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, 21:34 pm
@victoriabok-750:
27 Aug 2012, 21:43 pm
@Jinx2-751:
Rassie is probably the smartest tactical guy we have in our rugby
27 Aug 2012, 21:51 pm
@Sheriff-712: meyer is either a dictator or a an uber pedantic ocd character!
everytime he talks about a captain he says “i want a guy who is going to be an extension of me on the field”
that’s why he is the only international coach BARKING orders like a lunatic & sucking on energade!
all his captains at the bulls were yes-man, victor fought with jake & jake told him he was arrogant, vic disputed & fought until meyer concured with jake THEN victor was like “dang if heyneke says it maybe i am”
2008 with meyer gone, fdp took over tge captaincy & failed miserably.
27 Aug 2012, 21:52 pm
746 lol naka looks like a funny man
27 Aug 2012, 21:53 pm
@victoriabok-752: what do u think his input is in the current archaic gameplan?
27 Aug 2012, 21:58 pm
@victoriabok-752: Rassie is stupid.. its one big fat misnomer that he’s so smart.. Naka is actually a clever rugby coach who got a quick eye for what works and implements it… Everybody thinks Rassie is this clever maverick type genius.. Rassie is thick and another one of these one track single dimensional idiots…
Rassie’s hair brain idea of the super bench and Burger to chief cook and bottle washer ball carrier deluxe is very prominently what cost PdV his WC in 2011
Beside Smit should have been a player / coach like Skinstadt in 2007.. and Bismark should have started every test.. Spies should have been on bench with Alberts starting … Louw should have started if Brussow was injured… Burger should NEVER have been the go to ball carrying general.. a Rassie ploy of stupidity if ever there was one.. which back fired so bad it what ACTUALLY cost Boks the 1/4 final…
Rassie done very little rugby wise.. its a big fat hoax that he’s this smart rugby genius.. his maverick ideas mainly backfire and don’t work.. just like all his stuff ups which are simply too many to mention.
He cost PdV the WC.. and he also cost Stormers couple S15 results with his clever ploys that misfire.
27 Aug 2012, 22:02 pm
@Transformation-753:
> 2008 with meyer gone,
And Victor, Roets and Gary
> fdp took over tge captaincy & failed miserably.
With a new coach and a disrupted pack without both leaders, yes
Assumption is the mother of all f-ups
27 Aug 2012, 22:06 pm
Have just watched the game again and tried to make any sense of what went so terribly wrong.Cant say im much of an analyst but did notice a few very simple and basic problems.If I could only make two adjustments this is what I would do.
I will bring in a breakdown specialist.No I will bring in two.Brussouw and F Louw.Not that one guy on the field will change everyting but it creates that awareness in the team on how to play the breakdown.The others will follow.
Secondly I dont know why they dont kick for territory anymore.From midfield they just kicked uppies into the argies hands and that was it.Back to defending.Kick for the corners and put pressure on the lineouts.From there our big ball carriers have a chance to get the scoreboard rolling, and it takes pressure off the boks.
27 Aug 2012, 22:08 pm
@fitz1ella-756:
> Rassie is stupid.. its one big fat misnomer that he’s so smart..
Hmm, strange that the Stormers’ success started when he went there?
27 Aug 2012, 22:08 pm
Thats why FdP didn’t wanna come and be HM’s stooge captain and why JdV got the gig by default.. FdP don’t have the balls for Bok captaincy and he knows it..
Only JdV is not a ja broer like FdP and he got way more character and a thinking mind of his own.. so if HM wants to force a bad issue i reckon JdV won’t back down if its rankling his conscience..
27 Aug 2012, 22:10 pm
@victoriabok-757: no assumption, i watched it alk happen!
10 boks in the team & getting POMPED by 50 points by the crusaders at loftus!
ludeke, like heyneke blamed the players NEVER his own gameplan
27 Aug 2012, 22:10 pm
@victoriabok-757: no assumption, i watched it all happen!
10 boks in the team & getting POMPED by 50 points by the crusaders at loftus!
ludeke, like heyneke blamed the players NEVER his own gameplan
27 Aug 2012, 22:11 pm
fitzy, you must either be a present or recent player or coach, as you seem to know the players inside and out. there is no other way you can so boldly tell us what is in FDP or JDVs brains or what their characters and personalities are like without having spent lots of time with them. so who are you and how do you know the Boks and ex Boks so well?
27 Aug 2012, 22:17 pm
@fitz1ella-760: “FdP don’t have the balls for Bok captaincy and he knows it..”
hahahaha you are funny skop!
i remember FdP in ’08 looking forlon at post-match interviews… this one time he said “i’ve ran out of excuses”
27 Aug 2012, 22:17 pm
@victoriabok-759: stupid is the wrong word
self engrossed and off track is better.. Rassie didn’t amount much at Stormers
He tried fitting Watson, Vermeulen and Burger together.. by playing Watson at 8 Vermeulen 7 and Burger 6.. big fckup which bombed poorly.. only when Watson took over captaincy from Burger and started playing with a young Stormers team with F Louw and P Louw and Vermeulen and A. Van Zyl at 5 thats when Stormers hit their straps and almost came right.. when Burger came back and took charge again is when with all the Rassie wiles in the world we still couldn’t do the thing..
this year we had all the makings till Coetsee hit his familiar JW entrenched defensive cowardly conservative ceiling but Stormers had better chance without Rassie and without Burger.. if Vermeulen, Elstadt, Kolisi, Carr would have remained fit this year we would have creamed the dream.
