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, 17:18 pm
@katman-549: I assumed it must be evil? I didnt assume anything, Im Maori, it wasnt me who complained about it.. it was PI’s…
but anyways, I understand that once a racist always a racist, you cant help yourself..
next time youre with PI’s (I doubt that would happen tbh), call one a coconut… see where it gets you..
17 Sep 2012, 17:20 pm
@Transformation-548: I expected you to jump all over this.
So are you then advocating that we all keep our cultures totally apart, without adopting any mannerisms of the other?
“Separate Development” of a different kind perhaps??
NO mate, the concept is used to insult someone who they feel has left them behind in a way and is almost always uttered by someone with a chip or inferiority complex. Whether it’s coconut here or uncle tom over there.
17 Sep 2012, 17:20 pm
@Transformation-548:
How do you mean they don’t have **** on you?
17 Sep 2012, 17:23 pm
@poppa69-551: So PI’s are offended by coconuts, but Maoris aren’t? Anything else we should be aware of? Top deck chocolate? Cappuccinos? Zebras?
Someone should write a guide to South Pacific sensitivities. Definitely a gap there.
17 Sep 2012, 17:26 pm
We are much closer to NZ / AUS than we think.
Biggest issue past 2 months have been EXPECTATION MANAGEMENT:
1. HM, naively so, set the bar extremely high in year 1 – did not need to do that.
2. Supporters were so happy to finally get a coach we all wanted, that we also set the bar unrealistically high.
HM will get it right, only Q of time.
But he needs to shed the Morne and Zane hair asap…
17 Sep 2012, 17:28 pm
@katman-554: like I said, next time you are with someone of PI extraction, who you dont know well at all, call him a coconut..
see what the response you get is..
it’s like calling a black man the N word, or the K word…
I understand you have no problem with it because you probably still use those terms under your breath..
17 Sep 2012, 17:30 pm
Reluctant to raise this as we’ve only just gotten rid of John Smit, but is JDV really fit enough to play the full 80 anymore?
17 Sep 2012, 17:31 pm
@Yetirat-557: valid question
17 Sep 2012, 17:31 pm
@stormersboy-552: your expectations don’t concern me…
you’re being daft on purpose i assume…i can advance whicever way i want but i for example don’t have to adopt the mannerisms of a pom business partner of mine or indian or chinese and vice versa…
him advancing is not reliant or hinged on him acting like a xhosa/zulu/tswana person just to please whoever he deems to hold the key to “advancement”
we can advance as diverse as we are…
unity in diversity!
what you maybe missing is how these adopted mannerisms are projected as some form of enligthenment when in most cases it is just plain assimilation.
it can be harmless and it can be vexing depending on the individual.
17 Sep 2012, 17:36 pm
@gunther-553: i envy nothing of their…stormersboy is trying to purport that the label is used by envious and jealous people meanwhile kids who grow up in the same neighbourhood and the other is switched to let’s say sacs or selborne, next thing he comes back on some acquired mannerism steelo, mimicking his new schoolmates and reckons this makes him somewhat superior to the same mates he grew up with…then he is displaying coconut behaviour…
17 Sep 2012, 17:39 pm
@stormersboy-552: this behaviour has been seen even on people who go to london for 2 years and come back with a full on POM accent – black & white…it is just laughable!
be yourself, that’s all.
17 Sep 2012, 17:39 pm
gym calls.
17 Sep 2012, 17:41 pm
@Transformation-561: OK. Carry on then.
17 Sep 2012, 17:58 pm
Stormersboy and Bakkies
Honest question.
Do refs find it more difficult to spot cheating by the ABs because they play in a black kit?
Black blends in more with its own colour than any other same colour combination. Could this, visually, impact the way the ref sees the breakdown / bodies on the ground?
17 Sep 2012, 18:12 pm
@willievz-564: No it’s the same as Man United who get more questionable penalties at home in their favour than any other club. It’s a combination of a well orchestrated PR and a winning culture which implies that they are doing it correctly and this plays on the psyche of the refs.
I call it the man U effect.
Those that complain, usually only after a loss give the impression of sour grapes and all too often when we win in spite of the cheating we don’t complain. Which we should.
17 Sep 2012, 18:15 pm
@bananaboy-528: yeah truth be told as limited as it is meyerball actually worked at the weekend, the kickers just fluffed their lines
17 Sep 2012, 18:17 pm
@willievz-564: referees are all afraid of the dark
17 Sep 2012, 18:17 pm
‘Almal van julle sit die pot mis soos gewoontlik want julle is mos almal net ‘ a lovely bunch of coconuts for daring to think you had a semblance of a chance to win this test..
