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, 16:23 pm
@nama1-481:
During the super 15.
Sharks vs Chiefs I think.
17 Sep 2012, 16:27 pm
@katman-492: @i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-498: If we started referring to certain elements of the game as “d.utchman” (for illustrative purposes only) would you guys find offense in it?
different parts of the world view things differently… I do agree that political correctness is creating more problems then its worth though..
the term “clothesline” would have all the kiwi bloggers knowing instantly what you refer to..
there is also a term the “maori sidestep” it does not involve a sidestep at all, but it is not considered derogatory, it is probably considered complimentary.. it means to run over the top of someone.. to moer hulle them? (did I get that right?)
17 Sep 2012, 16:32 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-499: are you saying tony johnson is disingenuous?
17 Sep 2012, 16:34 pm
@poppa69-502: You clearly didn’t even read my post. What is meant to be the insult in the phrase? And don’t tell me the word “coconut”, if the context has nothing to do with a derogatory meaning. Then you might as well ban coconut icing and the ingredients of a pina colada.
Get over your stupid cultural victim mentality – it’s most unbecoming.
17 Sep 2012, 16:34 pm
@gunther-501: Indeed
Masaga on Mvovo….BANG
lights out
17 Sep 2012, 16:36 pm
Perhaps another perspective on Meyer’s performance. People have been going on about his poor selections but I want to compliment him on taking a relatively new pack with very little Test experience to Oz and NZ and winning the game upfront bearing in mind his front row have had an exhausting last few weeks. To do that with the resources available means he must have some idea of what it takes to get the guys to step up. The only problem is he will be reminded time and again of the bugger up in selection he made with Kirchener and Steyn but in all honesty he was hedging his bets and had Steyn kicked those penalties people would have been singing a different tune.
17 Sep 2012, 16:39 pm
@katman-504: what is your problem? the fact that when it was said an islander made the tackle means it could be very much construed to be derogatory..
if you have no concept of that simple fact then I pity you..
17 Sep 2012, 16:40 pm
@poppa69-502:
lmap
maori sidestep
thats funny
no, to moer someone is to hit them with a fist and a poesklap- is to smack their face with an open hand. it could be meant as a gesture or figuratively perhaps if one said ‘the boks moered the ab’s’ without actually hitting them but just by beating them physically at the game.
i’ve never been one for excessive pc unless it is a clear insult to any person personally concerned.
and i have always thought it a really apt description for the action of a head high tackle without understanding its derogatory root. if it wasnt derogatory in how it came about it would have been a good slang word for a head high tackle imo.
pity its lost to me now.
i get your point on people viewing things differently i suppose. my aim was to insult you people (all kiwis) for making disgraceful tackles to the head. and also for getting away with it all to often.
17 Sep 2012, 16:43 pm
@poppa69-507: So if an islander drinks a Pina Colada, it’s best not to mention what’s in it.
Get a fcken grip, Poeps.
If the term had nothing to do with his ethnicity and everything to do with, say, the smashing of skulls, then is it still offensive? Just because you see the word coconut doesn’t make it racist. Not sure if there’s a simpler way to explain it to a challenged reader.
17 Sep 2012, 16:45 pm
@Transformation-503:
first of all, does disingenious mean he is not being genuine or he is being the opposite of a genius?
you know he’s full of bullshitt like they all are wrt to their cheating and how its termed as ‘gamesmanship’ and there being ‘nothing wrong with that’…sort of thing…
that is what i am saying
17 Sep 2012, 16:46 pm
@bananaboy-506: Fair post. Heyneke is primarily a forwards coach and he clearly is doing some decent things with not all the available resources. Our pack were really good this weekend, with Bissie, Etzebeth and Schalk back we will hopefully get beter and better. Now we jsut need a 10 who can tackle and play on the gain line!
17 Sep 2012, 16:48 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-508: okay, so a poesklap is what we would call a b.itchslap
personally I dont have a problem with the term, but Skinstad copped a backlash mainly because the person who made the tackle was Islander, and in this part of the world it is seen as offensive.. So katman can pontificate all he wants, no skin off my nose… same as the B words you used earlier would also be deemed offensive to PI’s, and would have them wanting to moer you..
17 Sep 2012, 16:49 pm
@katman-509:
fark, now i’m confused.
i need to think this over.
@Transformation-505:
those head high tackles are a dime a dozen along with shoulder charges and they are allowed to get away with it. heaven forbid we do the same.
they’d have us up for murder charges before you could say hows your mother.
17 Sep 2012, 16:49 pm
When Richie retires he will be remembered as a legend in New Zealand and as a serial cheat who manipulated refs and got away with it by everyone else.
Simple.
The Kiwis will never get that. They don’t have the ability to have any proper perspective on this.
17 Sep 2012, 16:49 pm
@bananaboy-506: no hedging on bets in international rugby!
morne was booed (wrong i know) in PE for a rubbish performance in June….he lost the Bulls about 4 or 5 games with his errant kicking!