Rassie is a hit and miss maverick.. he ain’t no astute rugby brain.. his off beam thinking is more often miss than on target, and that why he sent PdV totally up the garden path with that bullshit super bench at the WC theory.. BIG fckup that cost PdV the WC along with Burger at first receiver.
27 Aug 2012, 22:19 pm
@Humphrey-763: skop is omnipresent
27 Aug 2012, 22:20 pm
@fitz1ella-747: Very good selection indeed, excuse my ignorance, Coetzee at 15,who is he?
27 Aug 2012, 22:22 pm
@fitz1ella-756: is it Naka, or is it Hawies Fourie?
27 Aug 2012, 22:22 pm
@JL1-767: andries coetzee the new craze around town….plays for the Lions…
27 Aug 2012, 22:23 pm
48 billion light years accross – now that’s some space
27 Aug 2012, 22:25 pm
@Transformation-761: so do most coaches….Mallet blamed Gaffie…..
27 Aug 2012, 22:26 pm
@fitz1ella-765:
Any coach that sits on a stadium roof and flickers lights at his players or whatever the hell he did cannot be much of an astute coach. I think this whole Rassie is a genius myth was created by Vrede who has a penchant for trying to use as many big words as he can to sound like he knows what he is talking about – and hey presto some of these huge *** words were attached to Rassie and we have some freaking genius that would rival Einstein and would cause Wayne Smith to rephilosphize all his rugby acumen!!!
Who knows Maybe come the NZ/Aus tests we might see Rassie sitting on the roof at Forsyth Barr with a walkie talkie flickering lights. Hope he has a coat though! Brrrrr!!
27 Aug 2012, 22:27 pm
@Transformation-762:
Yet nearly the same team b-utt fu-cked the Chiefs and won the S14 a year later?
Any of the top teams could trounce another on the day, ask the AB’s about two WC semi’s against the Frogs?
27 Aug 2012, 22:27 pm
@JL1-767: young Lions full back.. watch him.. got a Christian Cullen kind of running rugby knack with gifted boot off both feet.
I’d be willing to chuck him in the deep end
I would also look at some other juniors to blood rather sooner than later
Rhule, Serfontein, Sithole, Jordaan and maybe Fouche at 10 / 15
Du Toit, Willemse, A. Botha
27 Aug 2012, 22:27 pm
@Transformation-769: …and all of a Sardine he should play for the Boks?
27 Aug 2012, 22:28 pm
SA has lots of undercooked talent, I think we will be much better come next year, still I think most bok fans reservations abt heynecke are becoming sadly closer to fact
27 Aug 2012, 22:29 pm
@fitz1ella-774: Yes, he will blood the youngsters, maybe next year it seems
Du Toit, A Botha, both will play better than Potgieter…(The Wynand Olivier of flankers)
27 Aug 2012, 22:31 pm
@pat1-772: I am with you, the whole Rassie thing seems to be talk and propaganda , like most things in SA
27 Aug 2012, 22:34 pm
@fitz1ella-760:
> Thats why FdP didn’t wanna come and be HM’s stooge captain
Wrong again, he’s shoulder is f-cked, that’s why he went to play in Japan, instead of risking his shoulder at potentially still hard NH rugby
Again assumption….
> and why JdV got the gig by default..
He could have declined it?
Did he?
No?
Who is the f-ckin stooge now?
So better man up, no Stormers type “if we” coulda, shoulda, woulda excuses this time, this is it
Nut up or shut up
27 Aug 2012, 22:34 pm
whats 48 billion light years across.. the physical universe as deciphered and designed by the mathematical scientists?
they don’t know how many billion light years it is across and where or how it began.. or how fixed or mutable this matter or space is…
they can only measure what their intellects or apparatus allow them to.
27 Aug 2012, 22:37 pm
The overseas Bok situation is really starting to hurt our rugby now….
Guthro should be in the prime of his carrer now with Boks….
F Louw as well….
