Shocking Springboks must break shackles
27 Aug 2012
MARK KEOHANE, in his weekly Business Day newspaper column, says Heyneke Meyer’s game plan and playing philosophy is simply not good enough.
The All Blacks lacked accuracy in attack against the Wallabies, but that was all that was missing from a New Zealand display that made South Africa’s match against Argentina look like something from the Dark Ages.
If what the All Blacks produced in Auckland was high octane, then in Mendoza there was nothing more than grunt and growl. It was a shocker and the Springboks were the most shocking of the two teams.
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer has spoken of the need to win every weekend. He has spoken of mental toughness and the search for excellence. He has spoken of the potential greatness of players. Actions have always been more significant than words and the player actions in Mendoza, just like in Port Elizabeth in the third Test against England, were a contradiction on everything being said. The 20 minutes we saw against England in Johannesburg’s second Test was a hint of the potential within our rugby, but even that 20 minutes looks a decade ago when compared to the intensity and pace of the effort from New Zealand, the current world champions and without doubt the team setting the standards.
I thought the Australians were woeful as an attacking unit and there was no threat they’d get five points let alone a victory. They defended bravely and showed a desire for the scrap but they were simply beaten up in the collisions and given a rugby lesson.
This is a very good All Blacks team, stronger now than when they edged France to win the World Cup last October. Richie McCaw and Dan Carter will be managed carefully through to the next World Cup but the succession plan of Sam Cane and Aaron Cruden is already in motion. Very little else will change from now to 2015 so those who talk of the All Blacks being a side in decline in 2015 think again. The back three will be at their peak and so too a midfield that will include Sonny Bill Williams. The All Blacks have integrated as many players new players into the system as the Boks have. Two new locks, a new loose forward, a new scrumhalf and variations on the wing. The only position where there is no definitive answer in relation to 2015 is at hooker. They’re in a healthy position and they’re not making any excuses about World Cup hangovers, lack of desire, retirements, inexperience or players coming to terms with the demands of international rugby. They’ve set standards, especially on defence, and to keep two sides of the standing of Ireland and Australia scoreless this year is the kind of action that accompanies any talk of excellence.
The All Blacks were not precise in their attack in Auckland, but that will always be a possibility with the type of high risk, high tempo and absolutely enthralling game they play. In Auckland they offloaded in the tackle 30 times and most of the offloads were effective in advancing the play, sustaining flow, continuity and ensuring momentum. If you tuned in at 9:35am to Auckland and happened to be watching the same rugby channel 12 hours later you could excused for thinking that what was on offer from Mendoza was part of the ESPN Classic packages. My god it was awful.
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen, on reflection, spoke of the physicality of South Africa and Argentina, whom the All Blacks play next in Wellington. He said it was like watching two rhinos go at each other all afternoon.
His reference to rhino reminded me of former Wallabies coach Rod Macqueen’s rhino reference to the then Springbok coach Harry Viljoen. Macqueen and Viljoen are good mates and they were on a Safari outing when they saw Rhino. Macqueen said: ‘Look Harry there’s your team … big, strong and f**king dumb’.
The Boks certainly moved on from the dummy tag in 2007 thanks to the approach and thinking of some very special players, but the limited quality of player on display in Mendoza is no excuse for the kind of rugby produced.
Meyer, as coach, picks the side and determines game strategy and playing philosophy. What we saw in Port Elizabeth and Mendoza is simply not good enough, in intent, in ambition and in principle.
No player picks himself and not one Springbok in Mendoza would make a current World XV. That’s a reality but it is no excuse to draw to Argentina because no Pumas player would make a World XV either.
Mendoza should be a watershed moment for Meyer, who doesn’t want for rugby intellect but needs to be challenged to break his own shackles of conservatism.
The obvious reaction is to take fire at the players, but that would be misguided. Meyer is the one in charge and a team is a reflection of a coach. If the coach expected more of his players in Mendoza then I – like every South African rugby supporter – expected more of Meyer at this juncture.