No improvement in Mendoza, he was putrid in Perth…
Meyer is being stubborn because he told all and sundry HE – the messiah – will COACH morne back to form, now he has to concede that he has failed!
Steve Hansen didn’t waste time pulling off Weepu and cutting short Aaron Smith’s punishment and smith repaid him with a dart around the ruck and try.
17 Sep 2012, 16:51 pm
@katman-509: Like I said, the person who made the tackle was a pacific islander, coconut is a derogatory term when speaking of PIs, it is also an ingredient in a drink, but you are trying to compare two very different things.. Skinstad didnt know the connotation, but you get mighty pissed off when I mention the D word, why cant you also then understand that other terms can be offensive to other people?
are you too obstinate to realise this? is your myopic view of the world the only view of the world?
17 Sep 2012, 16:52 pm
@poppa69-512:
yes, thats it… a pk for short.
i would never use those words, but only because i have god in my heart and not because of concerns they might want to moer me
17 Sep 2012, 16:53 pm
Meyer is just THICK
Any coach worth his salt would have cake walked the last 6 games. Its not as if we been so decimated by lack of quality players.. that’s just a smoke screen conducive excuse.
This dude is out of his depth and scribes like Keohane and the razzmatazz rugby aficionado’s round the braai over here not only can’t but DON’T wanna see it.
Meyer will in all likelihood eventually get it right, but it is a painfully LONG way around the simple solution. All his knee jerk reactionary picks have come about through his nose been rubbed in his own idiocy.. and then they want to commend him on learning from his mistakes…
I notice the last two inevitable kicks to the jaw he suffered in the coaches box on Saturday.. the dropped ball by Mcguyver on the try line and then the 3 consecutive penalties offered up by Boks.. one by a wrong call when Flouw was incorrectly pinged for a legitimate steal and the other for a Bekker failure to release on full time and then the ultimate Mcguyver stuff up which took Boks out the bonus point range, Meyer simply shrugged as if his last vestige of boiling blood had reached its zenith of frustration.
He’s going to have to simply grow up in this job.. his one saving grace is perhaps the fact that he’s not nearly as arrogant and cocksure about himself as some other dickheads before him.
17 Sep 2012, 16:54 pm
@stormersboy-514:
Shhhhh.
You’ll wake noodle.
We’ve only just got him down.
17 Sep 2012, 16:54 pm
@372 google “wordpress smileys” so u can
or 
at leisure
17 Sep 2012, 16:54 pm
why was there such an uproar Katman when Skinstad uttered the phrase?
please enlighten me..
17 Sep 2012, 16:55 pm
@stormersboy-514:
which is a pity imho.
and i say that sincerely.
he could have been so much more to the game if he had just played it cleaner.
could have walked away with the respect of the world and not just a tiny island nation.
17 Sep 2012, 16:55 pm
@Skeppie-511: Agreed, still not convinced we have the right skills-set in the backline with JDV out of position (I still think he’s either a 12 or a wing) The scrumhalf/flyhalf pairing not suited to each other (think that Pienaar with Goosen would be much better) and the fullback not the most innovative player on the planet (does a lot of things well but nothing outstanding). I would honestly consider:
Pienaar
Goosen
Hougaard/Movovo
JDV
JDJ
JPP
Frans Steyn.
The reason being this gives JDV perhaps a bit more time on the ball than at outside from set play ball and he can be equally as good as Steyn on the crash ball.
17 Sep 2012, 16:56 pm
and i mean that from the heart
no trolling
my two cents
17 Sep 2012, 16:56 pm
@katman-509:
I think Ranger called it right with the Lima.
17 Sep 2012, 16:56 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-522: Thing is, without that side to him he’d just be another Josh Kronfeld wannabe.
17 Sep 2012, 16:57 pm
@stormersboy-514:
17 Sep 2012, 16:59 pm
@Transformation-515: You miss the gist of what I was trying to say. Castigate him all you want for picking Morne but what would have happened if we had had another coach picking Goosen at flyhalf and not getting nearly as much domination upfront. His game plan would have worked on Sat if Morne had succeeded with his kicks is all I’m saying and you cannot fault him for what he has achieved with those forwards.
17 Sep 2012, 16:59 pm
@fitz1ella-518:
Yes yes yes you have told everyone a thousand times.
You know everything and he knows nothing.
Which is why he’s a rugby coach and you install wendy houses.
17 Sep 2012, 16:59 pm
its very different to say, this is a pin colada, it has pineapple juice, rum and coconut in it..
to this
this is Sione, he’s a coconut..
so I hope this challenged reader has taught you something about context..
17 Sep 2012, 17:00 pm
rock spider isn’t a racist term either but some cocooned clowns here will get so offended by the term they’ll try call it ‘hate speech’
little peanut brained moron’s pretending to be intelligent.. that just takes the cake of the anglicized ******** trying to pass himself off as being slightly ‘educated’ so he converses in a so called ‘enlightened’ tongue other than his own.
17 Sep 2012, 17:01 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-517: can’t constantly call people “filthy scum” with God in your heart, surely?
