Boks are a work in progress
13 Aug 2012
MARK KEOHANE, in his weekly Business Day newspaper column, says Heyneke Meyer’s Boks aim to be ready by 2015 so don’t expect too much from them now.
The Pumas don’t win in South Africa – and they won’t win at Newlands on Saturday in their Rugby Championship debut.
I don’t understand the angst among so many.
I also don’t understand the resistance of so many supporters to acknowledge the massive rebuilding going on within the Springbok squad, much of it forced on Heyneke Meyer through injury and unavailability.
The short-term gain is exposure to Test rugby for youngsters who ordinarily would have been in an extended squad and whose two months of international rugby at this time of the year would have been limited to holding tackle bags against legends of the game who have won everything at every level. The long-term gain is that depth becomes a given in South Africa’s challenge to win back the World Cup in 2015.
South Africa have lost the core of a pack considered the best in the world in the past five years. Victor Matfield, unrivalled as the finest lineout exponent in the professional era, is gone. He won’t be replaced this year. His unique skills and authority in making the Springboks the most feared lineout may not be replaced for some time. Bakkies Botha is playing in France and it is a good thing in the context of 2015 because Botha could be as pivotal to the Boks as Brad Thorn was to the All Blacks’ success in 2011.
Matfield and Botha were untouchable as a lock combination for a sustained period that stretched over two World Cups. The quality of the duo was a luxury few teams have had. Currently the lineout is no weaker than the opposition but it certainly is not any stronger. Matfield spooked opposition hookers and added to the insecurities of any opposing coach. The All Blacks, in particular, struggled for consistent quality ball against the Boks and, with no guarantee that their lineout ball was their own, they often lacked the rhythm that makes the New Zealanders so difficult to stop.
Loose forwards Schalk Burger and Juan Smith are injured. Burger won’t play again this year and there are doubts whether Smith’s Achilles heel will ever accommodate the demands of Test rugby. The Boks have lost four players who ranked consistently in the top two in their respective positions for the past five years.
It is rare to have four players of such standing in one settled international team. To expect anything remotely as good in 2012 is to believe a bearded fat bloke in red enjoys a chimney entrance to every human being’s home on 25 December, even if there is no chimney.
There should be no expectation of the red-robed chimney miracle for a 20-year-old lock, a lock who spent his early provincial career as backup to Matfield and Botha, and a loose forward who made his Super Rugby debut only a year ago. This is a vastly different and massively inferior Bok team to the one that scared opponents whether playing in South Africa or abroad.
That’s the reality of the Bok pack. The situation will improve, the youngsters will mature.
The Springboks of the past five years also had the best scrumhalf playing the game, in terms of decision-making and nurturing whoever played in the Bok No 10 jersey. Fourie du Preez is of the Dan Carter mould. You knew how good they were when they played, yet you are reminded just how good they were when they no longer play.
Francois Hougaard is a fantastic rugby player, but he is not Fourie du Preez, and Morne Steyn at No 10 is a potential liability. Steyn is not a bad player and did not become a bad player in the three-Test series against England. He simply did not have Du Preez’s soothing presence on his inside.
Fullback is another position in which an individual hopefully will emerge. Currently there are possibilities but no probabilities. That’s the reality of the Boks at the moment. It is a difficult period that every side is forced to front when losing the bulk of a great team.
I would suggest the word ‘anticipation’ is a more appropriate word for the Boks. Who will come to the fore? That’s the adventure.
Come on. Let’s get real. The questions around the Boks won’t be answered in the next two to three months and neither can anyone expect Meyer’s tenure to be defined in that period.
Don’t prepare for the worst, but prepare for the Test afternoons to be stressful.
Don’t panic either, because the struggle of 2011 is not a struggle of Bok rugby but a testament to just how spoilt we were with a generation of golden players whose qualities seldom come in waves of four, five and six.
298 Comments
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14 Aug 2012, 00:27 am
@victoriabok-249:
I opened it but haven’t watched it through yet.. thanks I’ll check it out properly..
