Meyer must make most of lost cause
11 Sep 2012
JON CARDINELLI writes a depleted Springbok side cannot be expected to win in Dunedin and yet there’s still much to be gained in terms of developing a new starting flyhalf.
The unavailability of key forwards as well as the inexperience of the likely starters and combinations suggests that Saturday’s Test will be more about damage control than anything else.
Last week’s forward performance against Australia was poor, and there’s little chance that this week’s showing will be much improved.
How can there be any expectation of a better performance in Dunedin? Injuries and suspensions have hit the Boks hard this week, and the pack that starts at the Forsyth Barr Stadium won’t boast one established Test combination.
But let’s back up a bit and consider what Heyneke Meyer had to work with at the start of the season.
Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha were not available, and neither was jack of all trades Danie Rossouw. Andries Bekker was injured. Schalk Burger was crocked. Juan Smith had made a decision to give rugby a break for a year. It wasn’t an ideal situation to start with, and has got worse as the season has progressed.
Bismarck du Plessis has been the biggest loss in recent weeks. Other players that have been injured include Coenie Oosthuizen, Pierre Spies, and Chiliboy Ralepelle while Ryan Kankowski has moved to Japan. The unavailability of this latter group has been a blow to the Boks’ forward depth.
Then Eben Etzebeth went and got himself suspended with a mindless headbutt on Nathan Sharpe. Then Jannie du Plessis and Pat Cilliers succumbed to injuries in the most recent Test in Perth. Going into this week’s clash in Dunedin, the Boks will be wanting for quality, synergy and experience in that starting pack.
In the past, there have been strong teams that have gone to New Zealand and been soundly beaten. What hope does this side have of succeeding where superior sides have failed?
A new front-row combination will start due to Jannie du Plessis’s injury, and Etzebeth’s suspension will also see a new face starting at lock.
Francois Louw is likely to start at openside flank given the challenge of the All Blacks’ loose forwards, but that would see Meyer making a further change to the starting pack. And while I believe Louw can be highly effective in this role, he is only into his second week playing under Meyer and the new structures. Don’t expect miracles from a new-look tight five, and don’t expect dominance from men like Louw at the breakdown.
It’s at times like these when some coaches will look to retain as many fit players as possible so as not to disrupt the team dynamic any further. It’s been reported that Meyer will stick with the backline that started against the Wallabies last week. That would be a mistake.
What can Meyer gain from such selections? The changes up front will compromise the Boks’ potential to play a more balanced game, and I’m sure they’ll keep things as simple as possible. However, it would be interesting to see how a new flyhalf performs. It’s a game the Boks are unlikely to win, and this may ease the pressure on less established flyhalf options like Pat Lambie and Johan Goosen.
Lambie shone in last year’s Tri-Nations when he started at flyhalf against the All Blacks in Wellington. A rag-tag bunch of forwards were soundly beaten by their New Zealand counterparts, and still Lambie managed to impress.
Meyer sees Lambie as a fullback but it’s at flyhalf where he can provide the Boks with more options in terms of attack and defence. He’s played there for the Sharks this season with some success, exhibiting a skill set that includes taking the ball to the gainline, sending it through the hands when the wide strike is on, and playing his team into good field positions via a great tactical boot.
Goosen showed the same all-round skills when he featured for the Cheetahs in Super Rugby, and has been tipped as the future Bok flyhalf. Meyer could make a powerful statement by starting Goosen this Saturday, but if he truly believes that the experience would do the 20-year-old more harm than good, then Lambie should wear the No 10 jersey.
The Boks will struggle to keep the All Blacks at bay, but that doesn’t mean that nothing can be gained from the fixture. Changes need to made, and replacing flyhalf Morné Steyn with somebody more equipped to meet the demands of a modern day 10 is a step that needs to be taken sooner rather than later.
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229 Comments
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11 Sep 2012, 13:10 pm
Even Gaffie thinks Goosen shouls start:
Kies Goosen, sê Gaffie
2012-09-10 20:36
Gerdie Karstens
KIMBERLEY. – Johan Goosen is beslis ryp genoeg om die All Blacks se rugbyspan Saterdag in Dunedin aan te durf.
Só sê die gewese Springbok-losskakel Gaffie du Toit oor die moontlikheid dat Goosen in dié toets in die Rugby-kampioenskap kan speel.
Goosen het in Suid-Afrika se nederlaag van 19-26 teen Australië in Perth net sowat 10 minute speelkans gekry, maar sy impak was beslis ’n positiewe een.
