Make us believe in a bold Bok era, Heyneke
17 Sep 2012
MARK KEOHANE, in his Business Day newspaper column, writes denial is the devil that has to be avoided for the Boks to be winners and the best team in the world.
Once again South Africans will take comfort that the All Blacks are not quite as good and the Boks are not quite as bad. Once again we can reflect on a heroic defeat. Once again we would be deluded.
If the aim is to consistently be the best rugby team in the world then brave 10-point defeats against the old foe can’t be viewed as victories. If the aim is to be the best then the Boks have to set standards that include not playing well and beating the All Blacks by 10 points; not exceeding expectation and still losing by 10 points.
Come on.
There has to be a change of mindset, from within the current management. And there has to be a demand from the rugby public that quality of performance is never secondary.
There has to be some honesty about where it went wrong. Only then can it be corrected.
Meyer, as coach and head strategist, promised more than we saw in Argentina, Australia and New Zealand, and the public rightly expected more of the Springboks.
I don’t get why there is an absolute fear of failure within the management. If ever there was a time where the public would have been accommodating it was in the year post a World Cup when most teams tend to be in transition and when coaches can embrace variation in selection, strategy and approach.
I am not talking about experimentation but variation.
All of the successful Bok teams of the professional era have played good rugby without having to be like the All Blacks and Wallabies and without having to give up the fundamentals associated with the South African game.
Meyer’s Boks are capable of so much more, but it starts with the coach and his support staff.
Passion should be a given and not the exception that gets the Boks close to beating the All Blacks in New Zealand or inspires the one-off win against the Kiwis in South Africa.
The Boks have players capable of producing a game that embraces moving the ball through hands and winning with skill and not relying exclusively on forward dominance and physical superiority.
Every good Bok team has employed an effective kicking game, and there is no crime in Meyer believing in the merits of playing for field position and minimising risk. But it has to be balanced with a trust that those selected are good enough to want to maintain possession and effectively use this possession.
Selections have to offer hope of victory and not limit the margin of the defeat.
I am not dispirited. If Meyer had done everything right and the Boks were three from seven, then we could talk about a catastrophe.
He hasn’t and acknowledging this would signal strength in character.
There is hope for the Boks and there will always be because the quality of player is good enough to beat any team once, but the measure of great Bok teams is that they beat all opponents more than once, home and away.
Meyer’s conservatism in selection cost him a famous win in Dunedin. I championed Meyer’s national appointment, but he’s struggled more than I ever anticipated in getting his selections right. He surely can’t get them wrong for the two home remaining Rugby Championship matches against Australia and New Zealand.
There can no longer be a case made for Morne Steyn’s retention. There can also no longer be the nonsense of Johan Goosen not being good enough, experienced enough or old enough to start. There can’t be an argument to ignore the claims of Elton Jantjies as his understudy and if Meyer does not rate Pat Lambie then he owes it to the player to send him back to Durban and allow him to actually play some rugby.
I never considered Meyer would struggle to break his association with the Bulls, but I underestimated the bond that exists. His loyalty to Morne Steyn was misguided and no newcomer picked at flyhalf would have been afforded seven Test matches in which to get it right. No newcomer would have been excused a goal-kicking success rate in the mid-50s.
Defeat will force change but there would have been greater comfort had innovation determined selection.
The Boks always produce inspired performances at home in the latter stages of what was the Tri Nations and now is the Rugby Championship. What we are seeing in 2012 is no different to what we saw a decade ago.
I refuse to believe Meyer will not get it right. He is a student of the game, a man who instills confidence when talking rugby and a man who appreciates the nuances of the game.
Which makes the last month that much harder to fathom. How the hell did he get it so wrong, in selection and in inspiration?
I can’t recall a coach being more unanimously embraced as a national appointment and Meyer needs to know the public wants him to succeed.
He needs to lose the fear of failure and trust his ability to win as much as the public did when lauding his appointment. If he does that, not only will there be hope for the Boks, there will also be conviction in the belief they can be the best.
778 Comments
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17 Sep 2012, 15:30 pm
@rangerman-433: he had to MOER his head on the wall FIRST…that’s my point…
why hasn’t morne been dropped?
because the coach is stubborn again!
we didn’t need to lose in NZ to know the guy is kicking S.HIT!
17 Sep 2012, 15:31 pm
@katman-444: i think wp had come with a plan to intimidate and it didnt work out.
the game was a laugh at times like when brache tried a droppie. i nearly fell off my chair laughing as the blerrie ball landed on the wet field and didnt bounce at all!
@poppa69-445: maybe people said islanders have heads like coconuts?
