 and lambie at 15.
25 Jun 2012, 11:40 am
@Sasuke(Sasuke)-100:
Good team.
Your backline is spot on. Lambies kicking out of hand is very good (if a bit below Morne’s), but his place kicking has been better than Morne’s for the last 12 months or so. Frans will kick anything from 45m out and Lambie can take the rest.
There really is NO need for Morne anymore. He’s been a great Bok, but his time is up.
Hougie just doesn’t have the mental game to be a Bok scrummie, so ja, Pienaar looks the man for the future.
25 Jun 2012, 11:40 am
@Sasuke(Sasuke)-100: Great! but Meyer won’t drop M.Steyn and J.Taute should be in there.
25 Jun 2012, 11:41 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl(Brigadier Van Zyl)-102:
Lambie only moved to 10 for 2 games for the Sharks. Else he’s ALWAYS at 10.
Please don’t make stuff up.
25 Jun 2012, 11:42 am
@Sasuke(Sasuke)-100:
I see no reason why bekker and brussouw are considered dead certains???
by what performances in the past 18 months or so?
25 Jun 2012, 11:42 am
Dont want my post to get lost on vortex that is the 100 post
My Bok team for the Rugby Championship
1. Beast
2. Bismarck
3. Jannie
4. Etzebeth
5. Bekker
6. Brussouw
7. Alberts
8. Burger/Vermeuelen/Spies (whichever is fit)
9. Pienaar
10. Lambie
11. Habana
12. F.Steyn
13. JDV (c)
14. JPP
15. Aplon
16. A.Struass
17. Pat Cilliers
18. Juandre Kruger
19. Marcell Coetzee/ Siya Kolisi
20. Francois Hougaard
21. Elton Jantjies
22. Juan De Jongh
25 Jun 2012, 11:43 am
@Unplugged(Unplugged)-104:
I rate Taute. But we still haven’t seen him outside of the cruddy Lions setup. It would be very interesting to see how he would do with the Bulls (Zane only has a year or 2 left in him).
25 Jun 2012, 11:43 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl(Brigadier Van Zyl)-106:
Bekker was the best lock in the Super 15 until his injury.
You have a point with Brussow I guess, but I would still start with him
25 Jun 2012, 11:44 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl(Brigadier Van Zyl)-102: But Lambie brings much more to the game at 10 than Morne. If Morne is there to kick goals then he should do it, but 12 out of 22 success rate is NOT even average.@Unplugged(Unplugged)-104: Taute is out injured for a long time
25 Jun 2012, 11:44 am
@mshiniwami(mshiniwami)-84: with rassie there you’re going to see either alberts or schalk @ first receiver to hit it up, bismarc to attack on 2nd phase, vermuelen will be there to also do some ball carrying. it is all so predictably direct and boring and will be rendered ineffective if the opposition fronts up defensively.
what happened to the heyneke meyer who said ““I brought Pine (Pienaar) in who was a backline coach because I want to improve the way we’re playing. If you look at the guys we’ve recruited, they are very exciting backs.
“You always have a vision of how you want to play and then get players around that.
“We will always have a tough forward pack but we’ve looked at how the game has evolved,” Meyer said.
“If you stay the same you’ll never get ahead.”
25 Jun 2012, 11:44 am
Sorry for repost. Brussouw has been good this season. Not just in terms of vital turnovers but also his all round game.
Bekker for his experience. J. Kruger might struggle against Aus and NZ in terms of lineouts. Also his combination with Etzebeth.
25 Jun 2012, 11:45 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl(Brigadier Van Zyl)-102: Freddie is back in France. Lambie will play at 10. Freddie was on the bench most of the S15 this year and as a scrumhalf.
25 Jun 2012, 11:45 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl(Brigadier Van Zyl)-102: Throw Goosen in the deep end when he is fit – simple as that. He sinks or swims at international level, and it really IS as simple as that.
Meyer must not try and justify his OWN refusal to make a few brave calls by using the ‘experience’ excuse (as he already did when asked why Elton wasn’t used from the bench)
25 Jun 2012, 11:47 am
The injured Stormers ( Bekker, Vermeulen and Burger) does not seem to be an option soon.
25 Jun 2012, 11:48 am
@Sasuke(Sasuke)-112:
Bekker is also a monster on defense. He drags people back with ease.
We really take this guy for granted. He needs play 60min per game (not matter the game). He’s too tall, too big and too strong to place the full 80min. Simple as that.
