Meyer defiant on Morné
12 Sep 2012
Morne Steyn will start at flyhalf against the All Blacks in Dunedin.
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer has selected Steyn and made just two changes to the side beaten by Australia in Perth.
Francois Louw starts in the specialist openside role, with Marcell Coetzee among the substitutes.
‘The New Zealanders are good on the ground which is why we decided to go for a specialist openside flank in Francois,’ said Meyer. ‘Marcell has been very good this season and has played a lot of rugby, but in this match we feel he will be more useful as an impact option.’
Meanwhile, Flip van der Merwe starts at lock, Andries Bekker is recalled to the match 22 and tighthead prop Jannie du Plessis has been declared fit. Toulon-based lock Bakkies Botha won’t be involved and the issue with Botha is believed to be medical insurance – a similar situation which hampered Fourie du Preez’s return to Test rugby this season.
Johan Goosen is again among the substitutes and there’s a match squad call-up for Juan de Jongh and Dean Greyling.
Steyn kicked all 18 points in the Boks’ 18-5 win against the All Blacks in Port Elizabeth a year ago and holds the record of most points against the All Blacks when he scored all 31 points in the Boks’ win in Bloemfontein in 2009.
However, the Boks, with Steyn at flyhalf, have not enjoyed the kind of success that warrants continued selection. Steyn has played flyhalf in the Boks’ last 30 Tests and have won just 16.
South Africa’s rivalry with New Zealand is considered the fiercest in the game, but the All Blacks have been dominant in the professional era. Pre-isolation the Boks held a 21-16 winning advantage, but since international readmission in 1992 the All Blacks have won 30 and the Boks just 13. One Test has been drawn, 18-18 in Auckland in 1994.
Springboks – 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Bryan Habana, 13 Jean de Villiers (c), 12 Frans Steyn, 11 Francois Hougaard, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Willem Alberts, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Juandre Kruger, 4 Flip van der Merwe, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Beast Mtawarira.
Subs: 16 Tiaan Liebenberg, 17 Dean Greyling, 18 Andries Bekker, 19 Marcell Coetzee, 20 Johan Goosen, 21 Juan de Jongh, 22 Pat Lambie.
784 Comments
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12 Sep 2012, 06:53 am
Now Meyer is playing the quota game, putting JdJ on the bench. Who’s he going to come on for? The captain? Nope. Frans Steyn? Nope (what if there’s a 55m penalty late in the game)
& WTF is he rotating Marcell for (“horses for courses”)? More hypocrisy because Morne always starts regardless of the opposition.
BTW beast & j dup need to have a fire lit under their pants. Get gurthro & bj botha back in the mix
12 Sep 2012, 07:06 am
@Te Rangatira-50:
I will stand by my previous posts and say the game will be close and will come down to the final minutes, well heres hoping…As for Morne, needs to nail his place kicks, be more accurate on his bombs and make sure he gets a pass away when there is an overlap. plus tackle like a demon. Whilst I think he should make way for the younger guys he has been picked to do a job, so needs to go out there, execute and deliver.
12 Sep 2012, 07:09 am
I mentiomned before that HM is starting to display an arrogance that by far surpasses that of PDV. A dangerous dictatorial pig headedness. PDV saw his shortcomings early on after just 1 game of trying to play kamikaze he was flexible and realised he was wrong. Things were altered and the result was one of the best seasons in Bok history (2009).
HM is digging his own grave. He’s built so many critics in just 2 months and most of it is self inflicted.
12 Sep 2012, 07:10 am
Which begs the question, was he ever that good a coach to begin with or did he ride the wave of talent disposed to him in the mid 2000′s, ala Robbie Deans who is also now been gravely exposed
12 Sep 2012, 07:11 am
Morne Steyn is ******* ****, so is ******* Zane Kircher, ALL blacks to win by 40 points, morne steyn useless, ricardo loubscher useless, johann van graan useless.
