Meyer: We can’t throw Morne away
25 Sep 2012
Heyneke Meyer says dropping Morne Steyn from the Springboks’ squad was not the solution to remedying his struggles.
Steyn has been the central villain in what has been a nightmare Rugby Championship campaign for the Springboks. His ball-in-hand play is widely perceived to be average, while his tactical and goal kicking has lacked its trademark accuracy.
There is a sense that a large portion of the South African rugby fraternity has lost patience with Steyn, the tipping point coming in their most recent Test against the All Blacks in Dunedin, where he missed kicks which were decisive in the final analysis.
Meyer has consistently voiced his view that Steyn’s heavy workload over the last three years has compromised him and reiterated this after the Dunedin defeat once more. He intimated then that he would rest Steyn for the home leg, but said those plans were shelved in light of a ruling that requires Springboks players to compete in the Currie Cup if not in the squad.
‘We need to look at how we manage our players but it was best that he stayed involved,’ Meyer said. ‘There is a lot of criticism [directed] at Morne, but you’re still working with a human being. If you look at when Bryan [Habana] was struggling, as a coach you can’t just throw a guy away and expect him to come back stronger. I’m not the type of coach to just throw a guy away.
‘Obviously if you do stupid things there’s no sympathy [Meyer would later suggest that Dean Greyling wouldn't play Test rugby again because of his cowardly assault Richie McCaw]. But Morne’s general play was good, it was his kicking that was poor and we have to work on that. It is great to have him in the group, especially with Johan Goosen not being 100% fit [bruised heel]. I can already see being back home has helped him.’
Meyer continued to defend his gameplan, which is thought to be too conservative, stressing that his belief in its effectiveness hasn’t diminished. ‘There’s been a lot of talk about the gameplan but I thought we played the All Blacks perfectly,’ he said.
‘We had more scoring chances than them but we finished poorly. We didn’t convert pressure into points. The teams are so close in Test rugby that that is costly. It frustrated me today in training because when we broke the line guys didn’t show an instinct to finish. They almost appeared to stop. We have to finish better. There isn’t a lot to change in the gameplan, we just have to finish better.’
He also suggested that expectations need to be tempered in keeping with his infancy in the role. ‘I’ve checked the stats, Steve Hansen has been with the All Blacks for 100 Tests. Robbie Deans has just surpassed Bob Dwyer’s 65 Tests as coach. The Argentinian coach has been there for four or five years. I’ve been with the team for seven weeks,’ he said.
‘When you take over a new team with new coaching staff and players and take on the top sides in the world there will be a bit of self doubt for everybody. The players know they could have beaten Australia and New Zealand. But I sense the self-belief is growing. That comes with experience and we’re short on that. But we’re home now and the lessons from those defeats must show in our performances.’
By Ryan Vrede, in Pretoria
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432 Comments
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24 Sep 2012, 18:51 pm
Meyer is such a clown.
24 Sep 2012, 18:51 pm
Same ish, same DRAGONS!
24 Sep 2012, 19:08 pm
So Meyer is still poncing about. No Brussouw, but the Stain remains (and will probably start at Loftus contrary to reports that indicate otherwise). Whatacrockofkak.
Jantjies in – great (but he should get a start at 10 FFS)with Goosen off the bench.
Alas, that will not happen. The Stain will start (and have an average game but kick better in front of his faithful Loftus maatjies) become a hero once more – and thenwebefucked.
Where is Taccy? I need his sound guidance here as I must know what Meyer’s reasoning is…….
24 Sep 2012, 19:18 pm
Nee Heyneke….YOU can’t…..YOU can see past your favoritism. Don’t put it on us please. We can all see which player cost us the game against the All Blacks.
Your time is limited anyway meneer. If you were to be long term Bok coach, you would have had to perform right from the beginning. You dont have 7 years or a 100 tests to get it right. You should know that about coaching a Springbok team.
