Meyer laments lame attack
12 Nov 2012
Heyneke Meyer described the Springboks’ conversion rate in the opposition’s 22m as ‘unacceptable’ and has demanded greater patience from his team in that zone.
The Springboks have struggled to find a consistent try-scoring groove this season. They started well against England in the second Test of the series in June, and later put five on Australia at Loftus. But those where exceptions to an otherwise uninspiring season on attack.
They haven’t wanted for a lack of opportunities though, with statistics showing them to be the leading side in the world this year for time spent in the opposition’s 22m. Tellingly, however, they are also high on the list for errors or infringements in that area, which has undermined their cause significantly.
Meyer, speaking in Edinburgh before Saturday’s Test against Scotland, appeared to be vexed by this shortcoming and determined to remedy it.
‘Against Ireland I thought we should have built an innings more,’ he began. ‘We tried too many things too early and gave away turnovers.
‘That’s part of our learning curve, but that said, that was the only game that we didn’t win the territory battle. I’ve been hard on the players about our patience in the goal zone (between the 22m and tryline). The top teams in the world get points when they get in there. It may be a coaching or inexperience thing, but it has to improve. We get in the right areas and we get clean ball, but we don’t covert. At this level that is unacceptable.’
The All Blacks ran in six tries against Scotland on Sunday, but, in addition to the world champions’ superior patience, the Springboks don’t possess their synergy, skill, invention and flair, and should probably set their sights lower than a return of that scale.
They cannot, however, deliver anything but a dominant defensive display, particularly with Scotland having sounded a warning of their attacking potential with three tries against the Blacks.
‘I really believe Scotland is a quality side, they’re very dangerous when they keep the ball in hand. The scoreline didn’t reflect how close it was,’ Meyer said of their host’s 51-22 defeat.
‘There was 10 minutes of brilliance where the All Blacks put 20 points on them. Scotland were always in the game and scored three tries, which us and Australia never managed to do. They were probably unlucky not to score one or two more. So it’s important for us to stay focussed.’
The Springboks have defended well to date, conceding an average of 1.2 tries per match and will want to continue to improve on this important facet of play.
‘I’ve said that attack puts bums on seats but defence wins trophies. There was an emphasis on getting that right last week after the All Blacks game in Soweto. Ireland put us under pressure and we responded really well. We’ll have to be on top of our game to shut down Scotland.’
37 Comments
12 Nov 2012, 16:24 pm
“They haven’t wanted for a lack of opportunities though, with statistics showing them to be the leading side in the world this year for time spent in the opposition’s 22m. Tellingly, however, they are also high on the list for errors or infringements in that area, which has undermined their cause significantly”
Sorry coach but that points fingers in your direction.
Nag ou groote
12 Nov 2012, 17:15 pm
this is what happens when you play a scrumhalf at wing; and a fullback at centre. And …. attack and defense is not a mutually exclusive concept. A team can do both well.
12 Nov 2012, 18:05 pm
HM is a d00s, he is the one yelling over his walkie talkie to smash and bash opposistion.
50% win ratio
Lack of POC in team
Crusty at fullback
Hougie “the gamebreaker” who doesn’t get the ball on wing
All Bulls coaching staff
Draw vs ENG and ARG
All bark, no bite
New coach please.
12 Nov 2012, 18:06 pm
Wonder who selected the coaching staff and then selected the players?
Everyone is too busy being yes men to appease his royal highness.
Sad to see someone like JdV, who must know he reached his sell by date at last years WC, sell his soul to talk up the coach, game plan and drivel they dish up Saturday after Saturday.
Guess the match fees are to good to pass up
12 Nov 2012, 18:08 pm
” I told Habana to smile and he will play better ” – HM
Why didn’t he tel Steyn, Spoes and Crusty to smile as well?
We have a d00s as an coach.
12 Nov 2012, 18:10 pm
@NoRugbyGuru_0_-5:
norugbyguru….well you got that one right at least.
12 Nov 2012, 18:10 pm
I don’t like the Sharks but they had awesome gameplan this year and looks well coached.
I would pick Plumtree as new Bok coach.
12 Nov 2012, 18:11 pm
If smiling is a criteria, the Arnold Geerds and the entire front row of an Eddie Murphy concert should be playing against Scotland
12 Nov 2012, 18:14 pm
Trev Noah makes me laugh, maybe he would make good fullback.
He’s darker than Crusty and has better hairstyle.
Someone phone Heineken and tell him.
