More balance but no blitz please
10 Sep 2012
RYAN VREDE writes that those calling for the immediate reversion to an expansive approach have short memories.
Heyneke Meyer and his Springboks have been lambasted for their perceived tactical conservatism. There may be personnel changes for the Test against the All Blacks in Dunedin, but Meyer won’t veer from his belief in his approach. And neither should he.
Certainly there needs to be greater balance and sharper decision making on attack. In Mendoza and Perth there were occasions, particularly when presented with broken field opportunities, when they should have run instead of kicking for field position. Furthermore, the lack of imagination and precision they displayed when in the Pumas and Wallabies’ red zone was deeply disturbing. These issues need to be addressed as a matter of urgency, but to call for a complete overhaul in strategy a week before playing the world champions is laughable.
This doesn’t mean that I believe the Springboks don’t have the players to play in this manner. However, in the same way their current strategy is taking time (too much some would suggest) to take hold and become the suffocating force Meyer envisions it will be, so too would a more expansive approach. What then will the criticism be when the Boks bomb? Or will those who spit vitriol be content that they will lose beautifully?
The prime example of this came at the start of Peter de Villiers’ reign. De Villiers purposed to make the side a more entertaining one to watch through their brand of rugby. He had absolutely no appreciation for the tactical demands of Test rugby against the elite sides. The Springboks subsequently lost badly at home to New Zealand and Australia in Cape Town and Durban, before reverting to a more structured approach, one which later morphed into the same one that is being employed now. That approach won a series against the Lions and the Tri-Nations in 2009 and it featured some of the best attacking play since the Springboks’ World Cup campaign of 2007. It took a while to settle into and its success rested heavily on excellent execution. The calibre of player at De Villiers’ disposal was also central to the game plan’s effectiveness.
The Springboks will gradually move towards the accurate execution of their game plan as the players’ understanding of it grows and with the return of injured and unavailable players in the coming months. Fourie du Preez’s return for the year-end tour will be a massive boon in this regard.
The Bulls’ Super Rugby championship-winning sides of 2009 and 2010 showed the effectiveness of the strategy when it’s execution is on point. Those sides were prolific try scorers, but they took time to reach that point. Patience has never been a virtue the Springbok supporter has had in abundance. And while no Springbok coach should be granted an easy ride (I’ve written extensively that Meyer has made fundamental selection and tactical errors that are inexcusable) there needs to be some perspective on Meyer’s plight.
I understand what Meyer is trying to achieve through his game plan and selections. That doesn’t mean I agree with it unconditionally. But I’ve been fortunate to have built a good working relationship with him over the last seven years. In that time I’ve come to appreciate his tactical and technical grasp of the game. His new-age approach to studying players and how to extract the best out of them has intrigued me. His thirst for new information that can give his sides the edge – including adapting elements of play, conditioning and recruiting from other codes – is fascinating.
I’m no apologist for the man, but I believe, based on the aforementioned, as well as the quality of players emerging in South Africa, that in time he will become a highly successful Springbok coach. Whether he is allowed that time remains to be seen. The pressure from the public will mount if results and performances continue to fall short of expectations. Meyer is resilient and he’ll continue to believe the tide will turn. His bosses at Saru may not be so faithful.
For now he must resist the urge to change tact completely. Again, there is a desperate need for a move towards greater balance in their attacking play, but to abandon the foundational elements of the game plan completely makes no sense at this point. It will only serve to further weaken his side’s challenge and will undoubtedly increase the margin of the All Blacks’ victory this Saturday.
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37 Comments
10 Sep 2012, 10:41 am
cant believe we s hit scared of this current kiwi team
shows how much we have regressed
10 Sep 2012, 10:46 am
This game plan makes us competitive in every single game. The scorelines are always close.
Now imagine if we have a Goosen firing on all cylinders directing play from 10, have Ruan Pienaar settled in at 9, and maybe have a Bismark, a JP Pietersen and a Burger/Smith level player in the mix as well.
We’d be a pretty difficult side to beat.
10 Sep 2012, 10:47 am
Ryan, this ‘should-to-shoulder’ approach is exactly why we are in such a mess!!
Meyer has established relationships with players and it is now starting to hurt his reputation. We can no longer afford an approach that precludes form and ability over a bond.
Go and watch Moneyball… we need to balance a belief in players with their statistical ability to do the job. This is what Jake White and Mallett did so well.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good hand-shake and ‘my word is my bond’ type of mentality… but we need balance.
10 Sep 2012, 10:52 am
as long as we forsake the breakdown specialists and have M Steyn at 10 we are still born…
10 Sep 2012, 11:23 am
“His thirst for new information that can give his sides the edge – including adapting elements of play, conditioning and recruiting from other codes – is fascinating.”
And yet we have Ricardo Laubscher as our backs coach and Van Graan as attack. but
Meyer has a ‘thirst’ for new information.
10 Sep 2012, 11:27 am
@bobbyboyshey-3: Moneyball was actually about putting together, or optimising, the best team available, using econometric measures and analysis, CONSTRAINED by LIMITED finances.