So doen maar wat jy moet – keep ou Mornetjie in the team. Its the Afrikaner mentality – sacrifice all for loyalty – even yourself. Some might call it a noble attitude, I call it stupid.
So we lost that test because we didn’t score tries ? The 1 from 6 meant nothing ?
You wont last long. Unfortunate because I thought you would be a great Bok coach. I really respected what you got right at the Bulls, but you seem like a rabbit in the light at the Springboks.
And, two new Springboks ? Really ? 13 new Springboks in your 5 months !? You are reactive – not proactive. Not the coach to take us to the world cup unfortunately. I hope 2012 will be your last year as Bok coach.
24 Sep 2012, 19:20 pm
WTF is this *****? Has Heineken got a farking man crush on Stain? His general play was ***** as was his kicking! Drop the dunce! The last comment is flexible and can be used for the coach, Stain, Greyling, Pienaar, Sideshow Bob or all of them preferably!
24 Sep 2012, 19:23 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-3: We can only hope we lose the two home tests as well. That way, Meyer’s exit will be sped up. He is busy doing irrevocable damage – all these youngsters he is bringing into this scenario could come out permanently scathed. The sooner he gets off the bus, the better.
If he showed one little bit of creativity, I would say differently but Meyer’s modus operandi is so transparent and simplistic, it still amazes me that he brought the Bulls back from being the clowns of super rugby to the only South African title holders.
After seeing how he grasps at straws, and the 13 new Springboks he has created over 5 months, I think it was just a fortunate turn of events that he had Victor Matfield, Bakkies Botha, Danie Rossouw, Fourie Du Preez, Bryan Habana, Johan Roets, Gary Botha and a few others all in the absolute prime of their careers mid to late 2000′s. He was just lucky it seems.
24 Sep 2012, 19:27 pm
Pofkop. Just retire. Do us a favor, ou pellie.
24 Sep 2012, 19:27 pm
Do i remember correctly that he said, when he was appointed, that he wants to win every test? Now he’s saying it’s too soon to judge him! Farking backtracking clown!
24 Sep 2012, 19:28 pm
@shark4life-5: Leave him….its like a zit…..if Heyneke loses these next two tests, it will have a ripe white head…..ready to pop.
I just cannot understand the mentality. It was the same with Derick Hougaard. For some reason the Bulls develop some form of sense of indebtedness toward some players for no apparent reason and they will endure with that player no matter what.
When Derick Hougaard exited his brief prime the Bulls fans and coaching staff refused to see it. Instead they continued to serenade him at Loftus. A boy from the Western Cape nogal.
Loyalty before self preservation. The kind of guys that you send into battle first as cannon fodder, and once the enemy has used up all their bullets you trample over their minced bodies to go finish it off. Met ander woorde – die f#kken dom troepe.
24 Sep 2012, 19:29 pm
victor said meyer was tge best coach he ever played under…i am sure the others would say the same
24 Sep 2012, 19:30 pm
@KeurboomPark-7: Fark me…we should be so lucky! This dunce is ruining my enjoyment of Springbok rugby!
24 Sep 2012, 19:30 pm
@Brigadier Van Zyl-10:
He was drunk on mampoer at the time.
24 Sep 2012, 19:32 pm
‘I’m not the type of coach to just throw a guy away. ‘
What a load of absolute ****. What about Lwazi Mvovo (back with the Sharks), Patrick Lambie (getting bench splinters), Keegan Daniel (back with the Sharks)…..?
Its not you cant just throw a player away…..YOU (Heyneke Meyer) cant just throw your blue eyed, blue jersied teachers pet away…..you should be more specific.
Luister Heyneke….’JY PRAAT K@K !’
24 Sep 2012, 19:32 pm
@shark4life-11:
Are they trying to convert us to “rugby as religion”?
24 Sep 2012, 19:33 pm
@Dusky-9 True. Probably the best approach. In the meantime i’m just gonna have to suck it up watching my beloved Boks getting beaten knowing there is a greater good sometime in the future!