Decathlon athletes are true Olympians though none excel at any one athletic discipline, they average out as top athletes over a variety of disciplines, but they’re no more true Olympians than dedicated specialists who take their absolute nature given gifts to the very highest pinnacle of human potential and achievement
an athlete that can run an 800 mt race in 1 minute 40 secs or a marathon runner who runs 42 km in 2 hrs and 6 secs. is running at the absolute epitome of human strength, endurance, speed and human WILL that ANYONE could ever muster… I doubt ANY rugby player has ever put himself to such a stern test of either character or degree of physical or emotional strain and dedication as that.
14 Aug 2012, 00:33 am
The coward using my name above is the multinic nistealer. RyeCatcher the guilty parties are Dusky WoodenSpoon HeavenShame Predawn Fern and SharksLover. These individuals constantly try to create mayhem on keo and are prepared to go to any lengths to do so and have the track record proving it. Anyone who doubts this just read back on any thread to confirm they practically never post without insults to the Stormers or their fans.
SharksLover you are a hypocrite a liar and a coward. Now you say you do not care who the culprits are but you are fooling no one. You embarrassed yourself recently when your name was used by one of your mates and your default rant as always was to blame and curse “%$^$%^ Wp supporters”. Only to have WoodenSpoon own up to being the guilty party. So it is proof of fact that your group will use each others nics to insult each other simply to try and cover your tracks and claim the moral highhorse. Dusky has also proven himself to be a nicstealer but again you lay the blame squarely and exclusively at the feet of Wp fans. You really do have a problem grandad. You can hardly post a comment without resorting to insulting and belittling the Stormers Wp and their players and fans. Your first comment after Saturday was to call Deon Fourie scum for bouncing the ball off the head of a Sharks player. No gracious congratulations to your team and wellplayed to the losers you immediately begin with the insults and continue in virtually every post you make. Of course you have never criticized a dirty Sharks player. You agree wholeheartedly with every insult thrown at Wp fans and players but then dishonestly claim you do no such thing.
I really do pity you you old fool almost as much as I loathe your dishonestly. Your ongoing bitterness and morose venom against the team and their fans is best illustrated by your posts on Sport24.com and the fact that you insult and slander Western Province players online yet grovel adulate and dishonestly hide your contempt for them when they come into your restaurant. How sickening. Why do you not tell Jean de Villiers to his face the things you say about him and his team when next he walks into your restaurant. Of course you will not because you are a groveling coward.
Your hatred for Western Province has gone on for years and years but you still moved there. How bitter and conflicted you must be to have to be polite to diners you so detest. Why are you in Cape Town. Why do you not go back to the Last Colonial Outpost where you can engage in orgies of mutual ego masturbation with your equally dishonest friends. You are a tiresome bore and old fool making a bigger old fool of himself.
You may fool people like Stormersboy UFO and other Cape Town residents but you can not fool me from any distance. Your default setting is to insult and slander the players and fans with your constant insidious sneers and taunts but you are so dishonest when people like SkopSkiet call you up you deny any involvement.
You were the person who came onto this site in a blaze of hatred several years ago when you used to come online and insult their fans and when they retaliated you would criticize this site for the fighting that you yourself started and then actively encouraged and told people to leave this site and join RugbyTalk. So while you may fool the fools you will not fool me I remember your dishonesty and cowardly conniving twofaced behavior.
14 Aug 2012, 00:35 am
Olympics the real deal true grit test of sheer ATHLETIC determination and stamina and skill and aint no rugby namby pamby lambiekins sharkshit player or any for that matter who even come CLOSE to Olympic level. Bout time these sharkshits and rugby kenners figured this out for themselves but I will say it till the cows come home and it SINKS in to their sharkshit banana addled colonial brains.
14 Aug 2012, 00:40 am
@victoriabok-249: yip this nic stealing is the lowest of the low .. don’t know how they don’t just simply stamp it out.. like you say it alone will kill the site.. not any over use of foul language… undermining integrity and blatant dishonesty is far worse than letting vent to some colorful language.