Meyer has no such constraints for his players… However I reckon the statistical analysis, or even that of SA’s sports scientists and Sports Science in general are probably a good few years behind the cutting edge of Big Data analysis and performance modelling you might find in a few industries eg. Banking, CRM, Utilities.
The power of these techniques and applications to show what is actually cutting probably scares the living daylights out of these Sports Fundis… They lose that element of being gurus when the “Black Box” actually highlights some counter intuition that they can’t explain, faster, more effeciently and with greater accuracy than they could hope to do with comparative primitive, but more “in control”, gatekeeping techniques…
Comfortable in the Bronze Age, while the End of the Iron Age is already near…
10 Sep 2012, 11:38 am
@grant10-4:
Okay after watching the test match and the Province/Cheetahs game we do need a fetcher to slow down the oppositions attack.
This will allow some breathing space for our defense to realign.
If Flo came on early in the 2nd half in place of Coetsee we would have had a better chance of winning.
But this perception is based on hindsight.
10 Sep 2012, 11:44 am
@Jeraldjay-7: flow is not quick enough, he needs to up his tempo….michael hooper was everywhere like the energiser bunny!
10 Sep 2012, 11:52 am
@Transformation-8:
Flo’s speed will be made up with his domkrag. He would have got their later but moered Hooper out the way.
Transie who’s that blond flanker that plays for Griquas.
He’s like a super charged energiser bunny.
10 Sep 2012, 11:53 am
@Transformation-8: At one point in the game I thought the commentator was doing his own little haka in the studio. “…to Hooper, uh Cooper…”
10 Sep 2012, 12:24 pm
@Jeraldjay-9: Marnus Schoeman. Played for the Bulls, but decided he needs more gametime. Hopefully he will come back to Loftus like a Matfield. Most Bulls supporters who follow junior rugby were very disappointed when he decided to go to Kimberley. I think he was the top try scorer in one of the U21 seasons.
10 Sep 2012, 13:59 pm
Heyneke has surrounded himself with amateur assistants…..Let me tell you know, he will never succeed unless he keeps better company. Anyone will tell you, a manager (even in ordinary business) is only as good as his staff.
Show me a successful man and I will show you a deputy he cannot do without.
10 Sep 2012, 14:11 pm
I think Francois Hougaard would make an excellent fetcher. He has great upper body strength, speed and is used to playing in close with forwards anyway. His x factor is his vision and desire to get involved. He would be a bit like a faster Brussow.
10 Sep 2012, 14:44 pm
@stormer in a teacup-13: True, but he will be thrown around like a rag doll, like what happened against Arg when he played 9.
Not worth it. He’ll be injured.
We need a captain closer to the forwards. JdV talks about the inexperience, but his experience helped nothing when the players were incited by Sharpe and the Arg players in the previous match. Yeah, it is part of the game, but tempers will still flare, and that’s what you need a good captain for.
JdV was somewhere posing for the cameras on the other side of the field every time this happened.
10 Sep 2012, 16:57 pm
@Bouts-14: I think when Bissie gets back next year, think he will be Bok captain. Doubt JdV will still captain next year. Meyer has him as captain until the end of the RC and think the eoyt.
10 Sep 2012, 17:25 pm
Jissie you get more bombastic and sound more arrogant with every article Ryan:
“I understand what Meyer is trying to achieve through his game plan and selections”
and
“…I’ve come to appreciate his tactical and technical grasp of the game.”
As if you are the oracle of rugby knowledge and you totally understand what an international coach is doing. China – Heyneke has forgotten things that you still dont know about rugby.
You are an irritating little journalist buzzing around him. A necessary evil.
I remember watching that video of you watching a press conference with PDiv, and your body language and facial expression as if you were the expert and PDiv was an idiot. Get over yourself china.
You are an armchair critic and supporter. You know a little bit about rugby (as I do) but we dont know anything compared to the guys who actually coach and actually play the game.
10 Sep 2012, 18:09 pm
I think there is also a case for the guys being absolutely buggered ….. seems like it. They are just flat.
10 Sep 2012, 18:35 pm
@Tacitus-2: meanwhile the Bok win percentage could slip to 38% after the two games against NZ – that’s lower than the Scotland coach and comparable to Italy’s.
10 Sep 2012, 18:41 pm
@Big Hit-18: that will perhaps be just what the doctor ordered because then Saru going to be faced with a situation where the PREVIOUS coach was hired for ‘NON’ rugby reasons and THIS coach was hired for ABSOLUTE rugby reasons.. and now the so called FUNDI rugby GURU is found out to be the one SO FAR out his tree that he don’t know the beginning of what principles actually WORK in this modern game which he has now shown he CANNOT possibly determine right from wrong in his thinking patterns…
and THEN the powers that be will be faced with the embarrassment of either having to FIRE this incompetent clown or face the fact that they have to ALLOW him his learning curve and suffer the consequences of hiring somebody who they THOUGHT was the answer but emphatically is NOT..!!
10 Sep 2012, 18:59 pm
@fitz1ella-19:
Has it ever entered your mind that the bok coaching job is a ‘poisoned challis’ within the current structures? I mean the poor guy has very little support as a coach. There has been no coaching and planning continuity. He was appointed 6 months too late, he has scrambled to put together a management team. There is no planning or support in terms of player management and planning and mapping this to an overall tactical blue print.