You never ever looked likely do do so.
The game was merely competitive and there are factors on both sides that explain that.
Firstly, RSA had its desperate backs firmly against the wall and played with the ‘boere gees’ that any underdog/dalmation has against a RWC Champion but when things do not go their way that ‘gees’ becomes snuffed out with time.
Secondly, the ABs uncharacteristically are playing overcautious RWC KO rugby and not their normal trinations-type rugby.
The reason for that is because they are getting mentally bogged down by the unbeaten streak as it approaches the magic number of 18 and they as RWC Champs want to win the very first Rugby Championship. In short they are restricting themselves but as the fundis know ” no person can fool himself ” ever.
‘Maar nou ja julle weet mos hou om onder mekaar lekker te lieg om moed in te skep.’
Even though the Spring equinox is fast approaching it still is September morns that I like.
17 Sep 2012, 18:25 pm
@Johannes_Lombard-555: good points. It needed one goodish effort for the total pessimism to disappear. Now it is hopefully a matter of time for HM to get a few selections right.
The ironic thing is he always going to try out the forward with a few players he rates. There has never or very very rarely been a total unanimous team selection at anytime anyplace.
He picked the teams. A couple of them downright didn’t do their part. What can he do except take note and move forward.
Saturdays game was exactly what he meant by executing properly,, one could expect better results. Sure the game plan is still not beautiful. – where you’re saying get the basics right…. when they have this closer to 80-90% – we should start seeing alot more ruck balls getting out to the centres and wings.
17 Sep 2012, 18:28 pm
If your nollocks are khaki and you know it clap your hands.
17 Sep 2012, 18:29 pm
@Neilanate-568: expect a very restricting PK splitting your collective coconut in Soccer City.
17 Sep 2012, 18:31 pm
I just trawled through 600 posts of coconut kuk
17 Sep 2012, 18:32 pm
@Neilanate-568: Glad you like September mormons. I do believe HG has a birthday coming up on the 27th.
17 Sep 2012, 18:32 pm
I see Hansen being overhauled by Meyer in the second straight,, to be left behind for dead in the last 200m.
17 Sep 2012, 18:33 pm
Watsup Shooter
17 Sep 2012, 18:33 pm
@Dawn-572: it will drive your bobotie bananas
17 Sep 2012, 18:35 pm
You leave my bobotie alone
17 Sep 2012, 18:39 pm
@Dawn-575: Chillin. I was in CT the other day. Wanted to buy you coffee. But time was none.
Did go out to a serious health hazard restaurant of note – called Da Gama’s – i think -in Greenpoint. Do you know it?
17 Sep 2012, 18:41 pm
@Heavens Game-227: LOL
17 Sep 2012, 18:42 pm
@shooter-569: Not trying to to piddle on the positivity parade…but explain how it takes a man 7 games to see certain players are not on form? And dare to dream, but you and I both know there is no ways Morne Steyn will be dropped for the Loftus test…it’s not going to happen.
And at altitude he might just manage an average instead of utterlyfuckingwoeful performance….. What then? The fans cheer and all is good in the world?
The next absolutely nightmarish thought is that Spies will probably be fit and ready for selection and that alone is enough to cause cardiac distress if not arrest.
The only thing that is going to give Bok fans any confidence, is if Meyer manages to poke his head out from his sleeping bag, and make a few hard calls.
He has honestly ruined Morne Steyn mentally, and he needs to man up and admit it.
17 Sep 2012, 18:43 pm
Yep I know it. Us coconuts don’t go there!
17 Sep 2012, 18:47 pm
We go to Ocean Basket. No health hazards, lekker every time.
17 Sep 2012, 18:51 pm
@katman-546: hahaha well said, I have tried a couple of times to comment on his posts but the utter senseless ranting often leaves me speechless. Thanks katman this has made my day!
17 Sep 2012, 18:53 pm
PEDANTIC.SORRY.MARCELLE is a girls name.Drop the E and 1 L
and it is MARCEL E at the end of a word usually indicates Female.HG will
confirm
17 Sep 2012, 18:55 pm
I always thought coconut refered to a nut that hangs high in a tree
Head high = coconut high !
Wtf has black got to do with it?
17 Sep 2012, 18:55 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-580: I don’t know if it for sure that he will pick Morne to start.
I agree 100% that some-one so totally out-off form as Morne, is , should be dropped.
I wonder though… why so many coaches persist with players for so long.
Catch 22, drop him and he will be worse off for losing his place, play him and he drops himself,, then he’s supposedly mentally ruined. Nah, Morne should just go and play and play some until he is back in shape.