@victoriabok-250:
I don’t know how many team sports can be truly classified as true Olympic sporting endeavors because ultimately the true Olympic disciplines are individual sports where individual effort is what is lauded as worthy achievement
so some sports which have their own professional administrative bodies governing their leagues and competitions like soccer and tennis and NBA basketball teams for instance should perhaps not be included in the Olympics to my way of thinking, but rowing and volleyball and perhaps handball and hockey which are still largely amateur in make up, I would say deserve their Olympic status… soccer and tennis don’t as far as I would determine.
14 Aug 2012, 00:43 am
@fitz1ella-253: little fuckwit punk reckons he’s clever again…
wooden spoon – dusky – grant100 – give it up you little kindergarten moron idiot…
maybe you think you clever but the rest of the world knows you are not..!!>
Moron Supreme..
14 Aug 2012, 00:44 am
@fitz1ella-251:
I used them (decathlon) as an example as they’re most likely not earing much either, just like the gymnasts not much money in that either, so they’re closer to the Olympic ideal
An amateur olympian ia probably rare these days as they all practice nearly fulltime, but a lot of them can’t make a living out of their sport
14 Aug 2012, 00:45 am
@Dirty Harry-252: there are some overgrown children here who actually think they are CLEVER being outright STUPID…
like this utter debilitated imbecilic sharkshit idiot MORON right here..
@fitz1ella-253:
14 Aug 2012, 00:51 am
You are correct SkopSkiet. The Keozins who live in Cape Town need to contact Mark Keohane and tell him in no uncertain terms to sort it out. He was online today why did no one bring this up with him.
I have wasted enough of my day on this so will not comment again today so should my name appear again you will know it is not me my only comments are 252 and this one.
14 Aug 2012, 00:51 am
@fitz1ella-254:
Hard to know who I’m talking to
I think sports with their own World Cups like Soccer, Cricket and Rugby doesn’t belong there end the same goes as well as NBA players and the NHL players at the winter olympics
Do you remember a few years back when the disgusting “Dream Team” billonaires played against amateurs at the olympics?
If you do include sports like that, you should send only U20 players to make it fair and exciting
14 Aug 2012, 00:52 am
@Dirty Harry-252: Its highly unlikely Heavens Game.. he may be some things deplorable in some peoples eyes as I am sure I may be to some others also… but I can’t fault him with regards dishonesty..
the others you mention.. could be any one of those…
14 Aug 2012, 00:58 am
@fitz1ella-260:
HG won’t do it, he’ll tell you straight, BOOM
He won’t hide behind other names
This is either someone who hacked the site, or done by Keo to create controversy to get more hits
14 Aug 2012, 01:04 am
@Dirty Harry-258: yip I trust this is you and not the fake I picked out further back parading under your nic… but this garbage is getting out of hand and if they don’t sort it out it will ruin this site altogether… people will avoid it altogether if it is allowed to continue.
@victoriabok-259: its ridiculous having to second guess who you actually talking to…
The soccer teams at the Olympics are largely reduced to u23 age group .. full on senior professionals disallowed.. but soccer, tennis, NBA players who fall under professional leagues and affiliated governing bodies and have their own structured world champion competitions or anyone earning flat out mega professional sums of money from their sport like tennis stars and soccer stars or NBA stars I would disallow.. however it would become a night mare of for administrators to determine where to draw the line.. somebody like Bolt could be classified a professional sports icon and fall outside of the parameters of amateurism which originally was the Olympic doctrine … till they allowed professionals to participate.
14 Aug 2012, 01:08 am
@victoriabok-261: no I can’t see keo sabotaging his own site.. what for?
Its some little moron .. or big moron.. who think they being clever.. when they are actually outright idiotic pathetically stupid.
14 Aug 2012, 01:11 am
@fitz1ella-260: I seriously doubt it be Sharks_lover either I have my doubts.. but could be one his sharkshit brethren…. that I don’t discount whatsoever.
14 Aug 2012, 01:12 am
@fitz1ella-262:
I agree with you about not allowing the professional sports, or they should do like soccer and limit it to U23 players
Bolt would be fine as his sports has no other showroom or World Cup to showcase his/their talents
14 Aug 2012, 01:12 am
@fitz1ella-260: another fckn FAKE sharkshit coward hiding behind my name, Keo FIX your site before everyone leaves!