24 Sep 2012, 19:34 pm
@Brigadier Van Zyl-10: Heyneke Meyer praat meer k@k as Piet Snor.
I simply cannot believe it. I mean we have another Harry Viljoen or Rudolph Straueli on our hands here. I just dont get it. I just think he was lucky at the Bulls. I mean he did end up there during an era when the Bulls would have the worlds two best locks, the worlds best wing and the worlds best scrumhalf. Its getting clear now.
The Bulls won in spite of Heyneke – not because of him.
24 Sep 2012, 19:35 pm
@KeurboomPark-14 Mate, i don’t know WTF they are doing besides driving my blood pressure to dangerous levels!
24 Sep 2012, 19:35 pm
Meyer’s stubbornness to the point of disbelief (or is it maybe stupidity) is ultimately going to be his downfall. There seems to be no flexibility (creativity) in his thinking. Not even a hint of, maybe I should look just a little wider than my current plan.
24 Sep 2012, 19:36 pm
@shark4life-15: Exactly. Meyer is making himself cannon fodder through his blind loyalty to Morne Steyn. I have seen more than one example of this, in more than just rugby amongst the Afrikaner population.
Its endearing to see the selfless show of loyalty, but still stupid in my opinion. ‘Ons vir jou Pretoria….’
So he’ll sacrifice himself and go off and write a book about how unfair it was.
24 Sep 2012, 19:36 pm
also, reading between the lines meyer is keeping steny in the squad but will not play him he wants him to get a decent break from rugby altogether but sending him back to his union means he has to play cc. i dont think we will see steyn play i think it will be goosen. elton is there as 3rd choice in case goosen goes down wereby he will move onto the bench again. otherwise its goosen to play with morne on the bench and only if the goose gets injured will he get onto the park.
24 Sep 2012, 19:37 pm
@Albert-18: Reminds me of Nick Mallet near the end of his time. Unbelievable stubbornness and a refusal to listen to any advice. Cost him in the end as it will Meyer.
24 Sep 2012, 19:37 pm
well there you have it mense
morne to sart against oz and nz
done and done
sensible if you ask me
24 Sep 2012, 19:38 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-22: I am pleased with that too.
24 Sep 2012, 19:38 pm
@Dusky-6: Must be honest…..I realised the minute he announced his assistant coaches (bar de Villiers the scrum coach), that we were in serious sh yte.
Then came his arrogant statements, followed by some utterlyfuckingbizarre selections in his 1st squad.
Add to that MORE arrogant and bizarre statements, blatant lies, and terrible mismanagement of extremely talented players and the writing was on the wall – in blue.
And this was before a ball had been kicked in anger
The 40 minutes of ‘awesome’ rugby against England (looks to the heavens), would mean zero in the grander scheme of things, as predicted a false dawn.
And from there: A backline suffering from such serious neglect that social welfare should be informed/ More player mismanagement and downright cruelty towards some/MORE bizarre and fuckedupstatements…..plus another bizarre squad with a few criminal selections.
I am really struggling (and have been since the man was appointed) to find ANY long term positives.
24 Sep 2012, 19:39 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-22: The more game time Morne Steyn gets, the better for Springbok rugby in the medium to long term.
24 Sep 2012, 19:39 pm
and at the same time a good mind game for morne om sy kop reg te kry.
24 Sep 2012, 19:40 pm
HM needs to take a boskak and in the process releeve himself of his Covenant with Morne.
24 Sep 2012, 19:41 pm
No time for sentiment HM.
A coach cannot be emotionally attached to his players. Just won’t work.
Meyer created the monster. So he feels responsible for Morne’s demise.
I say shoot the horse ’cause the pain and suffering will eventually kill him.
24 Sep 2012, 19:41 pm
@Dusky-23:
yip
when you hit rock science bottom, the only way is up
and i think morne will go up
insurance is having goosen on the bench or lambie for that matter.
