Meyer: We avoided massive setback
10 Nov 2012
Heyneke Meyer admitted the Springboks would have been ‘three steps backwards’ had they lost against Ireland but stressed the importance of victory in the education of his team.
The Springboks trailed 12-3 at half-time with very little evidence that they would turn it around in the manner they did. However, there was an inspired effort in the second half to seal a victory that Meyer said has significance beyond the obvious.
‘Our performance in the first half was unacceptable and I can’t tell you my words to the team. There were too many penalties, we couldn’t get going. But I’m proud of this team. At nine points down we showed a lot of character to come back. We’ve learnt a lot from tonight,’ Meyer said.
‘This means more than when we beat Australia at home scoring five tries. It was a tough week Beast was out, Gurthro failed another fitness test today, Heinke hasn’t trained with us and in the first three minutes Jannie was injured and wanted to come off. We were under the sword. It was the worst half I’ve ever seen this year.
‘I was desperate at one point. I want us to do well, especially for the supporters back home. There could have been a lot of excuses, with almost a whole team out and a lot of guys that moved on. But we don’t want to offer excuses. Losing would have been a huge setback for me and the team. It would have been three steps backwards for us.’
Meyer singled out his young players for praise, explaining that their composure and ability to execute instructions was central to the win. He added that there has been patent progress from June to this point.
‘We would have lost from this situation at the beginning of the year. What we did in the second half was special,’ he said.
Captain Jean de Villiers echoed Meyer’s sentiments. ‘It’s one thing to be selected for the Springboks but more difficult to put in a performance worthy of wearing a Springbok jersey. The first half wasn’t. The response was fantastic,’ he said.
‘In Mendoza [against Argentina] we were in the same situation but we failed to respond. I said at the beginning of the tour that we needed to take it to the next level and I think we did that tonight.’
Meyer, however, stressed that perspective is needed when assessing where they stand at present.
‘This is the type of game we needed to win. There were a lot of soft moments this year, but in the second half here there were none. But I what to make it clear that a more highly-rated Springbok team beat Ireland a couple of years back, and then lost to Scotland,’ he said.
‘We have to be humble, keep our feet on the ground and learn from here. Scotland are waiting and they’re a good team. I can tell, though, the team took a lot of confidence from this.’
By Ryan Vrede, in Dublin
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333 Comments
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11 Nov 2012, 16:30 pm
298@ryecatcher….can’t pronounce that word, never mind know what it means
11 Nov 2012, 16:33 pm
@Treehugger-301: Rejoicing in the
misery/misfortune of others.
11 Nov 2012, 16:34 pm
@Hondo-229:
My comment had less to do with Lambies performance on saturday, as it was a dig at Puma and SLs unhealthy adoration of him and SBs comment about stalking.
11 Nov 2012, 16:34 pm
You really have to question Heyneke’s ability as a coach.He was in charge of a bulls team with good players who were suited to that Skop en jaag rugby of that era.Fdp,Matfield and other senior players basically were in charge of that Bulls team.Heyneke got a weak mentality and that’s a fact.He can’t see that SA rugby needs to move with the times as this Bulls Skop en jaag rugby is totally outdated.
11 Nov 2012, 16:37 pm
@David-303: Useless trying to explain something to a tree stump.Contrary to popular belief,they don’t have human qualities.
11 Nov 2012, 16:49 pm
Why is de Jong not given tge benefit of the doubt – what sort if insult is it to pick a fullback from completely ubschrity over a player in scintillating form.
I find it completely bizarre that SA who’ve clearly had problems in breaking the line – fail to pick the most dangerous attacking centre in SA – it completely beggars belief – it is every hit as stupid as devilliers selection of smit over tge in-form Bismarck
WTF it with these coached who are completely unable to select form when it shows itself as clearly as daylight.
De Jong gives up absolutely nothing to taur in any respect – de Jong is a centre who right now is at his peak instEad meyer I’d trying to grow a rookie fullback into an unfamiliar position at test level – this can only be explained in terms of ideological bias – it stinks.
11 Nov 2012, 16:53 pm
@wnbb-305:
Actually when he isn’t trying to annoy with his “quota” and ref comments, Hondo can be quite a perceptive blogger. The problem is trying to work out when that is.
11 Nov 2012, 16:54 pm
I actually would not be surprised if de Jong is picked and makes a couple of clean linebreaks in his 1st game, what’s the bet
it’s about time cilliers was picked the workrate oftge pack will go through the roof.
11 Nov 2012, 17:00 pm
1. Heinke 2. Brits 3. Cilliers 4. Flip 5. Etsebeth 6. Flo 7. WA 8. Vermeulen
9. Houg 10. Pienaar/lambie 11. Rhule 12. De Jong 13. JP 14. JP/JdV 15. Taute
11 Nov 2012, 17:01 pm
@cab-306: Couldn’t agree more
11 Nov 2012, 17:01 pm
so much of emo gnashing over the rapport article?
since when does a player in the back three get away with not being able to kick?
11 Nov 2012, 17:03 pm
lambie suddenly had a different kicking style yesterday.
have never seen him take a half step back first.
hope louis koen is not ******** him around.
11 Nov 2012, 17:10 pm
Hi all,
Missed the game last night, caught a horrible 10 minutes in the first half though.
Can someone explain to me the comments regarding JdV and Strauss swapping captaincy etc.?