14 Aug 2012, 01:13 am
@fitz1ella-263:
To create conflicts, ie lots of hits
He’s not doing anything to stop it is he?
14 Aug 2012, 01:16 am
@victoriabok-261: see you around.. thanks for that Jamaican athletics video link.. I will watch it perhaps now or sometime soon.
night
14 Aug 2012, 01:16 am
@fitz1ella-266:
You’d like this one Skop, Bolt loves Skittlesticks
http://www.sport24.co.za/Cricket/Bolt-could-play-T20-in-Oz-20120813
Negotiations are underway for cricket-mad sprint king Usain Bolt to play in Australia’s Twenty20 Big Bash League, with Shane Warne leading the campaign to bring him to Melbourne.
Bolt, hailed by International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge as the greatest sprinter of all time after three gold medals in London, played junior cricket before turning to the track and has long voiced a love for the game.
He said he wanted to play and had spoken to the Australian former Test leg-spinner.
14 Aug 2012, 01:17 am
@fitz1ella-268:
No worries, enjoy it
Keo should really fix his site though
14 Aug 2012, 01:19 am
@fitz1ella-266: two bit two face FAKE
@victoriabok-267:
so you reckon this pathetic PUNK is Keo himself ??
@fitz1ella-266:
If that is the case he is seriously gone retarded.. then the dude has seriously lost some marbles upstairs.
I doubt it much.. can’t see it.
14 Aug 2012, 01:21 am
So how about that Potgieter? Average much?
14 Aug 2012, 01:21 am
@fitz1ella-271:
****, I’m seeing double now
14 Aug 2012, 01:22 am
@fitz1ella-266: Keo.. That YOU??
Huh ?? according some posters here you undermining and defrauding your OWN site..??
This you Keo@fitz1ella-266:
C’mon Keo.. say it ain’t so !!
Save the last vestige of credibility left here.. for the reasonable rugby peoples sake.. at least do that much for them.
14 Aug 2012, 01:22 am
maybe better if I go back to this illustrious old name but watch the chickenshit cowards try take this one too. No way is it Keo, doubt it very much can’t see even him try sabotage his own site, its a sharkshit for sure.
14 Aug 2012, 01:26 am
@ashampoopaloo-275: hey Fake arse
that illustrious old name was banned so no chance saloon.. that ain’t skopskiet…. its somebody ELSE…
So Who You??
Keo.. dusky.. WS.. GWS .. WHO ??
14 Aug 2012, 01:28 am
@ashampoopaloo-275: yeah its a sharkshit.. pretty sure its one of them .. one you underhand scum.. which one is YOU ..?
two face trash
14 Aug 2012, 01:31 am
@victoriabok-273:
this one is me … @fitz1ella-271:
this one here is NOT … @fitz1ella-274:
@ashampoopaloo-275: and neither is this one …
14 Aug 2012, 01:31 am
Nee hel, die site is nou ‘n groot gemors
14 Aug 2012, 01:35 am
Keokaine should get off the Nikita hockey chick and sort out his site
The olympics are done and I’m sure she’d give him the bronze for all his pomping effort
14 Aug 2012, 01:37 am
@lightie-272: beyond average.. Heyneke Meyers blue eyed boy.. like Kirchner, Spies and Morne.
@victoriabok-279: this hacker nic stealer doing his utmost to sabotage this site.. if its keo himself then its a serious case of professional hari kiri.. I doubt its keo himself..
unless he wants this site to go up in smoke.
Time I chucked.. see you around. .. nag.
14 Aug 2012, 02:01 am
correction
@fitz1ella-271:
&
@fitz1ella-274:
&
@fitz1ella-276:
&
@fitz1ella-277:
IS skopskiet
@fitz1ella-266:
&
@ashampoopaloo-275:
are Not.. they’re fakes
for any others who maybe confused clarity sake
now I’m gone
any other post under fitz1ella or ashampoopaloo or any other banned nic I might have used previously ain’t me from here on out tonight..
and that is a guarantee…
14 Aug 2012, 03:11 am
It pisses me off that a golden generation were squandered on a coach that could not tell his a$$ from his elbow… imagine if Jake White had remained in there and allowed to build on what he had already built?