It is a mess.
And we expect this guy to perform miracles?
I do not think anyone would have done any better.
10 Sep 2012, 19:04 pm
@2 “?This game plan makes us competitive in every single game”
Eng 3rd test – a late missed DG attempt away from a defeat; Arg in Mendoza – lucky charge down try & a tie; Aus – don’t know what do to with decent ball.
All Blacks – _______________
I Beg to differ
10 Sep 2012, 19:09 pm
@The Analyst-20: This moron got NO CLUE..
ANYONE could have done Better .. ANYONE
I betcha that Naka Drotske and Hawies Fourie would have done a DAMN SIGHT BETTER.. or Pote Human .. or Alan Solomons or ANYONE ..!!!
Failing which I’ll drink this goddamn poisoned chalice and SHOW this Moron how its done.
10 Sep 2012, 19:13 pm
@Jeraldjay-7: welcome to the Light my man…
10 Sep 2012, 19:17 pm
@20 – I agree 6 matches into his tenure is too early (and harsh) to give him a failing score. “Luckily” he’s made almost every selection error possible in 6 games; he’s maybe starting to reflect on the perception of him created by the walkie talkie warrior antics; he knows the men better. The way he was appointed (late) considering the fact that only a WC victory would have saved PdV robbed him of pre-preparation time & explains his propensity to work with his Bulls colleagues. In the long term I foresee the beginnings of a challenge to AB dominance, with a wiser HM making better calls
10 Sep 2012, 19:19 pm
@fitz1ella-22:
Have you got your level one coaching certificate yet wonder boy?
10 Sep 2012, 19:22 pm
@ fitzella “I’ll drink this goddamn poisoned chalice”
lol
10 Sep 2012, 19:25 pm
Fitzella , you are better off drinking FROM the poisoned chalice, unless you can melt the chalice & drink it in it’s liquid state
10 Sep 2012, 19:25 pm
I don’t need no level one coaching certificate..
ANYONE with a measly modicum of common sense can SEE wtf to do and WHO to select WHERE .. and WHAT is WRONG with this fckup Moron’s emaciated self duped delusional strategy that KICK CHASE RUGBY IS MORS DOOD LONG A F’NG GO..!!!!
10 Sep 2012, 19:32 pm
@fitz1ella-22:
Love it mate.
10 Sep 2012, 19:37 pm
@fitz1ella-28:
Hmmm
Which is why you are a rugby coach and not an outhouse constructor.
10 Sep 2012, 19:52 pm
@Puma-15: If that happens then it will be yet another of Meyer’s mistakes – Bismarck doesn’t have the personality to be captain.
10 Sep 2012, 20:00 pm
By the way, who remembers Jon Cardinelli writing this:
“Hooper is an out-and-out fetcher, and you won’t seem him defending or carrying the ball like Pocock or the Boks’ Francois Louw. It will be a problem for the Wallabies, especially if their pack as a collective does not dominate the collisions.”
It’s here:
http://keo.co.za/2012/09/06/preview-wallabies-vs-springboks-2/
Hooper then carried the ball for 51 metres, more than anyone else
Stats here:
http://www.rugbystats.com.au/matches/rugby/match17237.html
10 Sep 2012, 21:58 pm
@gunther-30: He does his best coaching from the throne. Specially scrum coaching.
Puuuuussshhhhh!!!
10 Sep 2012, 23:59 pm
Ryan – 100% agree with you – it’s simply not in the Bok DNA to play the so-called ‘expansive game’ – it’s ALWAYS been a disaster when we’ve tried to play like the Antipodeans – from Ian McIntosh onwards to early Pieter de Villiers – DISASTER – Kitch Christie, Jake White (+ Aussie Eddie) eventually got it – Heyneke just needs to get key players back.
Boks are at their best when they are playing with passion and physicality and superb defence – we run ‘the expansive game’ in the last 20 minutes when the other side have been hammered so much they want the game end. It’s not pretty, it’s not clever – but it’s the Bok way and, for some of us, lovely to watch.
But we do need a fetcher.
11 Sep 2012, 00:49 am
Well then how is it that the Sharks can play the “expansive” game, like the Antipodeans, and for the most part beat them at their own game? Or don’t the best players in the country have the ability to emulate what the Sharks are producing?
The days of moering them in the forwards and then hoofing up and unders should go the way of the ox wagon – since it’s as innovative as a bleeding ox wagon. But Blue Bulls ox wagon rugby seems to be the only thing that HM knows. The bottom line is that we have the players in SA to produce any kind of rugby. The problem is the coaching – dull, unimaginative, unable to adjust to the circumstances and for the most part, downright stoopid.
11 Sep 2012, 04:44 am
Heineken — dead yarp walking… left, right, left, right….
11 Sep 2012, 12:02 pm
@J.B. Cowper-34: Well I totally disagree with you guys! Boks have played in a good “expansive” way before (not like the Blues or Lions do, but in a balanced way) and they can do it now.
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