12 Nov 2012, 18:16 pm
@ Brigadier Van Zyl,
Zip it lady, you have no credibility.
12 Nov 2012, 18:22 pm
‘The top teams in the world get points when they get in there. It may be a coaching or inexperience thing, but it has to improve. We get in the right areas and we get clean ball, but we don’t covert. At this level that is unacceptable.’
Well Heineke thank you for proving my point, its definitely a coaching ‘thing’ and I hope he realizes that the other top teams have backline/skills coaches that can get their players to do the basics brilliantly. Why ? Because their standards of backline skills are light years ahead and its been like that forever! So why appoint an SA coach when he wont deliver on an international level compared to other world class coaches???
The boks are poor on attack and imo the coaching staff should be taking most of the blame. What were you thinking when appointing an inexperienced coach like Loubcher and putting a guy in charge like van Graan who is predominantly a forwards coach….?? What happened to ‘the boks deserve the best’
Inexperience’s not an excuse, the players will get confidence from the being coached to do the basics brilliantly like the ABs do.
12 Nov 2012, 19:35 pm
hm d0nt have a execution plan at opp22… I believe zk is weakest link… Give taute fullback shirt and put mapoe longside de jong with rhule c0ming fr0m bench. Gv h0ugi an0ther chance at scrummi c0z the rules at a ruck fits him well besides his b0x kicking. Hougi-lambie-de j0ng c0mb0 wl b0ld well i reck0n!
12 Nov 2012, 21:25 pm
The Boks currently spend lots of time in the opposition 22 with the ball tucked into the back of a maul. Lots of minutes with not much happening. If they go wide for a few phases and don’t score they just bring it back to the forward drives again. Lots more minutes with limited opportunities against a decent defense. Then look at the AB’s who will spread the ball from one side of the field to the other and then back again with well constructed patterns of dummy runners, cut out passes, long passes etc until they find a break in the line or eventually turn the ball over by taking a few risks. They do also use forward drives, but mostly when they feel they need to shorten up the defensive line to create gaps out wide. It is a true 15 man attack, but requires the forwards to be able to play as backs and the backs to be able to clean out rucks etc. The Boks look like they are too frightened of getting turned over to really trust their backs, so it stays tight with the hope of maybe a penalty or if really lucky, a try. They are good at this, but it produces fewer points then the AB’s approach. Whilst the AB’s seem to have better handling skills in general, I think the main difference is that the Boks don’t really trust themselves to go wide and are more worried about failing then they are about scoring. Change the mindset and it will get better. Improve some skills (and maybe some more mobile forwards) and things will be much better.
12 Nov 2012, 21:29 pm
Does he realise that you dont have to be in the 22m to score tries.
It seems of late most of the teams the ABs play against spend more time in the ABs half and 22m. Patience is not everything. Its opportunities.
Boks do not take them, teams defend close to the ruck and put a couple of players back for the kick and the boks keep bashing away then kick.
Feel sorry for Lambie, gets his chance and has to play the way he is not use to.
Boks could have Carter playing for them but if the plan is too kick and maul and run one of the ruck then he too would look useless
12 Nov 2012, 22:10 pm
lol heyneke throwing loubscher & van graan under the bus
12 Nov 2012, 22:23 pm
@Hurricane-14:
” Boks could have Carter playing for them but if the plan is too kick and maul and run one of the ruck then he too would look useless”
Aint that the truth Hurri…..the Meyer’s plan is so farkdup that it doesn’t matter who they have there, it would still be ruinous to ones career. In fact the Abs could change strips and wear the Bok and play under Meyers instructions and get dorked 50% of the time…..this guy needs to go….he has no feel for the subtleties of the game.
12 Nov 2012, 22:33 pm
@Hurricane-14: @Te Rangatira-16: “Against Australia in Pretoria we scored five reasonably good tries and we missed three chances. Everybody said that was a bad Australian side.
“Then Australia draw with New Zealand and
the All Blacks don’t score a try. Yet I don’t
hear people saying New Zealand are
conservative and they don’t play great
rugby.
“Look at last year’s World Cup final – New
Zealand scored one try through a line-out
and won 8-7, but it’s said to be one of the
best games in the history of the
tournament.
“Test rugby is all about winning. You can
play any-which-way, you simply have to win
and that is what we are aiming for.”
12 Nov 2012, 23:28 pm
@Transformation-17:
“Then Australia draw with New Zealand and
the All Blacks don’t score a try. Yet I don’t
hear people saying New Zealand are
conservative and they don’t play great
rugby.”