12 Sep 2012, 07:11 am
Morning, afternoon all. I have said this for weeks now. It actually doesn’t matter which team HM chooses, as long as he selects MS at flyhalf and Niknaks at 15 and sticks to his dinasaur game plan, we will be losing often. Get used to it boys. It is tough but something we all need to get used to rather sooner than later… The truth even hurts me…
12 Sep 2012, 07:13 am
HM drops some players at the drop of hat because they are not up to standard. But certain Blue boys are just untouchable. Sad really…
12 Sep 2012, 07:14 am
Big game on Saturday. Superbru going to be easy this week. NZ easily by 25 points. Feel for coetzee he should be there ahead of vermuelen. I recon Richie will teach Louw a few things and Read will run circles around the Vermuelen. Pity Lambie and Goosen are sitting on the bench.
12 Sep 2012, 07:17 am
@patch-58:
You a Sharks supporter? Only asking…
It is not those players that are the problem, they are pretty good players. It is the machinee of rugby 9 and 10 that is the problem. No offence…
12 Sep 2012, 07:20 am
flip offers nothing to boks
nothing
12 Sep 2012, 07:21 am
@Gumboots-59:
Are you a province supporter?
Only asking….
12 Sep 2012, 07:22 am
Apparently because of the closed roof and good playing conditions the game will be played at a fast pace. Like most of the bloggers I cannot see our 10 and our game plan standing up to the fast game the Kiwis will be playing and I cannot see how a kicking game will keep the ball away from Dagg and company unless Morne and co kick with laser point percision and that will not happen. So yes bring on Lambie Goosen and JDJ for JDV.
12 Sep 2012, 07:23 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-60:
Ja.
Where is sharks lock dude that played for the boks in the tri nations last year and then went overseas.
He was superb. So superb I can’t remember his name.
12 Sep 2012, 07:29 am
Johan Muller
12 Sep 2012, 07:32 am
@Gumboots-59: Lets face it. He will chop and change every player before he drops Steyn or Kirshner. I think Coetzee was the best performing forward last week.
12 Sep 2012, 07:34 am
@gunther-61:
Ja
Are you a Bulls Supporter?
12 Sep 2012, 07:36 am
@patch-65:
Coetzee is a great prospect. He with Etsebeth were ok last week. The game plan is restricting all the players me thinks…
12 Sep 2012, 07:37 am
Playing a morne because believing in the fact that he will win the match with his boot(meyer in 6 games already it have not worked!!!)
Playing hougaard as a wing is paying dividends(but is it his preferred position)
Guys if you have watch the games like I have then you will realise that fatigue nd fitness nd bmt is long gone in the players because of the long rugby schedule we had this year…
Where is boooming beast?
Where is the destructive alberts?
Where is the bashing of the forwards?
Where is the sharpness of the backline?
I think our condition is the problem mentally psychologically physically and emotionally…
The a-grade players needs a break/sent them on a condition program and let them come back fitter fresher and sharper
12 Sep 2012, 07:37 am
@gunther-63:
i hear you but honestly, i ask myself if flip has ever had a good game for the boks.
hargreaves or mostert? hargreaves was at 5 and mostert at 4, no? hargreaves is overseas, i dont know about mostert?
anyway, one unions useless lock should not justify anothers.
12 Sep 2012, 07:38 am
@Gumboots-66:
Do you see how pathetic it sounds?
Wake up Billy boy.
12 Sep 2012, 07:39 am
@gunther-70:
Naa explain! It promotes the unions. Very inovative…
12 Sep 2012, 07:40 am
@NagouGrote-64:
No the other one.
12 Sep 2012, 07:43 am
Stand up all those that used to mock PdV and wanted Heyneke as coach. U r reaping your rewards, blue boks gameplan and losing gameplan
Like the Aussies, we r learning that some coaches are lucky to be coaching when a rare breed of quality of players are at their disposal, like Deans with Carter and McCaw, like Heyneke with Matfield, Bakkies and FdPreeze. They r both exposed now at international level, how bad coaches they are.
