Midfield magic needed
4 Sep 2012
RYAN VREDE writes the Springboks’ midfield pair of Frans Steyn and Jean de Villiers are far more creative than what they’ve shown and need to be encouraged to explore that dimension of their play.
I’ve lamented the Springboks’ pack’s impotency extensively, and, in a game of cause and effect, their struggles are at the root of the broader impotency of the backline.
Over the course of the last five Tests there have been encouraging periods where the heavies have dominated and the backline has buzzed, their early blitz against England at Ellis Park the prime example of this. However, they have lacked consistency and it has reflected in a string of unconvincing performances. Notable in that period has been the muted impact of their midfield pair.
The duo seldom see the ball when the Springboks are in their own territory, the directive being to punt and chase for fear of committing errors in their half and gifting the opposition points. This is understandable given the small margins in Test rugby among the elite sides. However, when further upfield, it is deeply frustrating to see Steyn being reduced largely to a battering ram, whose primary function is to generate go-forward at the gainline. He has had limited success in doing so and will struggle to impose himself in the manner the coaching staff hope against the organised and physical All Blacks and (to a lesser extent) Wallabies.
Steyn’s creative ability is well known and was first exhibited as a young buck in the Springboks’ midfield at the 2007 World Cup. His running lines were excellent and his distribution – short and long – was incisive and created opportunities for his outside backs. I’d like to see Steyn encouraged to rediscover this dimension of his play (in the right field positions) because he has the skills set to be more than he is being utilised as at present.
De Villiers has found adapting to the attacking demands of a Test outside centre difficult. His running lines and timing of those runs are fractionally off and in Test rugby those fractions are the difference between breaking the line and being stopped. He certainly possesses the attacking flair to be effective in the position, but I am concerned that age has depleted the turn of pace he used to have to get him through holes in the defensive line.
De Villiers, however, remains a fine player who I believe will settle into the position and be a competent option. Comparisons with Jaque Fourie are unfair and those who peddle those comparisons fail to appreciate that Fourie was among the best in the position in the game. De Villiers is unlikely to retain the captaincy or No 13 shirt if, as expected, Fourie returns to the Test fold in 2013. Until then, he must explore different dimensions – tackle offloads for example – of his attacking game within the framework of the game plan.
The Springboks’ pack are central to their success and against the weakest Wallabies pack in recent years, they must create the platform for Steyn and De Villiers to be the game breakers they have the capacity to be.
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343 Comments
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4 Sep 2012, 19:54 pm
@I am a stormer-298:
Spot on mate – his hands were even tied on appointing his support team (assistant coaches) given most were tied up in contracts already.
Thing about our national team (and coach) is we seem to put them at a massive disadvantage from the word go.
Structures don’t really support them, timing is always rather **** and then you have clowns calling one of them quotas the day he got appointed!
I really don’t know how anyone in their right mind would actually take that job…
Meyer had two weeks outside of preparing for a test with his squad, and factor injuries into this whole scheme not to mention **** tired players from an absurd Super Rugby schedule and you get some idea of how ridiculous this job is.
I support Meyer 100%, like I did PDV and White. Difference – Meyer has the pedigree to break the sick cycle of Bok coaches in SA Rugby where we might just all give him the tools to do a job properly.
4 Sep 2012, 19:55 pm
@fitz1ella-300:
Skop, provide an alternative then.
If Heyneke had taken over from Jake White – like he was supposed to – Bok rugby might be in an even better space right now.
But alas: could’ve, should’ve, didn’t.
4 Sep 2012, 19:55 pm
@fitz1ella-300: Did you respect him when he was at the Bulls?
4 Sep 2012, 20:01 pm
@PissAnt-301:
I think that he also able to quickly learn from his mistakes by not picking a fetcher like Brussow and then having to fetch one playing in the UK.
His next biggest problem is to sort out 9 and 10 because the combo’s there are just not working at test level. I expect Morne Steyn to start on Sat before Goosen gets 20 hopefully 30 minutes out there.
4 Sep 2012, 20:02 pm
@I am a stormer-304:
Yup, it is not that you make mistakes, it is how fast you learn from them at this level.
Meyer will get it right.
