De Jongh’s small problem

De Jongh’s small problem

RYAN VREDE, in Edinburgh, writes because of his size Juan de Jongh has to be exceptional to force Heyneke Meyer to consider him as a real solution to his outside centre problem.

I wrote at the start of Meyer’s tenure that he is a disciple of size and strength, firm in his belief that a player must have this attribute to be successful in Test rugby.

At the time I cited De Jongh among the players who would struggle to push for a regular starting berth, with Meyer appreciative of his attacking capacity in Super Rugby, but unconvinced that he could replicate his hot-stepping in reduced space and time and consistently dominate the tackle fight on attack and defence in Tests.

De Jongh has, however, got an opportunity to alter his coach’s fairly rigid view, and bid to convince him that he can fill a void Meyer is concerned about going forward. His problem is that he’ll get one shot. As it stands Jaco Taute will be reinstated for the final Test of the tour against England at Twickenham. That is unless De Jongh produces something special against Scotland.

There has been no shortage of suggestions and, at times, accusations that Meyer is a racist for what is perceived to be the sidelining of black players. I’ve worked professionally with him for years, and have never got that impression. That he has a prejudice against smaller players of average ability (in a Test context) is undoubted. De Jongh is one such player. He is capable of feats of brilliance (his try in the Currie Cup final an example) but has not replicated these feats often enough to be considered a must for the Springboks.

In his favour is that he is 24 years old and still has time to grow. Also, Meyer has shown a willingness to have some of his views challenged. By way of example, Ruan Pienaar and Francois Louw have, on the strength of their performances and maturity they’ve exhibited, paved the way for a steadily increasing number of overseas-based players to be involved with the Springboks. Meyer had previously been adamant that he would select his squads from players based in South Africa, unless his hand was forced through injury.

Similarly De Jongh can advance the cause of the smaller backs. He refused to make soaring statements about size, but came across as confident in his ability.

‘I know where I’ve stood with Heyneke from the start. I know what attributes he is looking for from me, but I also know what I need for my game,’ De Jongh said. ‘Everyone has their opinion [on size] but I have an opportunity this weekend to prove people who think I’m too small wrong.’


510 Comments

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  • 451.wnbb: Reply to this comment

    Hg would be inclined to do things like this: 3. “When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem.” –Mitt Romney, suggesting it would be a good idea to crack a window at 35,000 feet, Beverly Hills fundraiser, Sept. 22, 2012

  • 452.skopdiekan: Reply to this comment

    @Heavens Game-446: shows you got zero clue .. poor little anxious anathemas to anarchy looking for a livid ego to drum and burn out so loud, that why they can’t hear the sweet sounds of freedom till it get buried in the ground.

  • 453.ryecatcher: Reply to this comment

    @Heavens Game-450: Finally.Left a circle,Right a circle

  • 454.wnbb: Reply to this comment

    I normally keep my Romney jokes for when HG arrives.The two stupid pussies deserve each other. :D

  • 455.skopdiekan: Reply to this comment

    @ryecatcher-442: so long

  • 456.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment

    @skopdiekan-444: Simmons also chop his foreskin…?

    No wonder he has a tongue like a python… Transplant obviously

  • 457.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment

    @ryecatcher-453: Ratchet and Clank…

  • 458.wnbb: Reply to this comment

    As a Zimbo,HG would know what Romney was trying to say here…farking he’ll,the rest of us don’t :D . 8. “My dad, as you probably know, was the governor of Michigan and was the head of a car company. But he was born in Mexico… and had he been born of, uh, Mexican parents, I’d have a better shot at winning this. But he was unfortunately born to Americans living in Mexico. He lived there for a number of years. I mean, I say that jokingly, but it would be helpful to be Latino.” -Mitt Romney, in leaked comments from a Florida fundraiser, May 17 2012

  • 459.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment

    @wnbb-451: America… Welcome to the 3rd World…

    Modern American Currency

    One dollar bill: George Washington
    Five dollar bill: Abraham Lincoln
    Ten dollar bill: Alexander Hamilton
    Twenty dollar bill: Andrew Jackson
    Fifty dollar bill: Ulysses S. Grant
    One hundred dollar bill: Benjamin Franklin
    Food Stamps: Barack Obama

  • 460.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment

    @wnbb-458: Here’s another one… Just to humour you and “your” Dead Prez…

    Obama was leaving the country club golf course when he was accosted by an armed robber who demanded, “Give me all of your money!” Barack haughtily replied, “Do you know who I am. I’m the President of the United States!” The robber snarled back, “Then give me all MY money.”

  • 461.wnbb: Reply to this comment

    When the Sharks lost another final against WP ,HG probably felt like this : “Tomorrow we begin a new tomorrow.” –Mitt Romney on his final day of campaigning, Nov. 5, 2012

  • 462.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment

    @skopdiekan-452: Along that watchtower Tom Petty did say…

    All the vampires walkin’ through the valley
    Move west down Ventura Blvd
    And all the bad boys are standing in the shadows
    All the good girls are home with broken hearts

  • 463.wnbb: Reply to this comment

    @Heavens Game-460: spoils to the winners and the losers will be remembered for their kuk quotes and jokes. : D.

  • 464.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment

    @wnbb-461:

    Q. What does Barack Obama call illegal aliens?
    A. Undocumented Democrats

  • 465.cuntlyn: Reply to this comment

    @Slumtown-361:

    If Heineke (a) is obsessed with size in the back line (b) prepared to play players out of their comfort zone (horses for courses) (c) likes Pierre Spies in the team environment, why not bring him back to the wing?