Gatlin is the best coach at international level, made world class players out of ordinary players. Allistair did the same with the Stormers.
12 Sep 2012, 07:49 am
Insanity to drop Coetzee. Vermeulen not yet fit and Alberts too slow in comparison to AB backrow. Like lambs to the slaughter.
I said that Morne will play – there seems to be a different set of selection rules for Morne and certain others. Then again, he is pivotal to the coach’s archaic game plan. Truth be told – if we play with the mongrel and intensity that we have shown at times this year, this one will be close, but only for about 60 minutes.
12 Sep 2012, 07:53 am
I have lost patience with HM. I am starting to feel like I did about PdV – and hope that the team loses by a bucket and that the coach gets a wake up….but that’s unfair to the players and my own passions for the Boks !! I not sure I can bear to watch Morne, Kirchner, and even JdV stuff things up again. And now we have a loose trio of not 1, not 2, but 3 carthorses who will all end up playing centre and wing because they are too slow to make the tackle/breakdown point !!
12 Sep 2012, 07:54 am
After Saturdays gut wrenching loss I said to a mate that the silver lining upside was that surely we had seen the last of M Steyn in a Bok jersey….
Woke up this morning excited at seeing confirmation that HM had seen the light and that the Boks would have either Goosen or Lambie at 10…..
Rushed to fire up the laptop ……
Should have stayed in bed…..
Very dissapointing.
HM has put his eggs in the M Steyn basket…..If M Steyn does not deliver, again, and Boks take a thumping….I really do not want to be in HM shoes….he is going to be castigated !!!
And if we lose the 2 home leg games?
Vok!!!!
12 Sep 2012, 07:59 am
HM is SuCH a tooo l !!!
Why is he like this???
12 Sep 2012, 08:05 am
@CoachPete-32: pigs could fly.
12 Sep 2012, 08:11 am
@grant10-76: HM’s game plan is the problem and personnel he selects to implement it are the problem. No matter who he selects he will have them play in the same style. He truly believes in and insists on employing his archaic approach which would be all well and good if we had the flexibility to change things on the pitch if he could see it wasn’t working. But we don’t! We can’t change to a different approach when Borene Steyn and Sideshow Bob are on the pitch because they do not have the skills or talent to do anything else. Perhaps if he picked Goosen or Lambie we would have the flexibility?
I saw before Borene’s one kick at poles that his 2012 kicking success rate was sitting at around 65%. Given that he can’t tackle and now is clearly off form with his place kicking you would have thought that Einstein HM would have brought in someone else to implement his brilliant (sarcastic) game plan?
This HM dinosaur currently has a win ratio of 50%. It WILL be 42% after Saturday! We will be lucky if it is still in the 40′s at the end of the Rugby Championship! That’s only marginally better than Julius’ woodwork mark which was an epic fail! This HM is a prize chop and the sooner he goes the better!
12 Sep 2012, 08:11 am
Boks will lose on Saturday, and also lose against again AB at home, then win against Aussies.
Jake White and PDV both won their Tri-nations in their first year then lost the next 3 years. Heyneke will not win a single Rugby Championship for the next 3 years, he has already lost this year’s championship.
Why ? The previous two coaches had unknown gameplans which was supreme in their first year, while HM had an oudated and predictable gameplan. PdV also beat the British Lions while White won the World Cup. Heyneke will win nothing during his tenure as his gameplan expired 4 years ago, the whole rugby world has move from it except him and the Bulls.
12 Sep 2012, 08:13 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-69:
Mostert that’s the one.
12 Sep 2012, 08:15 am
@grant10-76: I’m not sure why people are shocked at Steyn’s selection? Were there honestly still people in SA who thought Meyer would change anything for this week?
Were there people still hoping Lambie or Goosen would get their chance to be anything more than poster children for the Bok’s future?
For me the only sad thing about all of this, is that there were still Bok fans and kenners from the rugby world thinking anything would change this week.