Daar is kenners wat glo dat Goosen gereed is om die Bokke se nr. 10-trui nou al oor die kop te trek. Ander vergelyk hom weer met Du Toit en sê dat hy nie soos die Bok-skakelpaar van 1999, Du Toit en die skrumskakel Dave von Hoesslin, te vroeg ryp gedruk moet word nie.
Maar Du Toit meen Goosen is gereed om teen die wêreldkampioene sy staal te wys.
“Ek dink dat mense in gedagte moet hou hoe rugby verander het. Ek en Dave het destyds min Curriebeker- en geen Super-rugby gespeel voordat ons aan die diep kant ingegooi is nie. Goosen het weer oorgenoeg blootstelling op daardie vlak gekry en is beslis meer ryp as wat ons destyds was,” het Du Toit gesê.
“Hy het net 10 minute teen die Aussies gespeel, maar het goed gedoen en lus gelyk vir speel.”
As Goosen wel bo verwagting gekies word, moet hy vrye teuels kry om hom uit te leef eerder as wat ’n wedstrydplan op hom afgedruk word, meen Du Toit.
“ ’n Mens kies spelers of grond van hul briljantheid. As Goosen gekies word, gee ’n mens erkenning aan sy manier van speel. Ja, hy het riglyne nodig waarvolgens gespeel moet word, maar hy moet die vryheid hê om te doen wat hy goed doen. Die ander spelers moet by hom aanpas, want hy is die besluitnemer.
“Hy is onvoorspelbaar, iets wat Morné Steyn nie is nie. Morné doen niks meer wat onverwags is nie.
“Goosen kan ons die ruimte aan die buitekant gee wat ons kortkom.”
Omdat Goosen hom in die Curriebeker- en Super-reekse as ’n briljante speler bewys het, beteken dit nie dat hy met die intrapslag die All Blacks van hul voete gaan speel nie, het Du Toit gesê.
“Die All Blacks sal hom leer ken en dan weet wat om van hom op toetsvlak te verwag.
“Hulle sal ook sy kanaal baie aanval, soos wat hulle destyds met ons groentjies gedoen het. Maar hy behoort speelkans gegun te word. En hy behoort nie met die druk te sukkel nie.”
11 Sep 2012, 13:12 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-191: why do you bother arguing with this chap? if the Baby Boks can wint the JWC with Pollard who was 3rd string behind Goosen for that jersey, hey Goosen would’ve “proved himself” too by winning the medal…
11 Sep 2012, 13:15 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-196: Legitimate questions? Hehehe… I suppose said embedded Elle reporter from the above also thought “wow Mr Marine, why has your gun such an enormous barrel” was a legitimate question…. To which Mr Marine replied “Ma’am, good question (grin on face lengthening by every word). Why, because it shoots mighty big bullets, Ma’am”
So to answer, them answers have been long answered already… If you just read and see the words instead of your silly, but sometimes admittedly funny, generalisations, then you may find that the square peg actually goes into the round hole after all…
Now go back, ask your little questions while reading again – you may find that there are big bullets coming out of a farken long, big barrel of HG’s Big Big Gun…
11 Sep 2012, 13:18 pm
@Transformation-202: So Goosen won the Junior RWC Transie…?
Lol
… and Megatron the Sharksworld “expert” makes entrance… disappointingly without the Wayne Smith gameplan copy and paste gameplan he promised for so long…
Chickenshit
11 Sep 2012, 14:20 pm
@CharlesM-199:
The HM now, compared to the person he was as the Stormers assistant coach, appears to be two completely different people.
I remember him being a calm, easy going person under Solly.
11 Sep 2012, 14:28 pm
@Heavens Game-204: look who is talking
you were up Meyer’s bum in june right up to the beginning of rugby championship telling all and sundry that Meyers is the BEEZKNEEZ since he selected a s.hitload of “BullSharks until he dropped your fancy pants captain Keegan “christian cullen of loosies” daniel BWAHAHAHAHAHA
and jerk around your “Lambieghini” now you’ve changed your tune when some of TOLD that s.hit was stinking!
CLASSIC flip flop (you’ve got it trademarked because that’s what you are
)
11 Sep 2012, 14:54 pm
@Transformation-206: And so? June is a long time from September in Rugby… Much has happened between the first test against England and now…
I might be a stubborn farker, but unlike Heyneke, when I see evidence that things are very, very wrong then I do make a clear and decisive change to my opinion…
Now as much as you and Doggy are hating the fact that I might be stealing your thunder, meanwhile conveying the disappointment and distrust of exactly how many HONEST rugby supporters, coaches and players are now thinking and feeling after the initial near universal positivity of Meyer’s appointment, you poor fools will now just have to grin and bear it.