17 Sep 2012, 15:31 pm
@poppa69-445: My neighbour has adopted a Zimbabwean kid and he says that at school the local black kids are calling him a coconut, because they say he is brown on the outside and white on the inside. He is quite hurt by it…
17 Sep 2012, 15:31 pm
@Transformation-422:
You’ll just have to agree to disagree because you will go around and around with this and you maybe be accused of being “obstreperous.”
Rangerman is always right.
17 Sep 2012, 15:31 pm
@Transformation-451: Stop being so harsh on Morne.
Was MOM against the Argies not too long ago
17 Sep 2012, 15:31 pm
@poppa69-445:
ok, thanks.
so to be clear, is a coconut tackle a head high tackle effected by a p/islander?
and any other head high tackles by a non pi is just a head high tackle?
or is it any type of tackle by a p/islander, like say for instance a shoulder charge?
17 Sep 2012, 15:31 pm
@willievz-449: they won super rugby not the final, they finished 2nd in the whole comp, beat the crusaders in the semi and THEN won the final sans a fetcher!
17 Sep 2012, 15:32 pm
@Skeppie-436: I haven’t seen Botha since his fight against Simba, so no idea what kind of shape he’s in. I suspect this fight won’t go beyond three rounds anyway, so I guess fitness is not such an issue. And in a short, ugly fight you’d have to tip it Botha’s way. I’ve seen all of Sunni Bin’s fights, and he’s never faced anyone with a real heavy punch, but Botha knows how to land them. Sunni Bin’s going to do a lot of running early on, but you can’t run away forever. I say Botha by knock-out in the third.
17 Sep 2012, 15:32 pm
@poppa69-448: boring.
watch the sharks s15 gasmes post beasts return again and when you are finished report back here with a 10 000 word report on how wrong you are.
make sharp.
17 Sep 2012, 15:34 pm
@Transformation-451: ja that part made me mal but i am trying to be positive and you seem hell bent on making that impossible?
wtf is wrong with you?
@nama1-454: thank you.
17 Sep 2012, 15:34 pm
@mako-453: sad to hear, kids can be very cruel..
@rangerman-452: yep, think that is the gist of the term..
17 Sep 2012, 15:36 pm
@rangerman-446:
upthere with the look on Punter’s face when we creamed them in ’08 in Aus
17 Sep 2012, 15:36 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-456: we have never referred to head high tackles as “coconut” tackles… they are clotheslines or head high tackles as far as I know..
Ranger – they may go alright in Super rugby, but we all know it is a step up to international… again, I dont hink either of them are that great, lets just leave it at that shall we?
17 Sep 2012, 15:37 pm
@katman-458: i will say one thing, sbw has hand speed and obviously the coordination needed.
saw a youtube clip of a little combination he threw in a rugby game altercation.
the oke he hit didnt even have time to put his hands up before sunni landed three to his face.
sure, sunni premeditated it but he was very quick.
i hope fransie wins because he is a saffa but eidder way sport will be duh winna
17 Sep 2012, 15:37 pm
Geez I dunno the White rhino looks like his pregnant – whereas SBW in great shape – have to be n regte egte boere klap early on otherwise I reckon the rhino might take a dive in the second just to get a feed in.
17 Sep 2012, 15:39 pm
@poppa69-463:
ok thanks. sorry i wont use it again, seing as it seems to infer a racial connotation.
i always thought it had to do with chopping a guys head ( his nut) off.
never to old to learn.
i wonder if anyone else knows this?
17 Sep 2012, 15:39 pm
@poppa69-461: in sa a coconut is a derogatory term used mostly by black folk to describe a black person who is black outside and white inside.
transie would probably be called one if he didnt keep his revolutionary mojo strong
@UptheGuts-462: couldnt happen to a nicer guy.
@poppa69-463: ok we will leave it for this day. call it round one.
after the boks vs abs in sa we can resume the discussion.
17 Sep 2012, 15:40 pm
@cab-465: He may have a paunch, but he’s a real boxer – all he ever was. He’s going to donner that decoupaged gymbunny seven ways from Sunday, mark my words.
17 Sep 2012, 15:41 pm
@katman-458: I actually saw photo’s of Fransie on FB, know a few guys who run a boxing gym in Durban and he has been training there. He os clearly not in the same shape as SBW and is 20 years older but this is a man who lived with Tyson for half a fight. I can;t wait to watch it!
17 Sep 2012, 15:41 pm
i am just joshing eh transie?
17 Sep 2012, 15:41 pm
i want botha to fark sonny bill up sooooo sooooo bad
17 Sep 2012, 15:42 pm
@rangerman-467: I checked the term on wikipeadia, it means the same thing in America as it does in SA,.. and cool, we will gauge how they go against the Aussies first so I can give you my opinion as a neutral
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-466: no wucking furries, I will try and do likewise with my use of certain words too…
17 Sep 2012, 15:43 pm
@poppa69-472: Pops what do you do for a living?