14 Aug 2012, 04:57 am
“Rebuilding” is lame and inaccurate.
SA have a new lock combo in 2012 and that’s it, but NZ have new locks too in Retallick and Romano but best believe they’re not talking about acceptable defeats.
SA should beat Arg and Aus home and away and win their home game against NZ pushing the away match close.
14 Aug 2012, 05:23 am
@Big Hit-284:
I cant even say the word dafeat….see i cant even spell it.
You seem to be posting with alot more sense BH lately, you must be getting old .
14 Aug 2012, 06:57 am
This was clearly an article written in a hurry. from the overwrought Santa analogy to the rehashed legacy assessment of recently retired players I still don’t see the point of it. Every team is always rebuilding. I thought we were over the Everything is geared to the next world cup approach. This side will probably finish second to the ABs on bonus points, but it is how we play and who gets picked that concerns us now.
14 Aug 2012, 07:39 am
my 2 cents…
Keo and sundry told us how PdV needed to adapt his game plan to the players he had, when players were injured etc.
yet HM is being given a pass for not wanting to alter from the Blue Bulls blueprint, even though the players have changed
we were told how pathetic PdV was as a coach as he couldnt adapt etc.
HM deserves our support as he’s a new coach but we dont follow blindly especially when he talks only of execution of his gameplan will win matches and not looking to a Plan B etc…
14 Aug 2012, 07:46 am
also this nonsense about FdP’s soothing presence for MS and now that he;s not available we should excuse MS being found out?
the other argument used is that he has played too many games, is this not why we began to crucify PdV for continually starting players who needed a rest when there were others who could fill the vacancy and the team would not suddenly crumble?
as a Bulls fan i find it shocking someone like Grant is not in the Bok setup where his kicking average is above 90%, if MS is only in the team for his tactical kicking then should a back-up kicker not be in the starting line-up?
14 Aug 2012, 08:58 am
@Papoose-287:
Hear, hear.
14 Aug 2012, 09:34 am
@BOOM!-233: You are that chick from KZN who always puts lololololololololol in every post I reckon. You are the only blogger here I have ever seen do this, time and time again. lolololololololololololol.
Boom.
14 Aug 2012, 09:51 am
Good morning fellow bloggers what a lot of love on this site this morning,skop it looks like some of your adoring fans are take the wee-wee out of you.This is very naughty but whoever it is is certainly taking a delight out of it.I see HM is getting it in the neck again,the position of bok coach really is THE poisened chalice of world rugby.He could have stayed at the bulls for years to come and enjoy the fruits of his labours,instead he gave it all up to become public enemy No1 in the eyes of the SA rugby fans.Guys give the man a break he has had only one series to prepare the boks v the poms and the boks won it,what more do you want at this point in time,rather wait a bit until after the RC and judge him then,when we will have a better insight into how good or bad the boks are.
14 Aug 2012, 10:33 am
Another idiotic “judge me at the world cup” drivel? To hell with the test ledger,,,
The ABs don’t buy that tripe,
14 Aug 2012, 10:37 am
@TheTackler-292: Not that I agree with this sentiment, but at least this is just a 4-year cycle. How long was it from ’87 to 2011?
14 Aug 2012, 11:43 am
Don’t agree with everything in Keo’s article, but the statement that the Bok’s will be rebuilding/reshaping themselves this year and get stronger next year is undoubtedly true. I could see them getting a spanking from both NZ and Aus in possibly 3 out of 4 games in 2012, but I bet they are tougher in 2013.
Aus are still a front row short of a decent team, and the AB’s have several relatively new players in their pack, but the Boks face the biggest challenges with both a new coach and the loss of multiple world class players. Give Meyer this year before starting to judge him too hard. He didn’t make the situation, he inherited it from the previous coach.
14 Aug 2012, 12:33 pm
A multi-nic Amnesty or Commission of Inquiry is in order here
14 Aug 2012, 21:14 pm
KEO ……… ForFucksakesnameandshame
14 Aug 2012, 21:19 pm
@290………seems you are wrong Ruck.
14 Aug 2012, 21:22 pm
Oh forgot. BOOM……
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