So you bought up 2 games….so?
Yes ABs do have those games but no matter what they still put it through the backline and try to find those gaps, run the teams defenses from #1 to #15.
Test rugby is all about winning but the Boks are struggling just to do that in most cases. If you are happy with the way it is going Trans then good for you.
12 Nov 2012, 23:44 pm
@Hurricane-18:
Give it a rest Hurricane, your boner for the AB’s will start hurting soon!
12 Nov 2012, 23:46 pm
@aliboy-13: I agree. The Boks seem to have adopted a rugby league style of play by sending one off forward runnners over and over again; there is little attempt to link up or pass – just aim for an opposition player and go to ground. Wallabies have also started doing this of late which is why they are losing. It’s predictable and quite frankly boring to watch. Interestingly Victor talks about this in his book – PDiv wanted the Bok forwards to look for the gap and to offload but after they kept dropping the ball in practice they decided it was easier to go back to what they knew – bash it up!
12 Nov 2012, 23:54 pm
@whatever-19:
We are talking rugby here.
Something that you seem to struggle with.
How about you give it a rest and put some effort into talking rugby and not being the keo fukwit
12 Nov 2012, 23:55 pm
@Hurricane-21:
Dude, the only thing you do here is slam the Boks and blow off the AB’s. It gets boring, your lips must be raw, give it a rest!
13 Nov 2012, 00:02 am
@whatever-22:
So you disagree with what i said in post #18?
I say it as i see it.
This is a rugby blog after all.
13 Nov 2012, 03:06 am
I never saw the NZ game on the weekend. Would love to know how many of the tries from either side started inside the 22. If your backs are good, you can make a break from anywhere on the field where there is an opportunity (if there is no opportunity, surely these guys should be good enough to create one?).
Scoring from inside the 22 sounds like he is hoping more for penalties & driving maul type tries to me. Maybe I am being a bit too harsh, but in light of the rugby played, probably not.
13 Nov 2012, 03:56 am
@The Bill-24:
True
However it’s no use playing for penalties if the conversion rate of those borders on 60 percent.
13 Nov 2012, 05:16 am
@Hurricane-18: you missed the point…this was meyer’s response to similar criticism of the Bok gameplan last week…
13 Nov 2012, 05:33 am
@The Bill-24: carter ripped those jocks a new bumhole…it was as if he had baby oil smeared all over the way he was slippery…not many of those tries “started in the 22″
the all blacks are just too clinical & full of guile to be faffing about sending one-off runners in the 22
meyer thinks everyone in the world is out to get him & the Boks. he is constantly defending his gameplan…
earlier this year:
Auckland – Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer
has hit out at critics who say that his team
play a kick-and-chase game, stating that
getting the ball from the back and running
through the defence “will usually work in
movies”.
The Boks tried to utilise their possession a
bit better by carrying the ball more in the
first half of the 26-19 defeat to the
Wallabies in Perth, but there was still a lot
of aimless kicking, especially from the back
when Australia had not even chased their
own kick.
Often the ball was fielded well outside the
Bok 22, but the likes of Zane Kirchner,
Morné Steyn and Ruan Pienaar were all
guilty at stages of using the boot rather
than looking for a teammate or taking on
the defence themselves.
If they do that against the All Blacks in
Dunedin on Saturday, the Boks will have to
try and stop such devastating runners like
Israel Dagg, Cory Jane and Kieran Read.
But Meyer looked irritated yesterday when
told that the Bok gameplan could be
described as a “kick-and-chase” approach.
“I just want to put it into perspective -
there has been criticism from people back
home that it’s a kick-and-chase game, and
that it’s all about the defence. I know
people want you to get the ball at the back
and run through the defence, but that will
usually work in the movies. It doesn’t work
at this level anymore,” he barked.
“What’s actually strange is that when
Argentina played us, people said that it was
a kick-and-chase game, but Argentina
actually kicked more than us. Australia
kicked more than we did again at the
weekend, and people are saying we should
play that game. The fact is that if there is
nothing on and you can’t counter from the
back, then you have to kick accurately.
“The thing about New Zealand is that if you
don’t kick accurately, they will punish you
with seven points every time. They are the
one team where the whole backline are
game-breakers. If you don’t put pressure on
the kick, they can move the ball into space
and will punish you.
“If you do want to kick, and there’s space to
kick, then your contesting in the air has to
be 100 percent. If you give them space and
ball on the front foot, they can punish you.