17 Sep 2012, 15:43 pm
@poppa69-472:
c h r i s t pops, dont go all soft on me.
i still think you’re a doos
17 Sep 2012, 15:44 pm
ok, after all that arguing i will end my keo participation by saying that the boks have a few tweaks to make but imo looked pretty good on sat in certain facets.
cant wait for my favourite player, JPP the legend, to return because he will ignite our backline singlehandedly.
tjorts crackers!
17 Sep 2012, 15:44 pm
Coconut (US) a person of Hispanic descent who’s accused of acting white.
(New Zealand/Australia) a Pacific Islander. Named after the coconut, the nut from the coconut palm.
(UK) a black person who exhibits behaviour associated with caucasians; (US) a black person trying to be ‘white’.
(South Africa) a black person who acts white
(Canada) an individual of South Asian (typically Dravidian) descent, who is accused of trying to be ‘white’.
*In the USA also know as an Oreo (after the cookie)
17 Sep 2012, 15:46 pm
lol katman – actually be interesting to see how sbw gies against the rhino but the rhino not only got a paunch isn’t he about 50 these days ? He looks like he’s been training oita tge Welkom kroeg..
17 Sep 2012, 15:46 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-466: Richie McCaw – Simply The Best! @niggling
Article By: Tony, Johnson
Monday, 17 September 2012 10:26 a.m.
One of the great things about the Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin is that fans are right on top of the action.
You can feel every tackle, every clash of bodies – it’s one of a very few arenas in New Zealand where you can get as good a feel for the game as you do watching on TV.
So it was the perfect place to get a close up, in the flesh look at just how intense, brutal even, a test match between the All Blacks and the Springboks can be.
The Boks were well up for this one. As if the challenge of taking on their greatest rival wasn’t enough, they were playing to stay alive in the Rugby Championship, playing to quell growing dissatisfaction with their performance and in their coach back home, and in some cases playing for their futures.
They made a powerful start, in which they managed to draw the All Blacks into the sort of trench warfare they crave, and even for a while manage to indulge the New Zealanders in a kicking contest.
They created enough opportunities to at least build a lead, but blew a guilt edged try scoring chance early on, and then missed a succession of goals.
That has led to speculation that there is some kind of evil, unseen wind that wafts around the ends of the stadium, and there does seem to be evidence of a draft effect, but this cannot be blamed for Streyns woes. The man who three years ago booted the All Blacks off the park and out of a three test series has shot his bolt as an international player and simply did not strike the ball with any precision or confidence. The reasons for his continuing selection are a mystery to all but Heyneke Meyer and can no longer be justified.
He was not alone….Ruan Pienaar also kicked woefully out of hand, and time and time again the All Blacks were able to defuse situations because the Boks kept giving them the ball back.
The Springbok backs therefore failed abysmally to capitalise on a magnificent effort by their forward pack, and as a consequence the pack became frustrated and undisciplined.
Chief culprit was of course Dean Greyling, who turned in a sensational cameo, in which he gave away a three point penalty within seconds of arriving on the field, missed a tackle that could have snuffed out Aaron Smiths try before it started, got yellow carded and eventually suspended for an idiotic elbow jolt on Richie McCaw, and then when he returned gave away another penalty that cost his side a bonus point.
But he wasn’t the only guilty party. From my vantage point it was clear that the Boks were on a concerted campaign to neutralise McCaw….the elbow jolt from Greyling was not the only cheap shot he took, and yet somehow he just kept getting up and charging back into the fray.
McCaw’s performance was worthy of the greatest in the long, tough history of the All Blacks and the Springboks.
Like Sean Fitzpatrick before him, McCaw knows how to rile the Boks, and he succeeded in distracting what had been a magnificent forward effort into lapses in discipline that were as big a factor in them losing this test as the goalkicking.
Across the Tasman the Pumas were desperately unlucky not to beat the Wallabies.
You might ask how a team can be considered unlucky when they scored a try after their winger had clearly put his foot into touch in the act of setting up a try?
The referees would have seen that on the big screen, and appeared to me they spent the rest of the game trying to make up for it.
It was another appalling, narcissistic performance from Wayne Barnes, which begs the question if the Pumas would have been better off had that try of theirs not been awarded.
17 Sep 2012, 15:48 pm
@Skeppie-473: common belief is I am a security guard / tattooed maori nightclub bouncer in Kings Cross.
I liek the second one myself, makes me seem tougher
I am in I.T though truth be told.. networking and support.
17 Sep 2012, 15:49 pm
@cab-477: I think he’s 44. And hes, he looks a little rough around the edges, but he’s going to smack the tattoos off Sunni Bin. That much I can tell you.