12 Sep 2012, 08:15 am
Regardless of the result, South Africans want springbok rugby to be progressive, at the end of the day, rugby should win alongside the better team. Cant believe i’m using bafana bafana as an example, but immediately, one has the sense that the new bafana coach is advancing the team, regardless of the results. And that’s my argument with Meyer, i don’t think any of the supporters here expect a result in New Zealand, even with a full strength squad considering we’ve got new management. The results will come, whats more important, is progress, and currently, cant say that this is the case. Valuable opportunities to get players that we’re invested in a once in a year chance to experience playing in New Zealand against an experienced All Black side, and what do we do. I can’t see how Meyer can be so invested in a player like Zane Kirchner, honestly this whole Australasian tour is a flippen joke on many levels, i’m embarrassed to say that i think i’d rather use this Saturday morning constructively and wash my car, i’m more keen to see the Argies take on the Shackledraggers.
12 Sep 2012, 08:16 am
@gunther-70: Alistair Hargreaves
12 Sep 2012, 08:18 am
@grant10-76:
Dont be a lying **********.
You and your new BFF heavens game were only saying yesterday that Lambie and Goosen should stay out of this mess.
Flippity Floppity.
12 Sep 2012, 08:18 am
@gunther-72: Mostert??
12 Sep 2012, 08:18 am
On the plus side HM has eaten a bit of humble pie and selected a proper opensider….
Just hope he gets on bended knee and selects Brussow for the Home Leg….
I feel he may need a Knight in Shining Armour to save his arse at home….
Ironically it may be the very person he shunned …..life can be strange in that way.
12 Sep 2012, 08:19 am
I am finding it really hard to understand Meyers ethics behind his selections. How can a person in his position be so ignorant and naive. This just clearly indicates his loyalty and bias towards Bulls players. How can he stick with Kirchner and M. Steyn? If someone can come up with a good factual, non sarcastic explanation behind these two selections in particular, please let me hear it.
I am trying to think of any reason worth keeping these two out of form players in the side. Since the start of the Rugby Championship, and even way back to the England tests, Morne has been, well…a has been. There is no denying that he used to be one of SA’s better 10′s over the last 5 years or so. But it is now time to move on. A simple example. Butch James was rated the one of the Best 10′s at World Cup 2007, he was at his best and the Boks answer to number 10. Yet the following season, he was slowly being replaced by Morne. The point i am trying to make, is how can we phase out a player who was at his best, but cant do it to a guy who is clearly at his worst, and offers nothing to the springbok cause. (Note: Not implying James should be the Bok 10) Like i said, it makes no sense.
I will not even waste my time going in to detail about kirchner as he was never supposed to get a Bok cap in the first place. So enough said. But if there is anyone who can give that perfect explanation behind these selection. Go for it!!
12 Sep 2012, 08:21 am
@Sir Watson-80:
Divvie won his first tri nations?
12 Sep 2012, 08:22 am
Diabolical.
All Blacks by 100.
And Flip Der Douche Bag!!!!???
Really? The guy is a penalty machine.
12 Sep 2012, 08:23 am
I’m very happy about the team that has been selected for this game……
I don’t want Lambie or Goosen to play in this team IF Heyneke expects them to continue with the same gameplan. Let Morné look kak trying to execute the gameplan rather. Heyneke is more ridged than a ball bearing.
If Heyneke picked either Lambie or Goosen and expected them to execute the same gameplan they WOULD fail and then Heyneke would just say ‘I told you so’
Keep Lambie and Goosen away from this idiot!
12 Sep 2012, 08:27 am
All Blacks’ll be smiling from cheek to tattooed cheek today.
12 Sep 2012, 08:28 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-82:
HM is either blissfully unaware of the rising indignation of the SA rugby public, or truly believes his strategy and game plan is the Holy Grail that will turn the slump around….