I say near universal because initial irrational envy and hate of Meyers appointment by a pocket of ignorant fanboys and fangirls from the “Traditional Rugby Power of the South” just because he is from the “Traditional Rival” of the North – and nothing else at all, especially rugby reasons – is hardly prescient or prophetic…
Ridicule Lambie or Daniel as much as you like – similar to the downright disgraceful ridicule and humiliation Meyer and his crew have done literally in the Bok setup – I will see who truly is prophetic and prescient, for rugby reasons only and not fanboy sentiment – when these same players go one better with the Sharks next year than they did this year and bring that goddamn S15 cup to its rightful home at Dynamite Stadium.
BOOM!
Keegan is the “Christian Cullen of Loosies” no doubt… Revolutionary. Like Cullen was to other backline players of his time – Daniel is faster, more skilfull, and pound for pound stronger and more courageous than any loosie around… Hardly his fault that Meyer and the most of SA, including ignorant copy and paste fanboys like yourself got no idea how to classify him or heaven forbid use him in a “gameplan”)
(Now speaking of gameplans, when you gonna paste that gameplan you were promising… You know, the one from your hero Wayne… That one you next to his picture near your bedroom mirror
)
Come now, Megatron, Sharksworld “legendary expert”, give us a Game Plan… A real one, instead of pronouncing and copy and pasting about the inadequacies of Meyer’s
11 Sep 2012, 15:11 pm
Keegan is the “Christian Cullen of Loosies” no doubt… Revolutionary. Like Cullen was to other backline players of his time – Daniel is faster, more skilfull, and pound for pound stronger and more courageous than any loosie around… Hardly his fault that Meyer and the most of SA, including ignorant copy and paste fanboys like yourself got no idea how to classify him or heaven forbid use him in a “gameplan”)
HG, how do you quantify or measure this? Remember that he was just as ineffective in his tests as the other Bok loosies.
11 Sep 2012, 15:21 pm
@pompies2-208: How about some offload, tackling, cleaning stats for starters… Maybe some support play and assists stats for main course and the some individual speed, strength-weight ratio and lineout jumping stats for dessert.
Go look and see… It might even surprise kenners like you.
If you dont know where to go then Transie/Megatron the Sharksworld “expert” always around to give a copy and paste helping hand…
11 Sep 2012, 15:22 pm
@Heavens Game-207: “Now as much as you and Doggy are hating the fact that I might be stealing your thunder,”
this is exactly your problem, you are an attention-seeker (the histrionics since Keegan was dropped are evidence) only in your mind is there any “thunder to steal”
you are only a grootbek FLIP FLOP (TM = HG)
and where are your other guppy “acolytes”?
you all were accusing the Stormers supporters of being provincialistic and anti-boks yet here you are now feeling jilted.
Up to the Argentina game at Newlands you were still up Meyer’s arse crowing about how ingenius it is that he has picked the “Dynamite’s loose trio” in its entirery! so stop talking kak about “June to September”
11 Sep 2012, 15:31 pm
@Heavens Game-207: “I will see who truly is prophetic and prescient, for rugby reasons only and not fanboy sentiment – when these same players go one better with the Sharks next year than they did this year and bring that goddamn S15 cup to its rightful home at Dynamite Stadium.”
as for predictions, please don’t even start
how many *POP*s did you predict and how many false surges up the S15 log never materialised from the wet Dynamite?
no *BOOM*
11 Sep 2012, 15:33 pm
@Heavens Game-209: Those are all linear stats. You can’t measure effectiveness of execution because it’s subjective. The fact that your judgment starts off with bias only serves to skew the results even further.
11 Sep 2012, 15:37 pm
@TooMuchRugby-201: hahahaha wel as Gaffie dit se dan moet die beste raad wees
11 Sep 2012, 15:37 pm
@Transformation-211: A final was good enough for me… especially while you and the rest of the Sharksworld “experts” were forgetting about the game of rugby and busying yourselves filling out Facebook pages calling for Plum to go…
Him, Hugh Reece and Bashford truly embarrassed your rugby forecasting “abilities”…
Megatron the Sharksworld rugby “expert”, my left ballas…
(Ps… Still waiting for that Game Plan… Dont tell me this is going down the transformation definition route… While you at it go dig some stats for Pompies while he’s waiting… Chop, chop… There you go, my little fetcher… Maybe fetch me a beer at the end of it all, okay?)