4 Sep 2012, 20:07 pm
@I am a stormer-302: He’s an outright coward clutching at straws he should have gotten Jakes team because that was the team he wanted .. he got F’ALL clue about building a team.. he got ZERO idea about how to build a comprehensive high energy go forward platform.. He been LAMENTING and b’tching and moaning that he didn’t get FdP or Matfield while he goes about stuffing up with DISASTROUS selections from word go…
This dude needs HUGE f’ng cotton wool structures padding him up left right and center.. He should have gotten the WC 2007 team because then he wouldn’t have to do ANY thinking.. right now he is so out of his tree and his league he is panicking for mere survival and he’s only just begun year one..
I can’t see him make it past cut off.. his got a couple measly threads of hope hanging by a ball hair if JdV and couple strong players like Alberts, F. Steyn can save his arse then he might just avoid the guillotine.. somehow I simply can’t see it…
the thing is Pdv should have gotten this team to build and make hay with, not that set in its ways bunch of JW robotic stooges who fck’d his hopes to hell already within year one.. Meyer should have gotten JW’s team and PdV should have gotten this one, cause this dude got ZERO clue about building off a first base bat.. he needs YEARS of structures and slow painstaking trial and error before he gonna get his thinking straight.
4 Sep 2012, 20:16 pm
These Springbok coaches are outright morons.. they got the biggest ego’s under the sun and yet can’t see half an inch beyond their pitifully self aggrandized noses..
JW exactly the same.. he was so far gone if Jones wouldn’t have saved his forlorn fckup of an ego gone belly up he would have imploded under the sheer pressure of it…
PdV no different except he was possibly far more capable to roll with the punches than this dude who is a frantic ball of wound up stress waiting to explode .. they think the goddamn sun itself oozes out of their highfalutin arses and yet back at the coal face they can’t even recognize which player to play WHERE..!!!
4 Sep 2012, 20:27 pm
Any event, I am off folks – another time.
4 Sep 2012, 20:29 pm
Alberts 4
Etsebeth 5
Flo 6
Marcel 7
Duane 8
Henineken 666
4 Sep 2012, 20:31 pm
Meltdown day on Keo
4 Sep 2012, 20:32 pm
@KeurboomPark-309: now that’s a little bit of ‘thinking’ for you.. but don’t hold out any great hopes that Heyneke ever gonna stretch any envelope THAT far off the blinker radar…
4 Sep 2012, 20:33 pm
@KeurboomPark-309:
Hallo Boom,
Hoe gaan dit?
4 Sep 2012, 20:35 pm
@fitz1ella-306:
Go back in history. Mallett inherited Carel du plessis’s team and went on a winning trot.
White used all Straueli’s players and won a tri-nations in his first year and a WC 3 years later.
And Pdiv just inherited the core of Jake’s team and introduced some along the way.
By building a team, you’re able to make it your own. By creating the combo’s that work and it might not always be the provincial combo’s that might click at international level. HM has inherited a team that went through mass retirements, guys off to greener pastures etc. By doing it his way he can instil his own way of doing things.
The guy is going to make mistakes. He said so himself. That doesn’t mean we must throw him under the bus after being in charge for 5 tests.
Have a heart.
4 Sep 2012, 20:35 pm
they kakking their broeks big time up in Tswane.. if this Bok team don’t pull the sack cloth and ashes out the fire on Saturday I somehow dunno if HM gonna have the wherewithal to even get up and look in the mirror Sunday..
He needs a miracle and I betcha he is bidding for one daily… hope somebody up there got ears to hear his plea bargain
4 Sep 2012, 20:40 pm
@fitz1ella-314:
All coaches lose, Deans have been hanging by his ball hairs, to use your term, for the last four years
Carel’s team lost, they fired him just as the team was on the verge of clicking and Mallet(Saint Nick in Cape Town) took over and used the same team to earn his well earned reputation
4 Sep 2012, 20:43 pm
@fitz1ella-314:
> they kakking their broeks big time up in Tswane..
They’ve been kakking their broeks in Brokeback since they’ve won the Conference Cup and the Sharks dumped them out of the S15 till now
Maybe it’s someone else’s turn?
4 Sep 2012, 21:02 pm
I think the disappointing thing for me is that incoming coaches see the performances of their predecessors, the mistakes etc and then come in with more ridiculous ideas.
I mean here is Heyneke – a man well respected as a rugby man with a solid track record – and within weeks start talking about ‘direct rugby’ which he must have seen did not work.
It did not work for Jake, it did not work when VM and FdP forced it unto the team so why will it work now all of a sudden? Why not say that he wants to build on what PdV started? But no, he needs to reinvent the wheel, the need to be a saviour…
Another puzzling thing is that whenever the Bulls had success it was either Heyneke’s vision, foresight or foundation that were singled out as the difference. Guys like Frans Ludeke and Slaptjips must be wondering what they need to do to get this quasi-messiah like status that some seem to enjoy.