25 Jun 2012, 11:48 am
http://www.rugby365.com/article/48242-eben-etzebeth-and
This is a classic “side by side”shot of Eben next to Bruno,
Scary actually.
:d
25 Jun 2012, 11:48 am
@Dumb Supporter(DumbSupporter)-43:
Because then he is essentially blaming injuries and that should never be done.
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-51:
+1 for the truth. ABs smashed Ireland because the Paddies didn’t contest the collisions. The one game in which Ireland did this basic but momumentally important part of the game correctly the ABs no longer looked so flash. England did that throughout all 3 Tests and ultimately was unable to get even one win.
The overall Bok situation is not dire. As long as our weakness at 9-10 is recognized and corrected.
@CSI:Rugby(CSI:Rugby)-53:
England’s defensive line is just a knock on effect from 9 killing our forward momentum. Once Pienaar came on the passing was in front of the runner and we began to gain meters and suddenly they are under pressure and unable to realign quickly. Finally good vision from 9 and a try is scored by JP.
No team can win if both 9-10 have a brain implosion.
@mshiniwami(mshiniwami)-58:
Rubbish. They did when Pienaar came on and actually passed the ball where they could run and hit the English with some momentum.
@Transformation(Transformation)-69:
Please explain what plan B should be? Because we did try to run the ball but due to 9 we had no momentum to do it with.
@Transformation(Transformation)-75:
Potgieter was decent. Not spectacular but not shite like you are saying. First Test match after a lay off means with a decent performance we can only expect him to get better.
@mshiniwami(mshiniwami)-84:
That is because it is not. 9-10 were disastrous. No team can expect to win when that happens. Our forwards were good enough, they are obviously not our first choices, but even these 2nd and 3rd picks would’ve put England away if 9-10 had not played like palookas. Blaming the loosies is barking up the wrong tree.
25 Jun 2012, 11:49 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl(Brigadier Van Zyl)-106: I know Bekker has not been at his best. Kruger should have kept it simple on Saturday in the rain at lineout time. The throw that was lost by the Boks was due to the fact that Bismarck did not throw it long enough. Kruger should have opted for a quicker ball and not a lob. The ball that was not straight, was thrown to the back of the lineout (in the wind). Why did he not use Etzebeth more in the front. When your hooker is not finding his target, keep it simple. In that respect, both Kruger and Bekker still have a lot to learn from Matfield. Bekker used to “over complicate” things at lineout time a lot during the S15
25 Jun 2012, 11:49 am
@stormersboy(stormersboy)-117:
Hilarious.
25 Jun 2012, 11:50 am
Has Morne Steyn had a break from rugby at all since the B&I Lions? seems to me he has played every test as well as every Super15 game since.
he needs a break imo… a chance to refresh and recharge the body AND mind..
25 Jun 2012, 11:50 am
@Sasuke(Sasuke)-100: I would have Coetzee before Spies at 8 and Hougaard for Habana, otherwise the best team possible IMO
25 Jun 2012, 11:50 am
They wanna lay the entire blame at Hougaard and Steyn
That was NOT the problem
Those two had a poor game as a direct result of the POOR selection of the balance of the team.. especially at 2nd row and back row
Meyer must take ENTIRE blame for this fckup.. it is HE alone who selected Potgieter along with Coetsee and Spies as his loose trio.. and it is HE alone who is expecting a young 21 year old Kid to be the backbone enforcer of the entire engine room in Etsebeth
He got ZERO clue how to put a proper international team together and is naively going around trying little stunts at playing rookies like Potgieter as his next wild card enforcer.
The imbalanced trio of Coetsee, Potgieter and Spies was the ACTUAL reason the Boks were so hopelessly inept.. had NOTHING to do with the outside backs or Aplon.. and not even the half backs who both had shocking games as a result .. but the REAL cause of the fallout is the absolute poorly selected front 8 especially at 2nd row and back row.. and a bench that was not even deployed shows how pathetically inept the entire balance of the team actually is / was.
Fix that FIRST.. then start gnashing your teeth about Hougaard and Steyn.
25 Jun 2012, 11:52 am
@CenturionShark (aka LondonShark)(londonshark)-108: I could be wrong but Meyer might also fancy him as a future 13, he did really well for the J.Mitchell abused Lions this year at 13.