860 Comments
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27 Aug 2012, 16:56 pm
@Transformation-498: Freddie was the business, pity he cant be a bok
27 Aug 2012, 16:56 pm
@Transformation-540: I saw that too. Was it TJ that mentioned it.
Meyer certainly looks like he is freaking out. But that could just be his way. 
I am so excited to watch that game in Perth, I wish it was Monday 3 September 2012 already. Both Meyer and Deans need a big performance. The Aussies more so. They still have zero points.
27 Aug 2012, 16:56 pm
@mpundulu-544: some doff broederbond prick ‘invested’ it and lost everything.
27 Aug 2012, 16:57 pm
@rossoneri-533:
http://www.rugbyjourney.com/2012/06/heyneke-meyer-has-this-become-all-too-personal-the-springboks/
@wnbb-543: go check jannie ferreira or manie reyneke’s bank accounts. they make the fools at EP in the early 2000s look like amateurs
27 Aug 2012, 16:57 pm
@rangerman-509:
no ranger, i honestly think he should get a look in.
i think he will be a bok soon.
follow his progress at cc for yourself.
27 Aug 2012, 16:58 pm
@RL-537: Not true,
27 Aug 2012, 16:58 pm
Frans Steyn the best No.12 in SA since Michael du Plessis.Also a big guy.
Must say I didnt see any fat on Frans.Duanne though needs to shed a lot
of weight.Agree that he will then be a big asset to Boks.
NAMA.Who would you replace Frans with at NO.12.?
Surely not Jean.
27 Aug 2012, 16:58 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-539: Nee, ek sal glad nie befok raak nie. Dit sal net vir my op die stadium ‘n baie snaakse besluit wees, dit is al.
Ek het baie van die kind gehou verlede jaar al – die Bulls agterlyn lyk sommer stukke beter met ‘n loskakel soos hy. Ek stem met al jou punte rakende sy sterk punte, hy is beslis ‘n groot talent. Die punt wat ek maak, is dat so outjie (wat so baie potensiaal het) liewer eers ‘n hele season Currie beker, en Super rugby moet speel (of ten minst, bietie meer as wat die outjie die jaar gespeel het sover) voordat hulle in Bok spanne gedruk word.
Ek glo as mens goed genoeg is, moet jy onmiddelik die step up kan maak, maar in die outjie se geval (net soos in Lambie’s s’n) sal ek dit verkies dat hulle eers speeltyd (en baie daarvan) by hul unies kry in die 10 trui, voor hulle dit in groen en goud ene doen.
Goosen is voor Lambie en die outjie glo ek, want Meyer het dit self erken. As Goosen wedstryd fiks is, dink ek nie Lambie gaan die match 22 maak, nie omdat EK dit so wil he, maar omdat dit duidelik is Meyer ‘rate’ nie vir Lambie.
Hy het dit baie duidelik gemaak.
27 Aug 2012, 17:04 pm
@poppa69-542: Neither is Hougaard. He is far from a finished article, and cannot be considered the “playmaker” in the team. How would we define playmaker? Someone who decides when to run, pass, dictates play etc I see no play maker in the Bok setup. In the past it was clear that FdP was that man. But not Hougaard. Its a clearly defined off field plan, to bash it up with the forwards then hoof it into the air and pounce on the stumble. No variety. Goosen is given freedom in the Cheetahs team to be the general/playmaker if you like. He makes the decisions on the field based on whats happening. And i remember him doing that very well away against the Hurricanes in the Super 15 when his decision making was spot on. Im very excited about him as a prospect if he gets selected. My change the way we play…..perhaps.
27 Aug 2012, 17:04 pm
@Transformation-516:
yes but goosen has injury issues.
@Mustard-548:
thats the beauty of an armchair opinion, everybody can afford one.
if we were the coach it would be a different story.
27 Aug 2012, 17:04 pm
@Mustard-536:
Serious question and I’m not asking this from a colour perspective. Just from a rugby perspective:
Jantjies has been playing first class rugby now for three years. He was SA young player of the year in 2010. A member of the Bok squad.
