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, 19:17 pm
@poppa69-599:
I’m sure you do!
17 Sep 2012, 19:17 pm
@Gumboots-597: two draws, two losses, two wins. thats the scenario.
17 Sep 2012, 19:18 pm
plus one win, actually.
17 Sep 2012, 19:19 pm
@shooter-591:
Da Gama’s !n Green Po!nt !s a Cape Town !nst!tut!on.
I’ve been go!ng for years, and have always had a great t!me.
Never exper!enced the ‘bad odour’ you referr!ng to so maybe you went on an off day.
Anyway you ent!tled to have your own op!n!on.
17 Sep 2012, 19:19 pm
@Neilanate-594: not going to happen
nz have long ago wrapped this up!
17 Sep 2012, 19:19 pm
Heineken ‘Bier’ Meyer is a typical lying disloyal coach from the North.
He thinks only about his own ego and thus to save that image of being perceived to be ‘great’ he is prepared to throw to the wolves 2 of his erstwhile most staunchest servants from even the Bulls. But then nothing about that is difficult to assimilate.
Just give attention to his name and tell me how different that is from B.low J.ob Vorster or Piet Wapen Botha or Lang Neus Koornhof or Pik D ik Botha? It all lies in the ‘oertjie’.
17 Sep 2012, 19:19 pm
@shooter-602:
Shocking yes! Read an article somewhere – I think only Carel has a worse record after 7 games.
17 Sep 2012, 19:20 pm
@shooter-602:
3 wins
17 Sep 2012, 19:20 pm
@ 557.?Yetirat
No, Jean is getting slower, looks jaded, doesn’t “work” refs convincingly. HM must appoint a new captain, so there’s competition for the 13 jersey. Besides Jean’s so injury prone, he’s setting some sort of personal best for consecutive matches played
17 Sep 2012, 19:20 pm
@shooter-602: horrible record!
17 Sep 2012, 19:20 pm
@ryecatcher-600: it was decent until the last couple of sentences. Barnes is an irb elite ref and stay an elite ref because he’s one of the best in the world at what he does, they need to let it go.
17 Sep 2012, 19:21 pm
@Mr Black-608:
Ja 40 something % win ratio. Carel had 37% I think…
17 Sep 2012, 19:22 pm
@Gumboots-597: Fuckkitman. How can seeing an innocent ’40%’ in print cause such pain…..
17 Sep 2012, 19:22 pm
@Big Hit-611: all you need now is a silver steed and you can come riding in to save good Waynes name..
17 Sep 2012, 19:23 pm
@papaown-605:
But that’s what I say in that post.
Anyway I am off to a soccer meeting.
17 Sep 2012, 19:23 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-613:
A fail in everyones book I think… Unless we have extremely low standards…
17 Sep 2012, 19:24 pm
And for non-discrimination sake. Can we all in future add every player’s francise/ province after his name. Example:
Jdup Shark had a much better game.
Strauss Cheetah made alot of meters.
etc etc.
I don’t remember everybody saying in the past…
Matfield/ Rossouw/ Bakkies/ Du Preez/ Morne/ Hougaard/ etc etc from Pretoria had a very good game…
But now that the coach happens to be an ex Bull… the players’ province must be dragged in.
Flip from Pretoria actually played better as the game went on..
Habana the ex Lion ex Bull now Province player scored a nice try…
17 Sep 2012, 19:24 pm
@Gumboots-612:
Terrible!
17 Sep 2012, 19:25 pm
@viewer-609: i disagree
we cannot make any judgements on our backline’s players ability until MS is not starting!
just last week you fickle bunch were calling for Frans Steyn to be axed…so am not going to buy into the hysteria calling for the Captains head
17 Sep 2012, 19:26 pm
@gunther-529: Omniscient.
17 Sep 2012, 19:26 pm
@Gumboots-616: eish, a third and fourth straight loss would not be good I imagine?
17 Sep 2012, 19:27 pm
@Mr Black-618:
Indeed!!!
17 Sep 2012, 19:27 pm
572.?Dawn said: ?
17 Sep 2012, 18:31 pm I just trawled through 600 posts of coconut kuk
17 Sep 2012, 19:28 pm
Jissie Pops don’t you ever sleep
Meh
17 Sep 2012, 19:28 pm
One thing I just don’t catch. He could have kept his beloved Morne on the pitch but why he didn’t let taking the kicks by someone else?
Fransie Steyn is not the most relaible kicker, but there was Ruan. He was a kicking king in Heineken Cup – above 90% and most of his kicks were difficult long distance ( 57 – 60 metres even ) high pressure kicks. I don’t know if he slotted them on Sat. but the risk of trying Ruan was none. It seems that HM wanted Morne to become the hero so much that he even surrendered the game. It,s pure nonsense. If we had captain like John S. on the day we all know what would happen..