Our chase-lines have to be 100 percent
intact, and I believe our work-rate needs to
go up. It’s the third game away from home,
and you can see it in the guys – it’s tough
with all the flying. Come Saturday, the guys
will be fine.”
13 Nov 2012, 06:30 am
It doesn’t help having a complete nobody in coaching as your backline coach Heyneke.
It also doesn’t help playing players out of position, Heyneke.
It also doesn’t help extinguishing all natural talent and flair in a player, by forcing them to play to a 6 year old one-track gameplan that YOU believe is the best way forward, Heyneke.
And finally, it doesn’t help when you put so much pressure on the guys to win, win, win, win and then talk about how they aren’t executing the “gameplan”, or persist with kak selections like M.Steyn, or continually play the least talented fullback in SA whilst a better one is in the 13 jersey and a better 13 is on the bench, or subtly bad-mouth your coaching staff that you picked from a franchise that has hardly set the world alight in the last 3 years, Heyneke.
In other words. If the guys are playing k a k – as they have against, the Poms, the Argies, the Aussies and the Kiwis this year and nothing seems to be changing, then it’s 95% likely that it’s your fault, Heyneke.
But you absolutely HATE being told that it could be your fault don’t Your Pretorianess.
13 Nov 2012, 07:13 am
What the All Blacks do really well is give each other plenty of options on attack. The off the ball work of their players is what makes them so good, creating options for each other. The ball carrier almost always follows his pass. They also have a two tier attack, where they can either play it flat, if the space is short or on the inside or behind the 1st tiers back in order to go wide with the first tier following up to create options or clean the tackle area.
It’s not rocket science, just a good coach coaching smart players.
13 Nov 2012, 08:33 am
“There was 10 minutes of brilliance where the All Blacks put 20 points on them.”
Yet… JdJ’s few moments of brilliance in the CC final and other games through the season are dismissed as flashes in the pan… swallows in summer… the exception rather than the rule…
history suggests… the point Heymaker just does not get is that you will seldom, if ever, get those moments or minutes of brilliance from lumbering big unskilled players… simply because if they don’t have the skills they don’t have the ability to use them to proactively effect a moment of brilliance… so we wait for opposition to finally succumb to a brutal physical onslaught and then when an opposing player gets bliksemed over… we throw up our arms in celebration of our ‘moment of brilliance’…
this is why we need guys like JdJ and the mighty Gio… or guys like Willie Le Roux playing every game for us… because they have the skills, intelligence, finesse and instinct to poach those moments of brilliance that turn games and gives us beautiful rugby to reminisce over in years to come…
you simply can’t coach those moments of brilliance… players either have the innate ability to produce them in a split second… or they don’t… and if they don’t have the finesse or skills because they have relied on brute strength their whole lives… they’re never gonna be able to do it…
so sad that meyer can see what is missing in his team… but obviously is oblivious to how to rectify it… because he is so hung up on size he literally can’t see the benefits of skilled players who are smallER…
great pity and really frustrating…!!
13 Nov 2012, 09:47 am
@ufo-30: “Execution over Innovation”
13 Nov 2012, 10:12 am
@Transformation-31:
Execution of Innovation…!
13 Nov 2012, 10:40 am
@ufo-32: mallett’s words back in April
“That is the only thing I’m slightly worried about with the Heyneke regime – his mantra is execution above innovation,” Mallett told reporters in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
“So he is not looking for innovative players, he’s looking for people who execute well.
“If we are going to do a move that will take the centre into the midfield, we are going to do it so well, at such pace, that it doesn’t matter if the opposition know about it – we will get across the advantage line and we will dominate that impact zone.”
one-off runners – alberts, marcell, strauss, beast, flo, vermualen are all looking to FORCE our predictable game plan on the opposition, when they are matched by their equally conditioned counter parts the coach goes on telly to say the players disappointed as they never got us gainline advantage as he wanted.
13 Nov 2012, 11:13 am
@Transformation-33:
yeah i know… i remember him saying that…
was just making the point that it’s not as simple as one over the other… both are actually required…
no point having an innovative player who can’t execute and keeps losing the ball in contact or not passing accurately to the next guy etc…
13 Nov 2012, 11:36 am
@ufo-34: double whammy having a player devoid of any innovation who can’t execute too
13 Nov 2012, 11:53 am
@Transformation-35:
hahaha…
yip… that’s the corollary of the assumption…!!
13 Nov 2012, 12:03 pm
@Transformation-26:
OH boy did i miss the point or what
Sorry Trans
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