Quite a few props…..J Fourie….a couple of locks….
we starting to really feel the pain now…
27 Aug 2012, 22:38 pm
Fkn amazing hey – gd bless their little socks – imagine just a couple millenia ago we were swing from the trees now we got a map of it all – but u wouldn’t appreciate it – rather watch usain bolt run at the pace of a 3-legged elephant
27 Aug 2012, 22:40 pm
Rory Kockott, wonder if he’ll ever find favour again, he might do well for the boks, he’s kind of got a gud mix of athleticism and overseas experience. I just dont forsee ruan or hougies becoming great in a bok jersey at 9, Kockott, I dunno,i think he’s matured nicely in france
27 Aug 2012, 22:40 pm
@Transformation-769: Hey – I spotted him first
27 Aug 2012, 22:41 pm
@Transformation-764:
Hold that though till next year when your ANC Broeders team get b-utt fu-cked week after week and Pukie do his post match interview
Presenter:”Here we are with the losing captain of the KY Southern Kings, Pukie Watson, Pukie what happened today, why did you lose 120-3 to the Chiefs?”
Pukie:”We’ll Johan we tried, but it didn’t make sense on the field or in church, you must remember winning is not everything”
27 Aug 2012, 22:44 pm
@grant10-781:
Bakkies, Anton v Zyl, Gerhard Mostert
Jacques Cronje would have been better at 8 than anyone else
Pedrie, next year CJ Wannenburg as well
27 Aug 2012, 22:45 pm
you do know that about 10,000 years ago they were watching this universe and had a far closer understanding of it that you have today.
its all been done but you still cant see it.. only what you mathematically theoretically measure and postulate about in your text book
so you not seeing anything really.. you don’t know if its 48 billion light years across.. or 150 billion light years in diameter. its all just another figment of your vivid theoretical imagination…
but that ain’t seeing.. its just imagining.
27 Aug 2012, 22:51 pm
What constitutes a “far better understanding”, you big talking phoney? In plain English, what did “they” understand about the universe? Plain English – no swearing, no waffle, no metaphors. Can you do that for me?
27 Aug 2012, 22:51 pm
Oh I know all that – but in terms of human achievement they about as backward as u get – ain’t been done ever before – not even remotely close.
It’s expanding and accelerating – either rip onse poephol uit or snaps shut in reverse at some stage
the closest stuff your tutu wushu washy comes is that tge vast majority if stuff, matter, energy, incebergs, unobsevablee are hidden –
But the thinking mind does not make man stoopid – quite the opposite.
27 Aug 2012, 22:52 pm
@willievz-784: a few did spot him but you were the first to rave about him
he got a rugby gift I hope they don’t ruin another one.
27 Aug 2012, 22:55 pm
only fitzy knows how big the universe is, he is the kenner of all things and only he is right.
27 Aug 2012, 22:56 pm
what the scientists are beginning to scratch at the surface of the watchatutu’s knew inherently and intimately and personally from experience.. you think your apparatus is so highly fangle dangle new age super duper smart… you still a baby in the real world of cosmological understanding
and don’t get a big fat shock if they don’t find out for a fact that some other big brothers in other galaxy’s watching as you think you so far down the track of your evolutionary discovery and education
27 Aug 2012, 22:56 pm
@Humphrey-791:
Skop Sagan?
27 Aug 2012, 22:58 pm
matter is actually illusion.. and anti matter or dark matter is what you seeking to understand whats reality.
27 Aug 2012, 23:06 pm
Come come the tuts aunt taught zip nada zero
what science really reveals is how ignorant we really are and how little we know – tutus teach nothing of this hidden nature of reality – that’s why for them their ain’t nothng new under the sun from their perspective.
This bullshit about them developing clarity of perception by getting rid ifvtgeir ego is a load of kak – they the most self-centred buggers around and busy steking half their adoring disciples and fleecing the others – at least those crazy relious are more selfless and do positive **** like mama T
27 Aug 2012, 23:07 pm
@JL1-775: @willievz-784: i know, you must have google alerts on his name cos here you are! funny thing is most here wanna liken a.coetzee to israel dagg but when i said israel was the future some said no, a solid foolback like fransie with a massive boot is what SA needs now dagg is ripping teams new ones everyday…in ’09/10 it was mils, dagg, beale, kearney, foden…
heyneke still has kirchner..
27 Aug 2012, 23:10 pm
@victoriabok-785: why would the ANC be my “broeders”?
27 Aug 2012, 23:13 pm
what you know what the tutu’s teach.. you ever ask one?
some people today still swear the tutu’s are all knowing next to god.. that they been there and done it all from the alpha to the omega.. and now you little puny Harvard class bumpkins wanna come pretend that you discovering something so fantastically new.. quarks and leptons and bosuns and all that gobbledy gook razzmatazz jazz, when back the ranch they knew it all LONG time before you ever opened your pie chart or your lap top or your E=MC2 text book
rocket science is old hat to the dudes who can stream across the milky way faster than the speed of light
27 Aug 2012, 23:14 pm
@Transformation-797: he said your tea the Kings are ANC broeders, which they are. relax.
27 Aug 2012, 23:16 pm
@Transformation-796:
Yep and Kirchner i fear is there to stay. Heyneke coached Coetzee at Tukkies to kick up and unders until Carlos Spencer spotted the kid playing in the VC and pulled him to the Lions. Rate this kid very highly, reminds me a little of James O Connor, great feet, big boot, elusive and for a kid that aint massively built he is deceptively strong.
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