17 Sep 2012, 19:28 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-613: that’s like Juju’s woodwork score….
17 Sep 2012, 19:29 pm
@poppa69-621:
Well the Ozzies have our number and so do the AB’s… I wouldn’t be surprised. It would be a Gausmash…
17 Sep 2012, 19:29 pm
@Neilanate-615: soccer meeting?? wtf
17 Sep 2012, 19:29 pm
@Gumboots-607: Jaja. I’m not where you are yet. Maybe I will never get there.
But we can honestly have this conversation again after EOYT, including the last two RC games, I expect fully that it will look different, don’t you?
17 Sep 2012, 19:30 pm
@gunther-529: My wife,whom I love dearly,
sees herself as the fount of ALL KNOWLEDGE,WISDOM &UNDERSTANDING.
Pretenders__Queue starts in the Drakensberg.
17 Sep 2012, 19:32 pm
@Jeraldjay-604: I’ll send my representative to make sure. That’s also what I heard before we went there, a group of about 15 people. Maybeeeee. But everything on the plates was suspect that night.
17 Sep 2012, 19:33 pm
@Dawn-624: nope, I live to remind you saffas that you are a full 8 points behind us on the rankings table
that we are world champions
that we should be crowned TRC inaugural winners in the next few weeks
that Aussie have beaten you 7 out of the last 8 games
that we are now 14 games ahead on the head to head tally
that we have won 31 of the last 44 games against you
that I do this task with gusto and passion is an added bonus
17 Sep 2012, 19:34 pm
@shooter-629:
Mate I’ve been hoping for so long and everytime someone says lets wait and see. This is the present mate and let’s wait and see just don’t gell with me anymore…
17 Sep 2012, 19:35 pm
Gordon Ramsay to Da Gama’s
17 Sep 2012, 19:37 pm
moerse
17 Sep 2012, 19:38 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-580: MORNE will play.Bet all you have on it.
17 Sep 2012, 19:40 pm
@ryecatcher-636:
Wrist slitting statement mate…
17 Sep 2012, 19:41 pm
@shooter-631:
Never been there !n the even!ng always for lunch.
Should also try D?as Tavern ?n the c?ty espec?ally on a Fr!day for lunch.
17 Sep 2012, 19:41 pm
So Pops what’s this “meh” you always using
17 Sep 2012, 19:42 pm
@ 619.?papaown said: ?
17 Sep 2012, 19:25 pm
In the space of a couple of weeks first he was called for his “party trick” forward pass & now this past weekend he threw a forward pass into touch with no pressure on him. Still maintain the most valuable players in HM’s plans are Willem Alberts & Frans Steyn, & Bismarck
17 Sep 2012, 19:42 pm
@shooter-635: @poppa69-632: crowing like a castrated chicken fed on cocunuts.
@Dawn-634: maybe they cleaned up a little. I didn’t eat, had a lot of beers to compensate and told the manager what I thought at the time. anyway. enough of them. no gain or campaign.
17 Sep 2012, 19:46 pm
Dawn I extend an olive branch. Apology for making fun of Ricardo Loubscher’s looks. Was a low blow stereotype of coloured people. I am a PDI too
17 Sep 2012, 19:46 pm
Never trust a restauranst older than 75 years
17 Sep 2012, 19:48 pm
@Dawn-639: its a sign of indifference Dawn..
@shooter-641: hilarious, still got the past coursing through your veins huh?
17 Sep 2012, 19:48 pm
@poppa69-621: Can I be honest. I would happily take a win over the Aussies, and a draw/loss against the Kiwis IF and only IF, I see a breaking of the shackles, a brave selection or 2 and a sign (anyfuckingsign) that the backline has been given a little more attention in training (they have been neglected in criminal fashion). Selection and backline might go hand in hand though = No 9 and 10, and perhaps a reshuffle of positions 12, 13 and 15.
Even 2 wins, if begotten in a way that shows no deviation from what has come before will bring me little satisfaction. It will only be plastering cracks with cheap polyfilla.
17 Sep 2012, 19:50 pm
Meyer will get it right… eventually.. he’ll have to go 3 times round the block before he realizes what it takes when a normal set of simple straight forward deductions could have done it in a quarter of the time and the anxiety..
Only problem is it takes a d’tchman twice as long as normal human sapiens to cotton onto what’s what before they suddenly ‘see the light’
ask some these little fakearse anglicized pseudo d’tchman creeps like katmankunty here .. he’ll tell you exactly how long it takes..
like a few centuries before they catch up to the rest of the universe with their last century eyes wide shut half english – half boertjie retrograde pseudo non intelligent ‘awakenings’
17 Sep 2012, 19:51 pm
@ryecatcher-636: I know…..and add to that the return of the sugar plum fairy Spies…..
Ohforfuckssakes. When do we Bok fans actually get a lucky break?
17 Sep 2012, 19:51 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-645: can understand your frustration… backline had the same problems they had at the WC, poor passing and handling skills, it really cost you guys both games… for international players they should be proficient at passing the ball while in motion…
17 Sep 2012, 19:57 pm
@tedanica-625: thats what is soo frustrating about HM
he is soo devoid of logic with his selections!
17 Sep 2012, 19:58 pm
Once again
I ain’t no Bok fan
He messed with Siya.
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