Lambie has been playing first class rugby for three years now. He is already a Bok and has RWC experience as well as a CC behind his name.
Goosen is in his second year of first class rugby. A prodigious talent, no doubt.
Why does Jantjie need another two/three years to be ready for “top flight rugby.”
27 Aug 2012, 17:04 pm
@Transformation-554: that article was painful to read
27 Aug 2012, 17:04 pm
@rossoneri-533: lol
27 Aug 2012, 17:05 pm
@Transformation-554: Reyneke got a massive golden handshake from allers for the good work he did in sinking the guma deal – they wanted in badly and now they are out.
27 Aug 2012, 17:08 pm
What is the drama all about?
So the boks got ambushed in Mendoza? So what? They are still unbeaten. Mark my words if the Argies show up like they did this last Saturday against ANY team, the other team will have problems, including the ‘unbeatable’ All Black messiahs of all things Rugby.
There are only two teams that would have been able to get out of the scenario we saw on Saturday. The All Blacks and the Boks. The Aussies would have been tickets and must now be shitting themselves for the Argies!!
I am so proud of our Boks. To come back against that kind of onslaught and pull it out of the bag (albeit luckily though) was AWESOME!! So proud of the boys!!
We must all pull our heads out of our arses. Rugby is not all champagne and caviar. Ask the All Blacks in the second test against the Irish this year!!! If we played the Argies next week it would be 60 points to Nil to the bokke. Of this I have NO DOUBT!
Heyneke – take it easy buddy. You know what you are doing. Don’t panic and PLEASE do not listen to the idiots in the press or the ‘couch coach brigade’ (including Mallet!!).
Rome was not built in a day, month or year. But one thing is for sure, no one else in SA Rugby has the ability to build Springbok rugby into the ‘Rome’ it will be.
27 Aug 2012, 17:09 pm
@sharks_lover-556: no it is true – Goosen is the now and the future. Heineken cannot afford to ignore the best 10 on the planet.
27 Aug 2012, 17:09 pm
@mpundulu-546: he shouts at pieter de villiers and johan van graan, they’re the two plonkers i saw at newlands talking on walkie talkies on the bok bench!
27 Aug 2012, 17:12 pm
@The Analyst-565: well at least nobody can say that you don’t have a unique take on things
27 Aug 2012, 17:12 pm
@nama1-561: Jantjies has been erratic in the super 15 away from home. Especially on defense. I believe if he can bulk a bit, without losing too much pace it will do him a world of good and thats why i said a year or 2. In fact i have been more impressed with him at FH than what i have seen from Lambie. Lambie seems to be getting a look in right and he should take this opportunity. From all the young FH i have seen i have been most impressed with Goosen. He has so much to offer from a running or a kicking game that i feel i would select him above those two.
27 Aug 2012, 17:13 pm
@Mustard-559:
It is in any case just stupid to expect from somebody who looks down the ground for 80% of the time, your SH, to be the decision maker when you have somebody outside him who has a much wider view of what is going on in front of him.
27 Aug 2012, 17:15 pm
lol. nama1 saying he is asking a question which is not “from a colour perspective”. yeah right! colour trap if i ever saw one. it’s always about colour for our nama1.
27 Aug 2012, 17:16 pm
Mustard
I think golden is an exciting talent, and stated the other day that it may be detrimental to throw him in the deep end straight away. I would be introducing him on the Eoyt at the earliest. I would also like to see Jantjies with a forward pack that can provide him with a decent platform to operate from.
27 Aug 2012, 17:17 pm
golden = goosen.
27 Aug 2012, 17:19 pm
I am starting to understand why other countries’ supporters insist that Bok supporter are as dumb as two brick held together by chewing gum.
I am not going to go into player retirements, player injuries or even lethargy (which I do believe is a serious problem).
We all romanticize about the “Mallett Years”. The problem is that Mallet did absolutely nothing for South African rugby. All he did was to cash in on the Carel Du Plessis hard graft.
Du Plessis changed the way that the Boks played. Before that there was no structure, style or substance to the way that the Boks played. Du Plessis’ Boks lost game after game but in the process became one team.