The reality was that Habs scored in the 83 rd minute to win the S12 and Frans’ team destroyed the Chiefs here at Loftus. You have to wonder what is the difference. Is it perhaps Heyneke is more outspoken about his desire to the Afrikaner take up his rightful place in SA rugby? What does he say at the braai that is so compelling that resonates so powerfully with these boys?
4 Sep 2012, 21:25 pm
Have not been on here for a few days, but well done to the WP for an excellent performance in thumping the Bulls, atlast they realised you can pass and run with the ball. was good to see.
And glad my team showed some guts to fight back,
And congrats to Kwas for Klapping the lions
4 Sep 2012, 21:26 pm
hahahaha I see the Pooper volcano nearly erupted today! a blow top is imminent! And then he will be forced to take another leave of absence to get his head right…. you can see it happening, he’s getting far too obsessed with SA again, spending all of his time on here, what a c.rap life our little kiwicullartinsydney must have! I will sit back and watch the prick break down AGAIN with some delight!
4 Sep 2012, 21:28 pm
@KeurboomPark-309:
????
That was my selection on Sunday along with another blogger, Daniel, Anton Bressler and Elstadt on the bench
Better even we said, Jacques Cronje at 8, Flo and Coetzee flanks, Albert at 5, Vermeulen, Daniel and Bressler off the bench.
That scenario would be possible only if HM is worried for his job, until then it will be Morne Styen, Potgieter. Bekker, Kirchner, Mvovo, Habana,
The lot
4 Sep 2012, 22:42 pm
@Hondo-320:
Ja, I like Bressler. No nonsense man. Give the Aussies a nice taai klap or two. Jaque Cronje is solid, but I never rated him as a test play. Daniel is dynamin and intelligent. Can change a game. Would bring him on for Duane after 50. Habanero at 13. JdV on the wing. Habs is better put in the thick ovvit.
4 Sep 2012, 23:13 pm
@Sheriff-317: jy like daai vals noot.
4 Sep 2012, 23:14 pm
@fitz1ella-314: Nah. Just the Springbok on the backlash, no miracle needed.
4 Sep 2012, 23:31 pm
@victoriabok-312:
It’s lekker here in Koeberg. Hoe gaan dit met jou, Vik?
4 Sep 2012, 23:32 pm
So the Bok team is to be announced as follows:
15 Kirchner
14 Hougie
13 JDV
12 Frankie
11 Habanero
10 Skop en jag Steyn
9 Pienaar
8 Vermeulen
7 Alberts
6 Coetzee
5 Kruger
4 Estebeth
3 JDP
2 TBC/pending injury news
1 Beast
4 Sep 2012, 23:35 pm
@Humphrey-325: @<a href="#comment-
Wat rook jy, Humpty? Kirchner?
4 Sep 2012, 23:43 pm
@KeurboomPark-326: dont shoot the messenger, that is Meyer’s team for this weekend, the team that has been training this week. Bekker is to be dropped from the 22.
4 Sep 2012, 23:48 pm
Keo why do you guys bring up the English tour? Its like so last year, there’s no point mentioning it any more. All i recall in my distant memory is a poor performance in genral and last week we went lower than that “team of individuals”.
Sweep that dirt thats under the carpet Keo please and into the dust pan and be done with it?
Poor Franscois Steyn, how much more of this crapping Bok rugby he has to indure. With His tallent then infestered in French skill, can only mean he must fall asleep when playing for the Boring, One Dimentional, predictable Bok rugby. He is probably wishing he could change after the WC 2011 to another international team, even Argentina,…. anybody…, because who is more predictable than the Boks.– poor chap!
Because of the size of a backline, we should never fear unleashing the dragon. At times the dragon has destroyed any team on the planet. What the hell is wrong with SA Rugby coaches? When last have we had a real backline coach and a game plan that suports it. Argentine, we all can say they are better than xyz, but one must look at the ranking 8th verse 3rd. There is a huge gap between 3rd and 4th, and 8th jeez, this gap is even bigger. Our backline was non existant against a team ranked 8th. Thats really poor considering our boys are experienced. 7′s rugby, maybe they should all spend time there, It would do them wonders. We need Margret Thatcher in the coaching role, at least she has brains and BALLS !!