25 Jun 2012, 11:53 am
1.Beast
2.Bismark
3.Jannie
4.Etzebeth
5.Bekker
6.Brussow
7.Burger(c)
8.Alberts
9.Hougaard
10.Lambie
11.Habana
12.F.Steyn
13.De Villers
14.JP
15.Aplon
16.Rallapelle
17.Coenie
18.J.Kruger
19.Vermuelen
20.Pienaar
21.De Jongh
22.Mvovo
25 Jun 2012, 11:54 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl(Brigadier Van Zyl)-102: Before the first test, Ricardo Laubscher said that Lambie will be used primarily at 10 and not 15 – he was reacting to calls for playing Lambie instead of Kirchner
25 Jun 2012, 11:54 am
@Transformation(Transformation)-111: Yes agree. I thought Meyer was a modern coach who would think outside of the box and develop multiple playing styles. Not just one old boring outdated style. But i still have faith in Meyer. Lets see what he does in the Rugby Championship!
25 Jun 2012, 11:58 am
Also it is Meyer who made Louis Koen his kicking coach, and his other Bulls patroon assistants as his support staff.. Morne is obviously adjusting his kicking style to suit Koens coaching and he is WAY off radar.. so who is ******** with his brain?
I ain’t seen NOTHING yet reminiscent of any improvement over the pattern Boks were playing at WC 2011.. if anything its gone retrograde.. and not forward at all.
Schalk Burger is FINISHED.. so is Juan Smith.. get OVER them.. next up is LEARN how to select a proper balanced back trio and front 8.. the way this moron is going about it he’s going to see his backside more often than not.
25 Jun 2012, 12:00 pm
@mshiniwami(mshiniwami)-125: Not a bad side.
25 Jun 2012, 12:01 pm
Thick skulls don’t make ‘mental shifts’ easily
25 Jun 2012, 12:01 pm
@STBUR(STBUR)-118: so between yourself & tacitus you’ve decided that hougaard is the scapegoat hehehe
25 Jun 2012, 12:01 pm
@stormersboy(stormersboy)-117:
lmao
that is funny.
shame, we really needed a number 4 lock on saturday. i know he’s only 20 but fark he needs to grow up fast. the nation’s counting on him.
25 Jun 2012, 12:04 pm
Sharks, Bulls or Stormers would have beaten that England side on Saturday. The Boks showed that without motivation they are very ordinary. HM needs to fire his team up for EVERY occasion. My biggest concern was that after half time they came out and played with the same listless lack of passion. I had hoped that HM would have given them a solid rev and threatened them with all sorts of terrible things if they didn’t pull up their socks.
25 Jun 2012, 12:04 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-111:
Who the hell is ‘Pine’?
Where did HM brought him to or did he ditch Loubscher?
25 Jun 2012, 12:04 pm
@louis schropnel(louis shrapnel)-128:
Morne has been off all season. That’s not Koens fault. He was kicking at 70% early season, that’s not good enough for someone who’s primary weapon is his goal kicking.
I think he upped his kicking a bit before the England series, but he’s still not at 85% (where he needs to be to justify his spot).
25 Jun 2012, 12:05 pm
i dont understand skop
he says people were poor in the game and bloggers agree
then he says NO! people dont understand which people were poor in the game and bloggers agree
then he says bloggers are idiots for not understanding what he’s saying
but he’s saying a lot of things
not all of them link together easily
make your point, skop.
25 Jun 2012, 12:06 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-131: this utter moron reckons he’s the next aficionado of rugby related affairs
Now its Hougaard or Steyn who are the problem.. but these self same aficionado’s would have selected them prior to the test..
The REAL bottom line disaster to that team happened UP FRONT at selections between 4-8
AN ENTIRE Herr Heyneke Meyer induced STUFF UP.!!!
PISSPOOR balance of Potgieter, Coetsee, Spies, Kankowski in particular… and playing TWO No.5 locks together WITHOUT an enforcer No.4
25 Jun 2012, 12:06 pm
@toulon says(i_love_u_bakkiesbotha)-132: Dare I say that the nation needed a leader in the forwards on Saturday, and that IF such a leader had emerged, the 20 year old might have followed him?
Bissie is the VC, and between him, Jannie, Beast and Spies they should have made a plan. Fact is, all 4 of them were disappointing all round (Bissie more so IMHO).