There isn’t a person alive who would say that Pieter De Villiers added anything to Springbok Rugby. At least he was smart enough to stay out of the way. The problem is that the brains of whatever we have achieved in the past few years are all gone.
Meyer is building something that will take a little time but will be something that has substance and will be a basis for great rugby.
Apart from the omission of Brussouw, he has picked the best young players available to him. He has stated that he plans to upgrade their skills (something that all South African players are lacking) rather than tell them to “go away and get better”.
The Boks will beat Australia twice and lose to the All Blacks twice (we don’t have a snowball’s chance of taking them down this year).
Next year we will be in contention to trouble the All Blacks but from 2014 we will donner them on a regular basis.
I choose to be patient and allow Meyer to rebuild the broken Bok dynasty. I would rather put up with the growing pains and later enjoy supporting a true Springbok team.
The problem with the South African supporter (including most journos) is their infantile “I want it now” mentality. Anyone who has ever parented, mentored or taught will know that today’s disciplined is tomorrow’s performer.
27 Aug 2012, 17:21 pm
@Mustard-569: look Jantjies is the same height and weight as the Lambster – they are both good superrugby players, not quite test quality. Goosen is the total package, he needs to bulk up a bit and work on his D. He will become a legend.
27 Aug 2012, 17:22 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-558:
ag nou maar ja, kom ons stem saam om nie saam te stem nie
ek voel hy is gereed om vir die bokke te speel maar dink dieselfe oor goosen. hulle is al twee goie losskakels en vir my beter as patrick, wie meyer (soos jy self se) nie hoog gradeer nie.
27 Aug 2012, 17:22 pm
@nama1-561:
he should be playing off the bench for the boks already in my opinion.
@The Analyst-565: exactly. I want to see how the other sides go in mendoza before calling this a kak result. That is if the sides do indeed play in mendoza and their width shortened pitch. And the commute from nz and aus will no doubt be shweet. Which direction will the antipodeans be flying? via europe or via hawaii and the usa? Either way….shweet.
27 Aug 2012, 17:24 pm
@The Analyst-565: That comment is lamentable.
27 Aug 2012, 17:24 pm
F uck off Kirtchner.
27 Aug 2012, 17:27 pm
@The Analyst-565:
“To come back against that kind of onslaught and pull it out of the bag (albeit luckily though) was AWESOME!!”
How dare you say it was lucky? It was all down to the awesome skills shown by Fransie.
“He had to BE IN POSITION to make the charge down, he had to STAY CALM and regather and he also had to outdistance the argies chasing him.”
So please, it was not through luck that the Boks pulled it off. Fransie did it for us.
27 Aug 2012, 17:27 pm
@YoMama-574: What precisely is Meyer building? What’s his game plan? Meyerlings believe that he has this rugby secret that no one have ever heard of or thought of, what’s this miracle that Meyer will present us with?
27 Aug 2012, 17:29 pm
@Brigadier Van Zyl-577: actually there are direct flights between NZ and Argentina, which take 12 hours. Otherwise, it’s a 1 stop route via Chile to Buenos Aires which is 15 hour total flight and connection time. Not that bad, actually.
27 Aug 2012, 17:29 pm
@mpundulu-581: \
so long as it is not another cape flat Hex from Twakkie DeVilliers I’m all for it.
27 Aug 2012, 17:30 pm
From News24:
There’s also the possiblility that fit-again loosie Duane Vermeulen – who had a good 65 minutes against the Golden Lions in Johannesburg on Saturday – may be called up to the Springbok setup, which makes Elstadt’s return all the more welcome for the Cape side.
27 Aug 2012, 17:31 pm
@Brigadier Van Zyl-583: You mean no Coloureds allowed?! That’s nice….
27 Aug 2012, 17:31 pm
@Humphrey-582:
interesting…..across the pacific and date line.
back to the future. Lets see how that works out.
27 Aug 2012, 17:32 pm
@Humphrey-582: we’ve always heard these bizarre theories about jetlag being worse flying east so the ABs will be tested flying to Argentina then to RSA. Or maybe it won’t make a difference and the myth will be shown up for what it is.