Meyer will be wiser to drop him now,,, now that he only has himself to blame. Previously we could’ve said he didn’t get frontfoot ball… not the past game. He is the one guy that is supposed to make the current version of HM’s game plan work… Bull/Bull combo they were. So, no, he had a (green and) golden opportunity and blew it. If it wasn’t after a series of shaky performances no-one would have been so hard on him.
In fact, he came into the squad on the back of exactly a similar public protest after Ruan Pienaar.
So he should be able to take it. He knows HM likes him,,, so regain form, and come back in the right mindspace.
Hopefully HM can figure all this out too. He should really, for the sake of both of them.
HM has been somewhat honest and forthcoming in his analysis, to be fair. He actually also said back in SA some tough calls will probably be made…. So let’s see.
17 Sep 2012, 18:56 pm
@shooter-578:
Love go?ng to Da Gama, they serve a great Tr!nchado.
S!m!lar spot !n the c!ty called D!as Tavern.
17 Sep 2012, 18:57 pm
@NZINCHINA-384: Be gracious in victory as well as in defeat.That is the right way..
17 Sep 2012, 19:01 pm
@Dawn-582: Somebody should go and inspect that place. It stinks. literally.
Ocean basket, really?! I thought those in the know go the hawe or have a conneco from the sea.
Being from Verre Noord we don’t get good fish markets you know.
You should take advantage of the opportunity.
17 Sep 2012, 19:02 pm
Same with d.utchman, is a term that refer to people of d.utch decent.
And to those idiots calling every Afrikaans speaking person a d.utchman, you do know that not all Afrikaans speaking people are decendant from d.utch.
Heyneke Meyer is probably from Germany
17 Sep 2012, 19:06 pm
@Jeraldjay-587: That place stinks of rot/ muispis. their trinchado is atrocious too. Bleak looking and tasteles. I didn’t really eat much of it.
Funny thing is, everyone else seemed to be too polite to mention the state of the food and the place in general. Keiser se klere.
17 Sep 2012, 19:06 pm
@cab-441: The humility from both sides is astonishing.
17 Sep 2012, 19:08 pm
@shooter-586: You know what mate. I hope so, for Morne’s sake. Whatever he is an isn’t on the rugby field at the moment, he is a decent fellow and a loyal servant of Bulls and SA rugby. He has not selected himself, and in fact, Meyer has set him up to fail bigtime, by heaping the pressure on him in the media with all of his so-called praise of him.
Nah, Morne is in a sh y tty place at the moment, when I guess all he has been trying to do is repay Meyer’s faith in him.
Meyer has disappointed me in this regard. After hearing what a great leader and motivator he is, he fuckswithMorne’s mind in a pretty cruel way….(considering all the hate mail Morne is getting…)
He has done Morne a huge injustice as far as I am concerned. (As well as those sitting on the bench watching Steyn blunder his way through test after test…)
17 Sep 2012, 19:08 pm
As was so emphatically predicted before September dawned, this first Rugby Championship is dead and buried and the trophy will take its place alongside the RWC and devalue it as this SH Championship is far more demanding to acquire than the RWC.
For the Aussies to win it they will need to win both(and 1 with a bonus pt.) games remaining but are more likely to lose at least 1 of those games.
The remaining challenger needs also to win both but both with scoring 4 tries. These days they cannot even score with fat hookers in Dock Rd., Green Point.
All of either scenario needs the Kiwis not to pick up losing bonus points(and/or or 4 tries) in both games – not ever likely to happen.
So hail the winners of the very first Rugby Championship.
17 Sep 2012, 19:08 pm
@rangerman-446: KARMA
17 Sep 2012, 19:10 pm
Don’t worry Shooter. We always take advantage of the opportunity!
17 Sep 2012, 19:14 pm
Just over 40% success rate – one of the worst in SA history.
The whole of SA saw the problem, don’t come with any excuses please…
How can anyone see any positives with such a win ratio…
17 Sep 2012, 19:16 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-593: Thats the way it works sometimes. Just when you think it can not get any worse,, it does. Sure Morne will acknowledge it’s a tough time. But I won’t pin this on HM just yet.
Morne came out of S15 not on top form. He was backed. What more can he ask for.
Never in either’s dreams, would Morne have had such a bad game/ off day. They’re pro. They should deal with it. Don’t they have mental coaches and all that.
17 Sep 2012, 19:16 pm
@Gumboots-597: I think it is a very positive win percentage mate
17 Sep 2012, 19:16 pm
@Transformation-478: Thank you.A good article.
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