25 Jun 2012, 12:07 pm
@STBUR(STBUR)-118: i don’t know what “decent’ is in your book but he was nowhere to me…no redeeming qualities. deysel, johnson and even rossouw have never been so at sea in a bok jersey!
i’ve watched this guy for 2 years playing for the kings in the same stadium, he is NOT bok quality, he only got his cap because meyer brought him to the bulls.
25 Jun 2012, 12:14 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged by Mad Eye Productions.(The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food)-138:
agreed.
bissie as usual farked up in the lineouts, which is normally forgiven when he has a blinder in loose, tight loose play…but this time he didn’t. his play was kak and he acted dom too.
i have deep feelings of loathing towards pierre right now he should hang his head in shame.
right now i do not know if potgieter actually understands the game of rugby any more than 95% of the bloggers on keo.
25 Jun 2012, 12:16 pm
Motivation seems to be the achilles heel of the springboks, has been for some time now. IMHO the coach’s biggest task is getting his team fired up like the baby boks were very time they take the field. Much more important than any other aspect of his job. One of his tools is to keep the players on their toes by letting them know that poor performances will result in getting dropped. If players think they can get away with playing at half throttle they will do so. Players not giving 100% should be made an example of and be dropped. Look what it did for Alberts at the sharks. The coach giving the players security and basically guaranteeing them a spot in the team does not work in SA. Keep them hungry, drop the lazy ones!
25 Jun 2012, 12:17 pm
dare i say… that more than any other player in bok history…the nation needed schalk burger on the field this saturday….
not to think or anything fancy like that…. just to get physical… like the olivia newton john wanted….
25 Jun 2012, 12:20 pm
@toulon says(i_love_u_bakkiesbotha)-142: Schalk Burger is FINISHED.. and he is NOT the answer as he was NOT the answer at the WC where he ALONE coughed up the ball to the opposition and LOST the game…
Get CLEAR where the problem exists..
it exists WITHIN this dumb deluded moron messiah Heyneke’s HEAD..
25 Jun 2012, 12:22 pm
@louis schropnel(louis shrapnel)-123:
The loosies did not cause a 9 and 10 to have a bad game. They were seldom under pressure from England. The vast majority of their errors were unforced.
@Sasuke(Sasuke)-127:
What is outdated by our style? The Irish showed quite well in the 2nd Test that if you contest collission properly the oppositions backline struggle.
How is the fact that our 9-10 pairing had simultaneous shockers have anything to do with our game plan?
25 Jun 2012, 12:22 pm
@mako(mako)-141: The achillies heel isn’t the motivation, its a coach who refuses to come up with a plan B!!! How narrow minded can you be. Nothing always goes to plan, there must be solutions to when things go wrong. HM is starting to make P-Divvy look like a tactical genius.
25 Jun 2012, 12:23 pm
@toulon says(i_love_u_bakkiesbotha)-142: I would have taken Juan or Alberts first
25 Jun 2012, 12:25 pm
@toulon says(i_love_u_bakkiesbotha)-140: I for one don’t quite get (and have never got) the Bissie adoration. He is a hooker first and foremost, which IMHO means, only once he excels in his primary bloody hooking functions, should anything else he does be ‘praised’. It’s no good if his secondary function – loose play – is better than his primary function. Then he should play as a loosie and be done with it.
Just like Morne: if he sucks at his primary purpose for being in the team, and he doesn’t improve at it – dump him.
25 Jun 2012, 12:25 pm
@HongKongSlong(HongKongSlong)-145: If you watched the game this saturday you would have noticed that the guys were all playing at about the same intensity as Pierre Spies. A team can get by with one guy playing like that, but when they all think that they are on holiday no game plan in the world will get them a win.
25 Jun 2012, 12:26 pm
@louis schropnel(louis shrapnel)-143:
ok, lets entertain your theory.
if the problem exists in his (the coach’s) head, then what exactly is this ‘problem’ about which exists in his head?
is it the style of play?
is it the inability to adapt more radically during the game?
is it the conservativness of his substitutions even when events were calling out for bolder decisions?
is is the players he’s picked perhaps?
perhaps it is that simple, in that a different player would have brought the ‘attitude’ and intensity to the game and from this the bok’s game would have flowed regardless of the 9 and 10 ******** up?
pray tell….
25 Jun 2012, 12:26 pm
@mshiniwami(mshiniwami)-73: Ruan only played without confidence at flyhalf, a position he never wanted to play. He was a big step up from FH in all round scrumhalf play and he has been a standout performer in some big pressure games in Europe. Remember Morne Steyn at fullback? Not a success.
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