Big, Silver, you-betcha, Go-nadies…!
4 Sep 2012, 23:54 pm
@Humphrey-327:
Sorry. I would have played Lambie at 15.
5 Sep 2012, 00:01 am
@KeurboomPark-329: i woulod have played Lambie at 10. Anyone is better than M Steyn.
5 Sep 2012, 00:02 am
@Humphrey-330:
Absolutely. Franky at 15. Lambie at 10.
5 Sep 2012, 01:29 am
Jean to 12 and Steyn to 15. His boot is necessary to keep teams pinneed back in their own half.
5 Sep 2012, 03:53 am
@PissAnt-305: Could not agree more – HM will learn, and get it right.
There is a kind of person that has no issues acknowledging shortcomings, with a massive appetite to constantly learn and get better. As a result humble as hell too. Will always be a success in the long run.
5 Sep 2012, 04:53 am
@poppa69-267: @poppa69-252:
Careful your slip is showing!
Maybe in your household it is fine to talk that way to a woman in the ‘spirit’ of returning serve, but do us all a favour and keep your filthy habits to yourself.
Disgraceful.
5 Sep 2012, 04:57 am
@PissAnt-294:
Very good points PA, end of the day he is still unbeaten as Bok coach albeit not reaching the lofty and unreasonable hights some expected of the Boks.
5 Sep 2012, 05:12 am
Slart Meyer has a huge task Bokke fans rightfully want him to emulate Henry, win 85% of the time and win every trophy big ask in his first year, if he loses a couple this year coupled with the draws already I doubt he’ll get 85% over his 4 year tenure
5 Sep 2012, 05:28 am
@NZINCHINA-336:
Rightfully want but is it realistic? PDivvie had 4 years in which he did a great job in breaking down what was a decent squad to start with and in the process added very little.
Make no mistake, the Springboks do well in spite of all the external factors haunting them, least of all poor coaching. Imagine for one moment the political interference the Boks had to endure over years and the impact it will have on the All Blacks if it happened with them?
We can have a dig at one another, point and laugh but at the end of the day it is never easy for them or the Bok coach.
5 Sep 2012, 05:34 am
Yip tough job being Bokke coach at least in SA 75% of the population supports the round ball in NZ when it goes wrong its a national disaster.
5 Sep 2012, 05:52 am
5 Sep 2012, 06:18 am
Following the same trend again. Now they want to drop Andries Bekker – sure, he was not on par in Mendoza. I’m sure we heard the exact same words for a few more players over a few more weeks than only Mendoza. Keegan Daniel is another example. Why only have a handpicked few players to be protected by pathetic senior management?
To bring in J Kruger is not a bad call, but to keep Flip van der Merwe is only increasing the chances of more yellow cards.
Big ball carriers – just another vision that will fail. Jacques Potgieter is everything except a ball carrier, he hardly ever gaines any advantage and has the lowest “ball steals” during the whole Super 15 (for the time he played) and the test thus far. No ball skill – to dive into a ruck without arms doesn’t warrant a Springbok jersey.
Sad to say, but we just never learn.
5 Sep 2012, 07:02 am
@Blokkies-17: That is a very intersting observation abou why skills are larnt as opposed to reliance on size o penetrate and subdue. Perhaps a move to weight class rugby will be good for SA, and teach them skill sets that they would not otherwise learn?
It would also make mum’s a bit less nervous about their precious laaitie being run over by a 200 pound gorilla with a full beard in standard four…
5 Sep 2012, 07:08 am
poppa doos blowing gaskets again
beeyootiful
5 Sep 2012, 11:22 am
If the Boks cannot catch and pass a ball by now what the hell are they doing on a rugby field never mind in the national team?
HM needs players with brains as well as Brawn on the field but more importantly he needs a captain who can change a game plan when he sees the one they are using in not working.This will only happen if your captain has the brains and courage to actually do that but I am afraid that the capt will not.
Remove the fear of doing something wrong and let them do there thing but also be responsible for their decisions.In the world of the Boks they spend more time on their electronic devices than on planning their way to WIN a game.I would bet that the coaches this week have all been planning for DEFENSE instead of attack.
Just look at the flyhalf and that will tell the Aussies all they need to know about what rugby we will be playing.
What is the point of taking a Lambie and Goosen if you intend to bring them on later to play catch up instead of starting them and attacking the Aussies from the word go?
Wake up Boks Management(Maybe there is no brains amongst them?)
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