17 Sep 2012, 17:01 pm
@poppa69-516: You seriously are slow, Poeps. No offense, but just about anyone would have grasped it by now. Last time:
The word coconut wasn’t meant to imply a race or culture, but the clashing of heads. The fact that the tackler was a PI is neither here nor there.
If there was a technique in traditional clog fighting called the Bloody D.utchman, because of it’s cultural connotations, and an Afrikaner employed this technique in a clog fight, and a commentator remarked at such a fine example of a Bloody D.utchman, would that be a racial insult?
Think carefully now.
17 Sep 2012, 17:02 pm
@stormersboy-526:
a mix of things then.
a well drilled squad of talented players at peak fitness and physical condition with top notch skills training and astute coaches… sure.. i give them that
BUT
and yip, its a big but…. without them playing the low stuff, and its not just macaw who does it, i mean the concerted organised team stuff then its up for debate whether they would have had the great winning legacy they have
and this in turn would call into question their greatness as a team in other peoples eyes.
17 Sep 2012, 17:02 pm
@poppa69-521: Because of useless, sensitive Oprah-like ***** like yourself, Poeps. This much is surely clear.
17 Sep 2012, 17:03 pm
@bananaboy-506: nah Morne is pure kak and I will always sing that song until the day he goes.
17 Sep 2012, 17:04 pm
In my experience the phrase “cocnut” is usually used in context where someone who is black (or an islander if you will over there) is jealous of someone els’s advancement or their wealth etc.
Ie used to accuse someone of losing touch with their “roots” when the feelings usually stem from jealousy.
17 Sep 2012, 17:05 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-534: Yes, 100% agree with you.
17 Sep 2012, 17:05 pm
@poppa69-521: the same reason some in SA displayed their “stupid cultural victim mentality” when luke watson was reported to have “allegedly” used the D-word in a speech…
stupid is as stupid does.
17 Sep 2012, 17:05 pm
@stormersboy-526:
i mean if say the ab’s under henry had won perhaps 70 to 75% of their matches but had done so cleanly as opposed to the 80%+ they have in the manner they have (how much is it?) then perhaps the world opinion of them would indeed have been higher than it is now?
without a doubt it would have been for me.
17 Sep 2012, 17:06 pm
@Transformation-532:
they are the devils work, transie
17 Sep 2012, 17:07 pm
@bananaboy-528: yes he’s done well but the “hedging of bets” is unwarranted when the said player has been rubbish the whole year…what is he trying to prove at our expense?
17 Sep 2012, 17:07 pm
@gunther-529: Ain’t it just ‘strange’ that pretty much everything I alluded to from the outset of the messiahs tenure has basically ‘come to pass’.. Pretty much almost everything
But suddenly there is an entire chorus of ja broers who have just become absolute exceptional rugby aficionado’s all of a sudden.. ticking all the ‘right boxes’ about which players should be picked ahead of the Messiahs selections…
Yet only a few weeks ago the messiah was doing it correctly and knew exactly what he’s about… so which is it ja broer.. does he or does he NOT know which way is up or down?
17 Sep 2012, 17:09 pm
@katman-533: youre the slow one katman…depends on the audience surely? like I said, Skinstad was being televised to people all over the world, the connotation of a coconut tackle meaning the smashing of heads IN SA is completely different to the connotation of what a coconut tackle means to those in Australasia..
is this really sucvh a hard concept to grasp?
but continue with your mightier thqan thou attitude…
you have obviously never travelled outside your own country, do you know that some hand gestures have completely different meanings in different cultures? could it be possible that certain phrase in one part of the world may have a different literal meaning in another part of the world?
but moving on, you obviously know all and have extensive worldwide experience and are too big a man to admit I have a valid point..
as you where..
17 Sep 2012, 17:10 pm
I would say the record is consistent with a coach fixing basics first and moving on to the fancy stuff in due course.
17 Sep 2012, 17:11 pm
@fitz1ella-543: You haven’t offered one single original thought here, you phony wanker. You just regurgitate others’ opinions in your unique potty mouth and hope that people don’t pick up on your plagiarism. Which explains the bipolar flippety floppety nature of your Visionary Insights.
17 Sep 2012, 17:14 pm
righty
i’m out
cheers folks
p.s. what is the term for a super rugby union thats white on the outside but black on the inside? because i sure as hell might be swearing at that team come the cc playoffs…
that’s for you transie… BOOM!
17 Sep 2012, 17:14 pm
@stormersboy-537: there are are “coconuts” who don’t have s.hit on me mate…elsewhere in the world they were referred to as “uncle toms”.
advancement does not = white folk!
one can “advance” without adopting anyone else’s mannerisms.
#jussayin
17 Sep 2012, 17:14 pm
@poppa69-544: The point here is that it didn’t actually mean anything in your culture. The phrase seemingly didn’t exist, as was widely reported at the time. No one there had heard of a coconut tackle. But, sweet lord have mercy, it contained the word coconut. And thus you assumed it must have been evil. Typical victim mentality. The world is so bored with that rubbish.
17 Sep 2012, 17:17 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-547: you are exposing you ignorance
cheers
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