17 Sep 2012, 15:50 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-466:
Bakkies, It was discussed at length during the RWC when Skinstadt had to apologize for using the term while doing commentary.
17 Sep 2012, 15:53 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-474: i would imagine youre not alone in that assumption
theres an old saying, takes one to know one
17 Sep 2012, 15:55 pm
@Transformation-457: Come now Transie, why do NZ and Australia play a fetcher then?
17 Sep 2012, 15:55 pm
@rangerman-467: fokkof! i’m no coconut, not even close!
and it’s not about “revolution” either.
17 Sep 2012, 15:56 pm
@poppa69-479: Aw man! I liked you more when picturing you as a “Jake da mus” type character (without the wife beating mind you)
17 Sep 2012, 15:59 pm
@willievz-483: that’s another topic altogether…the conclusion you and Grant seem to be drawing from the “stat” that “the boks haven’t lost against the ABs with heinrich playing”, therefore Flo is a pretender is bogus imo…
that’s all.
17 Sep 2012, 15:59 pm
@rangerman-470: you better be!
17 Sep 2012, 16:00 pm
@Transformation-478:
please transie, this sort of thing is not good for my blodd pressure, seriously.
this tony johnson doos makes me strip big time.
“knows how to rile”
fark
@nama1-481:
i missed that nama, and had no idea it was not about taking someone’s head off like a coconut being chopped.
well, that was my idea of it all along.
@poppa69-482:
nice
there’s the poppa i know.
lets keep it real
doos
17 Sep 2012, 16:00 pm
@Transformation-486: Where did I draw that conclusion?
It is an important part of the puzzle, yes, but not the whole picture.
17 Sep 2012, 16:02 pm
@Skeppie-485: jake da muss is a small bloke who couldnt control his missus..
I’ll have none of that, Ive often thought of getting a SA wife, could become a legend in your country as I would be the first to teach you guys how to employ a fetcher
17 Sep 2012, 16:06 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-488: so you see Greyling was “riled up” by Richie
17 Sep 2012, 16:07 pm
I still don’t get it. If coconut is supposed to refer to a black person pretending to be white, what is the insult of a “coconut tackle” meant to imply? That a black player tackles like a white guy? Is that even an insult? Is it supposed to be along the lines of “dancing like a white guy”?
No, I think the phrase meant something else entirely – probably to do with clashing of heads – and because some poor cultural victim saw the word “coconut” and peed herself at the injustice, it has now become racist. Regardless of a complete lack of logic.
And poor old Bobby was forced to apologise, not because he said something nasty, but because he has been exposed to this ludicrous PC sensitivity for so long – where any and everything can and will be called racist – that it’s just easier to say sorry and get it over with.
I mean, even the inhabitants of the coconut islands didn’t know of the term “coconut tackle”, yet felt it necessary to drag it before The Hague. Get over yourselves, you bunch of wet fcken girls’ blouses. Grow some real balls.
17 Sep 2012, 16:07 pm
@Transformation-478: Damn good article.
17 Sep 2012, 16:08 pm
@willievz-489: fine then…it is important to you, but meaningless to me.
17 Sep 2012, 16:09 pm
@poppa69-490: HAHAHA can’t argue with that, just not sure you can handle one of our boeremeisies!
17 Sep 2012, 16:12 pm
@Transformation-486: I rate F Louw highly….
Brussow just slightly better imo…..but Flo is a must have in Brussows absence….imo
17 Sep 2012, 16:13 pm
Skeppie
not sure on the term, but I always knew SA women were the real tough SAs
17 Sep 2012, 16:17 pm
@katman-492:
fark now you’ve got me confused all over again, thats what i was thinking for a while there unitl i allowed the resident ‘kenners’ to sway my thinking.
it doesnt make sense at all. i really thought it was about cracking the tough coconut open, which is to say its about knoching your opponents lights out with a head tackle?
it could also be to do with the people being from coconut islands, as you say, which didn’t even occur to me. in this case it would have derogatory connotation no? ‘because you’re from a coconut island and you make a head high tackle its a coconut tackle’..?..
or perhaps the inference is that the people from the coconut islands only and always make head high tackles?
its obviously got nothing to do with a black player tackling like a white guy.
anyway, i wont use it. i’ll just switch to saying ‘kiwi style head tackle’ seeing as so many of them do it (all kiwis that is).
17 Sep 2012, 16:20 pm
@Transformation-491:
please, if you call constant and repeated penalty infringements by illegally playing the ball on the ground while off your feet and on it at rucks/breakdowns ‘riling up’ then be my guest.
17 Sep 2012, 16:22 pm
i certainly know what the irb rules and laws on the game of rugby call it.
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