24 Sep 2012, 19:41 pm
@Dusky-19 I’m happy to chip in for his UIF contributions in the meantime as long as i have a guarantee that he’ll be unemployed in the near future
24 Sep 2012, 19:42 pm
Morne steyn is kak, even if he is making his kicks. The man cant do anything else…he is so one dimentional…what would be there point keeping him when, we got gitano like goosen and jantjies, seriously HM.
24 Sep 2012, 19:43 pm
Here we go again.
It really is a circus.
24 Sep 2012, 19:43 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-24: Yep…he was lucky at the Bulls without a doubt. I think my dead ouma could have coached the Bulls to a Super rugby trophy with the players they had. How I didn’t see that as a possibility in my blind support for Meyer, I dont know. But by his actions now it is clear.
He is no Bok coach unfortunately and certainly not the guy to take us to a world cup. 13 new Springboks in 5 months while leaving some established Springboks playing Currie Cup.
Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable. My dad always used to say ‘Kyk noord en f*k voord….’
24 Sep 2012, 19:43 pm
warming to the subject; I think Meyer will eventually require a rethink in terms of his support staff. Much like White did with Jones(at the last minute) HM should take a leaf and bring in some creative specialists to inform the backline. Right now they might a well not pitch for the game.
24 Sep 2012, 19:43 pm
Guys like goosen and jantjies***
24 Sep 2012, 19:43 pm
@Dusky-16:
no, heyneke meyer built that machine, from scratch.
most of those players were his juniour picks and always last word on selections.
24 Sep 2012, 19:44 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-29: Morne hasn’t hit rock bottom yet. Meyer however is going to take the gamble that he has, which suits my agenda.
24 Sep 2012, 19:46 pm
@Dusky-37 Morne has hit rock bottom……and started digging!
24 Sep 2012, 19:46 pm
@Jeraldjay-28: I’m sitting in this man’s corner with the sponge soaked in Glen Morangie 18 year old.
24 Sep 2012, 19:47 pm
@Dusky-33:
where do you think those players came from?
they did not grow on the trees.
24 Sep 2012, 19:47 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-36: Nah….I think if one wrote a book about the the Bulls resurgence of the late 2000′s it would be called ‘A fortunate series of events’
The doff – selfless loyalty approach is not going to make a great Bok coach.
Personally, it seems to me he was lucky….winning the lottery level lucky.
24 Sep 2012, 19:48 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-40: Of course not…and he might have brought them in, but by poor coincidence. See post 41.
24 Sep 2012, 19:49 pm
@shark4life-38: I dont think so. I think Morne’s time to fall apart completely is still coming which is quite scary – for Heyneke at least.
24 Sep 2012, 19:49 pm
@Dusky-42: Make that ‘pure coincidence’…..but ‘poor coincidence’ works too.
24 Sep 2012, 19:50 pm
If HM picks Morne for the Aus Test then it reveals the stubborness of the man. I hope that doesn’t happen because he seems a decent person who deserves respect. But hell man, if that stubborness prevails then he should be shown no mercy. Its not his asset to play games with.
24 Sep 2012, 19:50 pm
The Test at Loftus is in the bag, regardless of whom HM picks
There will be a short lived euphoria till the ABs Test
Morne Styen thus is destined as the winning Fly Half on Saturday, everything will be forgotten, forgiven
Simple
24 Sep 2012, 19:50 pm
@Dusky-43 ha-ha, agreed! kind of what i was referring to when i said he was starting to dig i.e. deeper!
24 Sep 2012, 19:50 pm
@Dusky-37:
oh
and here i was thinking you had the player and the teams best interests at heart…
24 Sep 2012, 19:51 pm
@TASSIES-34: Meyer has all his Pretoria gat gabbas with him. His ‘klippies en coke om die potjiekos pot’ buddies. And he is sticking with them.
24 Sep 2012, 19:51 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-48: I absolutely do. This is the only way.
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