I have said it before, this guy is ‘ fear filled’…..the way he performs in the box, etc is not normal……If the rumours of the players being shackled and threatened to be dropped if they deviate from the game plan is true, then we are truly in trouble. Rugby cannot be played by Robots….
I was laughing last night when the cameras were taken into the Bok practice….and lo and behold , shots of Ruan , Morne, Kirchner and Lambie practising ….yes …you guessed it….box kicking!!!!
No man….I tried so hard not to get drawn into the Anti HM camp….but the persistent and stubborn streak HM has is making it difficult.
He must not believe we are all fools…..
12 Sep 2012, 08:37 am
Coetzee does need a rest by now – been playing non-stop rugby and went through that grueling travel schedule. However I would want him rested for Brussouw.
In any case Alberts looks to be the one worse for wear at the moment – not Coetzee.
Morne – seriously????
For the first time I am not sure how I will approach this game on Saturday – cheer the Boks or hope HM gets taught a lesson.
12 Sep 2012, 08:37 am
PdV is enjoying this! I remember when HM was part of the panel during the WC I got the feeling that this guy is very stuborn and set in his own ways and oh sooo clever and quick to identify other coaches problems where in comparison Alistair was such a gentle nice guy and always trying to comment on the positive…and I thought to myself…I think HM has done enough to deserve a shot at being the Bok topman but he will have to humble himself as there is way more to being a national coach than field ability. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined how correct I was!! HM was very outspoken when PdV got the job, I remember words like “not fair”…really HM really!!!??? What is fair now? Lambie and Goosen on the bench? Hou op trots wees ou….jys besig om vir jouself n moerse lat te pluk!
12 Sep 2012, 08:56 am
Rene Naylor, Bok Physio, Coaching The Boks
Lets us all do some reflection on the player management to date:
Loose Forwards
A half fit Duane is deemed superior to a half talented Potgieter (indirectly) whom is deemed superior to a half size Daniels whom are all in turned deemed lesser to a half hearted Spies
Flyhalf
An out of form Morne is deemed superior to an inform Elton without Elton even being given a chance on the playing field and this against the English in a meaningless test at home. Elton is subsequently deemed not good enough without having been given playing opportunity. Later a recently returned from injury Goosen is given playing opportunity at a critical point against the Aussies (superior compared to English) whilst playing away.
Outside Backs
A full sized JJ is initially deemed big enough with a lesser sized JDJ deemed not big enough – this against the lesser sized English. Later a full sized JJ is deemed not big enough with a lesser sized JDJ deemed big enough – this against the bigger sized AB’s albeit with neither player having grown nor shrunk
Substitutions
As an aside we already know that Rene manages the substitutions (along with physio duties)
Summary
This is clearly not the signs of a man reknowned for exceptional player management skills. The proclaimed ability to identify the most talented and develop them in a consistent and gradual manner.
Rather these inconsistent selections are reflective of an individual being tasked with to much workload for their individual capacity. There has not been enough capacity for analyses and forward planning with the resultant sound player management.
Conclusion
One must conclude then that the “substitution open secret” is but the precusor to the true happenings within the Bok camp. With time it will probably be revealed that Rene has been doubling up on both physio and coaching duties. It is indeed sad that South African rugby has regressed from the senior players coaching the team to the physio coaching the team.
12 Sep 2012, 08:56 am
HEYNEKE OUT
12 Sep 2012, 08:57 am
With overworked Rene having to coach and do physio duties one must give it to the AB’s by +25
Hier kom n groot hiding
12 Sep 2012, 08:58 am
The Bulls have become the ugly sister of South African rugby overnight.
Their Super Rugby campaign imploded, they are looking terrible in the Currie Cup and their players in the Bok team are not delivering.
and the Bok coaching staff is all Bulls….
I’m not having a go at Bulls supporters and this post is not an attempt at trolling.
I’m just concerned that one of SA’s strongest rugby franchises have demised so rapidly.
12 Sep 2012, 08:58 am
Send him to the firing squad.
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