11 Nov 2012, 17:15 pm
South Africa – 15-Percy Montgomery (21-
Francois Steyn 58), 14-JP Pietersen, 13-Jean
de Villiers, 12-Adrian Jacobs, 11-Bryan
Habana (22-Conrad Jantjes 48), 10-Butch
James, 9-Fourie du Preez (20-Enrico
Januarie 60), 8-Pierre Spies (18-Danie
Rossouw 76), 7-Juan Smith, 6-Schalk Burger
(19-Luke Watson 60), 5-Victor Matfield, 4-
Andries Bekker, 3-CJ van der Linde (17-
Brian Mujati 77) 2-Bismarck du Plessis (16-
Adriaan Strauss 76), 1-Tendai Mtawarira.
the above team got nilled @ Newlands in 2008
“pdv inherited a world cup winning team” that had consistently languished at number 3 in the rankings and had never beaten new zealand with any sort of consistency.
in fact a lot of these world cup winners were either disgustingly off-form or injured in 2008 but hey it was divvy’s fault that they lost.
11 Nov 2012, 17:21 pm
@Transformation-314: Try tell Tacitus that. We were never the best team in the World bar 2009 under PDV.
11 Nov 2012, 17:44 pm
302@ryecatcher….aaaaah, thanks, and now say it for me so I don’t stuff that up when verbalizing the word. Lol.
11 Nov 2012, 22:49 pm
I think HM needs the education
11 Nov 2012, 22:55 pm
Jake White won us the WC and still many on here cant stand him. SA rugby supporters are firstly impatient, second lack long term memory, thirdly couldnt recognise a good coach if one hit them on the head.
11 Nov 2012, 22:56 pm
Who the hell would really want to coach SA withso many idiot supporters
12 Nov 2012, 01:24 am
Our locks and loosies should be:
Locks: Etzebeth, Alberts
Loosies: Deon Fourie, Flo and Vermeulen
12 Nov 2012, 01:31 am
@j59-320:
That combo would be incredible. Good call.
12 Nov 2012, 05:08 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-179:
I think you missing the point altogether, where exactly does it say that Meyer wants him to kick? Reality is a modern day player playing anywhere in the backline should be able to kick, just like a center should be able to pass both way and a #10 be able to kick with both feet…if they want to get anywhere anyway.
Now I have seen very little of Rhule but I can only assume he can’t kick or at least can’t kick with any conviction. So let us look at a scenario where he catches the ball close to his own tryline with little support and 3 opposition players hairing down on him, would you like him to:
1. Run at the opposition because that is what he does best, get caught and either turn over the ball or give a way a penalty or;
2. Kick a woer-woer skop that may travel 5 meters either just across the sideline or even worse infield or;
3. Assess his options and punt the ball at least outside his own 25m area?
You see, learning to kick may not be about having to kick but rather having the option if needed. The thing is in the professional era he WILL be targeted if opposition knows he can’t kick and then what happens to the man.
12 Nov 2012, 05:17 am
@skopdiekan-243:
Just give it up…
• 87.skopdiekan:
5 Nov 2012, 23:38 pm
well I reckon Meyer is going to lose with playing JdV and Taute at center.. he is going to get one more fat lesson of comeuppance to his pathetic ignorant lack of any rugby ingenuity ego that he has already shown in no uncertain terms through the first year of his apprenticeship… he has fck’d up far more times than he has made good.. every time he makes a dumb selection it stuffs him straight back in his prejudicial eyes.. and yet he still hasn’t learned it yet..
Lots more…
• 383.skopdiekan:
7 Nov 2012, 22:14 pm
I’m rooting for Ireland to fck this moron up
• 394.skopdiekan:
7 Nov 2012, 22:32 pm
Boks should lose on Saturday..
• 329.skopdiekan:
8 Nov 2012, 22:45 pm
Boks going to get fck’d up Saturday and Meyer is going to bedank
Guess what, they WON!
12 Nov 2012, 06:31 am
@Transformation-314: Sure- disgustingly off form after having played the best rugby in the world the year before.
Whatever.
It was lack of coaching mate. PdV was just not a good technical coach. He did not have a clue. C’mon – even the players said it in their autobiographies. They took over coaching. He just man managed and spin doctored.
12 Nov 2012, 06:46 am
@Slartibartfast-323:
Oh that’s just old toothless Chihuahua… he’s been tjanking out incorrect predictions and ‘coulda/woulda/shoulda’s’ for years now in between his drooling vitriol… not even worth a kick in the ribs these days…
12 Nov 2012, 06:50 am
@Slartibartfast-322:
Yep you only have to look at the AB’s to see that the modern day winger needs all the skills of a full-back… Brian, JPP have that Hougaard’s kicking is improving and Mvovu and Rhule are being worked on in that dept… the latter 3′s positional play is also pretty far off the mark still…
Really not rocket-science… but then some aren’t the most objective nor knowledgeable…
12 Nov 2012, 06:52 am
@bryce_in_oz-325:
I think he stopped taking his medication though, he has been way over the top even for him.
12 Nov 2012, 07:00 am
@j59-320: 100%!!!!!
12 Nov 2012, 07:00 am
@Slartibartfast-327:
The same thing happened to Sam his brother with the onset of Dementia towards the end…
http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/uglydog.asp
12 Nov 2012, 07:15 am
The team should be:
1. Beast (Pat)
2. Biz (Schalk)
3. Heinke
4. Alberts
5. Etsebeth
6. Fourie
7. Louw
8 Duane
9. Hougaard
10. Goosen (Lambie)
11. Rhule
12. Steyn (Jordaan)
13. De Jongh
14. JP
15. Taute
12 Nov 2012, 07:24 am
@bryce_in_oz-329:
Hehehe I can see the family resemblance there…
12 Nov 2012, 07:43 am
@garth-330: Why play Hougard, Pienaar was brilliant on Saturday second half, took control of the game.
12 Nov 2012, 09:24 am
@SjamBok-324: the Springboks entered the World Cup ranked FOURTH in the IRB world rankings, now tell me how does that translate to “having played the best rugby in the world the year before.”
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