11 Sep 2012, 15:45 pm
@Heavens Game-214: HG, stick around. We value your contribution. How about how Keegan’s skills could aid the Boks in getting out of their quagmire
11 Sep 2012, 15:46 pm
@pompies2-212: Who has bias? Come now Pompies…
Keegan Daniels, the Christian Cullen of loosies, has more than a little construct validity….
Out of respect, I have let you discover the convergent validity on your own steam – maybe with a little help from Transie.
Therefore Content Validity and Representation validity are up to you too….
However I reserve Face Validity of the initial statement or hypothesis that Keegan Daniel is the Christian Cullen of Loosies until proven otherwise…
Now where’s that null hypothesis when you need it….
TRRRRRRAAAAAAAAANSIE!!!?
11 Sep 2012, 15:49 pm
@Heavens Game-216: Oh gawd, you do have a way of gayifying a simple argument. English please. I understand simple sentences. I’m like a ******……………………………….who understands rugby, rather than a man who understands bananas.
11 Sep 2012, 15:51 pm
@pompies2-217: what’s wrong with munkey?
11 Sep 2012, 16:03 pm
@pompies2-217: As “gayified” as this: “fact that your judgment starts off with bias only serves to skew the results even further”…
Results?
Ahem.
11 Sep 2012, 16:05 pm
Okay… I’ve had fun terrorising the assorted “experts” and recent “regulars” for a while now…
Outtahere…
11 Sep 2012, 16:06 pm
@Heavens Game-219: you’ve got manlove not me?
11 Sep 2012, 16:18 pm
LOL! Its hilarious how one moment HG is having orgasms at the BullShark Bokke and then a couple of WP boykies get thrown in and he moans like a little baby!
11 Sep 2012, 16:46 pm
I think a new coach should be given 1 season leeway to prove himself if he is not taking over an already proven group of players and is introducing new young players to the team….not a pleasant experience for the supporter I know. Then pull out the big guns and tear him apart.
11 Sep 2012, 16:51 pm
If Heyneke Meyer plays Morne Steyn at Flyhalf on Saturdy, then he is a confirmed idiot. I can understand selections that are forced onto him due to injuries and unavailability of players, but when a player ina key position is clearly out of form and not good enough, and you have two youngsters who would easily do better to pick from, then it is a no brainer. We are going to lose this game, so why not test some of the players against the best. We already know how poorly Morne is playing.
11 Sep 2012, 16:55 pm
Oh and play Alberts at 4, he isn’t having the best impact as a loosie and I would rather see Louw, Vermeulen and Coetzee as loosies, with Alberts in the tight this weekend. Thinking of bringing Bakkies back is the kind of backwards mentality that our rugby does not need now. We are supposed to be building for the future. We could accept a ew losses if we were moving forwards, but certainly not in reverse gear!
11 Sep 2012, 17:02 pm
@mako-224: Meyer also dismissed suggestions that Steyn’s poor goal-kicking form meant his overall game had suffered.
“Morné played good rugby at times, even though he didn’t kick so well,” the coach said, “Morné is a player that is mentally very tough and it is just a matter of time before he is back to his best.
“It is my job to get him back to his best and I am confident I will get him back there [to his best]
11 Sep 2012, 17:07 pm
@Transformation-226:
I am afraid I don’t have much faith in HM. The guys is making an absolute hash of his job. If he said to us that this year is going to be a tough one with all the injuries etc, but he is going to blood young guys and build towards the future, then (most of) the public would probably understand it and back the new blood. But the way he is going about building this side reminds me of Straueli, whom I have always regarded as the worst ever Bok coach.
11 Sep 2012, 17:45 pm
@Jeraldjay-190:
They had a disagreement.
Rassiw tried to force Nienaber on him
12 Sep 2012, 01:34 am
@race of tan-123:
I don’t think the players, particularly the backs are scared, I think HM & Morne are. He is the single biggest influence on the side, but his strengths are not suited to the rules at the moment, particularly with the safe Dagg & Jane at the back.
I don’t buy into how weak the Boks are, we are playing OK & still winning. Boks are playing ok, won 3, drew 2 lost 1. If either team has one of THOSE nights, they will be impossible to contain.
Just hope its my team that does, not yours…
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