27 Aug 2012, 17:33 pm
@husky-107: “They are trained cheats. But most of us know this.”
“ABs (Crusaders) are cheats” and “refs are cheats” should finally incorporated in SA national anthem, I suppose.
27 Aug 2012, 17:33 pm
@Brigadier Van Zyl-583: People like you, are the type who make any Heyneke Meyer failure schweeter than sugar.
If you can not be objective in any way, shape or form; you should start preparing yourself for the painnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.
You and Taccy will be like the kiddies who are expecting new bikes from Santa, yet wake up on Xmas morning to find a facecloth and onnerbroekies.
27 Aug 2012, 17:33 pm
@mpundulu-585:
actually, no tik induced post match pressers. but whatever you prefer bru….
27 Aug 2012, 17:33 pm
I was more dissapointed in the Bok performance in the first RC test TBH despite the scoreline. The quality of that Cape Town match was pisspoor and the Boks were even worse at the breakdown, less accurate and kicked even more. Also fckn Kirtchner scored a try guaranteeing himself another 20 Bok caps.
27 Aug 2012, 17:34 pm
@nama1-580: Nooiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit?
27 Aug 2012, 17:34 pm
@gonzo-587: do you fly long haul often? I have in the past and I can say its much harder flying west to east than east to west, in my opinion. the former takes a while to get normal sleeping patterns back, whilst the latter is a cinch.
27 Aug 2012, 17:37 pm
@Brigadier Van Zyl-590: Ahhhhhh, you are one of those, I’m certain you are lashing the klippies massively, tell the wife to maintain a wide berth.
27 Aug 2012, 17:37 pm
Alberts is a great rugby player. He must play lock. Etzebeth at 5. This is the long term solution. Bekker as an impact sub. Its a no brainer. The other cart horse can live out his days in the Currie Cup.
27 Aug 2012, 17:38 pm
@Humphrey-593: Very true Humphrey.
27 Aug 2012, 17:38 pm
It’s mostly about process.
Here’s one thing – While they were mostly shovelling the ball down the line, I saw a lot more intent to keep the ball in play, maintaining phases through the hands. We weren’t very effective at it or ran good angles doing it, but it was good to see them trying.
I just think that developing the interplay and analyzing ways of being more effective, over time will reap benefits.
I repeat, we did not do it well, but we did start to do something.
When you watch the ABs, most everything they try works. The reason for that is that they have for many years been MAKING THE GAME HAPPEN. Everyone knows what to expect or how to play.
Under De Villiers and even White, South Africa did not play. They simply slipped through the cracks of whatever the other team did wrong.
I would rather see the Boks develop something, than fall back on tried and tested means of grinding out wins. We could have played that way and won, 23-12. We would all have been happy campers this week but deep inside we would know that the Boks are only doing what needs to be done, and will AGAIN come horribly short against the stronger teams.
Personally, I am happy to draw this game while developing a style that will some day make us the bludgeoners in chief.
27 Aug 2012, 17:39 pm
Yawn, It starts again,
People HM is a quality coach picking up the pieces after 4 years of misdirection. Did anybody seriously expect him to get results immediately after the exodus of the backbone of the Bok team? If you did you are morons. This is a Bok side that lost to Saracens a short while back.
Give the guy a chance to assess the talent available and then formulate a plan. Judge him at the end of year 2. Criticism now will only lead to pressured decisions to please the masses that will lead to a repeat of the cycle we have seen since Kitch Christie’s reign.
27 Aug 2012, 17:39 pm
@YoMama-574: so you are advocating a twee jaar plan?
well i’m glad meyer himself does not believe pies in the sky and “wants to WIN every game”!
27 Aug 2012, 17:40 pm
@RL-566: Lets agree to dissagree then because lambie is far better than he is being given credit for, Remember besides him having being injured a bit this year he has been playing FB and not FH which is his preferred position.
Anyhows I am not anti Goosen as i also believe he is capable of becomming a great
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