    Will it be such a stupid thing to do? Or will he simply not be good enough?

    This whole debate on size just goes around in circles. There have always been nippy players around – Besides the ones mentioned regularly on this site – also Brent Russel // Faffa Knoetze (80′s).

    Same quote should go for size: “If you good enough, you big enough”

  • 466.skopdiekan: Reply to this comment

    @Heavens Game-456: he just like me born in native raw Romanticized country and then went all bloody yank on himself. Real name Chaim Weitz from Tirat Carmel.. shows you can’t trust no one to be who they really are in real life

  • 467.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment

    @wnbb-463: Your fun’s up… Fifi is waitng for you… Paws spread… Curlies exposed… Twinkle in her eyes…

    Woof… the little b.itch…

  • 468.wnbb: Reply to this comment

    You can add losers like HG to that list as well,Bill. :D . “When you elect Mitt, you’re not just electing him. You’re electing every right wing nut he’s pandered to in the last ten years. If the Mittmobile does roll into Washington it will be towing behind it the whole anti-intellectual anti-science freak show. The abstinence obsessives, the flat earthers, home schoolers, the holy warriors, the anti-women social neanderthals, the closeted homosexuals, and every endtimer who sees the Virgin Mary in the grass over the septic tank.” –Bill Maher

  • 469.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment

    @skopdiekan-466: You must be joking… Oh well… Another heap of CDs burnt in the bonfire under the flaming cross in the garden…

    Damn

  • 470.wnbb: Reply to this comment

    @Heavens Game-467: fark off you loser. :D

  • 471.Dawn: Reply to this comment

    Yeesh Mitt is even more dom than I thought

  • 472.wnbb: Reply to this comment

    This is what HG sounds like when he gets all steamed up about Cape Town and its people: 2. “Corporations are people, my friend … of course they are. Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to the people. Where do you think it goes? Whose pockets? Whose pockets? People’s pockets. Human beings, my friend.” —Mitt Romney to a heckler at the Iowa State Fair who suggested that taxes should be raised on corporations as part of balancing the budget (August 2011)

  • 473.skopdiekan: Reply to this comment

    @Heavens Game-469: yup you can’t get away from us can you.. poor bloody neanderthal vikings thought they could convert the messiah to have blue eyes and blond hair and cry war songs from the Highlands of the North Hebrides .. meantime the brown eyed messiah from the lowlands was circumcised for posterity.. how you gonna get around that crock of sh’t dude.. its stamped into your sieg heil psyche like a burning cross of Hades.

  • 474.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment

    @wnbb-468: “sees the Virgin Mary in the grass over the septic tank”… I think maybe “Bill” and you might have it wrong in your orgy of “intellectualism”…

    I reckon maybe Mitt would prefer to see Moroni or Joseph Smith or some such…

    Btw… Hear this one?

    Q. When Obama is reelected President, how will he ensure that men and women have equal earnings?
    A. Unemployment

  • 475.wnbb: Reply to this comment

    85Sharks_forever
    November 14th, 2012 at 17:01 SAST
    @ Stormersboy:
    Exactly bro
    HG told me one day it is crappo that got under his skin and then of course the likes of skoppie and some other WP okes, he just cant move on though, he now become like them in some ways
    0 likes
    :D . :D

  • 476.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment

    @skopdiekan-473: Of course the “Messiah” had straw blonde hair and uboat Captain wolf blue eyes…

    And his name was Odin…

  • 477.skopdiekan: Reply to this comment

    Obama was a victory for sanity for humanity for equality.. Romney would have just sped up the devolution of the human race back into the quicksands of eye for an eye tooth for a tooth war dance in the desert .. itching to pull the raw boned hair trigger

  • 478.wnbb: Reply to this comment

    I am glad that you are part of the crazy family HG. :D

  • 479.skopdiekan: Reply to this comment

    @Heavens Game-476: you keep switching messiahs, last week it was Socrates, this week Odin, next week Jeshua ben Joseph , and the week after Zeus or Heracles , or Zarathustra or Mithras..

    just like you can’t work out which coach is your messiah.. you were so convinced it was the Haymaker.. now you not so sure no more.. so when you gonna get convinced and convicted one way or the other?

  • 480.wnbb: Reply to this comment

    Sorry HG,but I can’t help myself. :D . “Today Mitt Romney advised that men should head for the shelters and women should remain in their binders.” –Bill Maher on Hurricane Sandy

    “During last night’s debate, President Obama told Mitt Romney, ‘The 1980s called and they want their foreign policy back.’ Romney tried to deliver a comeback but then his beeper went off.” –Jay Leno

  • 481.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment

    @wnbb-475: You trying very hard… Feeling inadequate?

    Psst, here’s another one…

    “President Obama admitted this week that a former girlfriend that he wrote about in his autobiography was made up and not a real person . . . So Obama had an imaginary girlfriend. Big deal! He had an imaginary economic plan. It’s all the same.” –Jay Leno

  • 482.wnbb: Reply to this comment

    @skopdiekan-479: What do you expect of a Romneyrite. “Mitt Romney says President Obama’s promises are like Kim Kardashian’s wedding vows. President Obama shot back. He said Romney’s positions last about half as long as a Kim Kardashian wedding.” –Jay Leno

  • 483.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment

    @skopdiekan-479: I prefer the ones with pure blood…

    Norse superiority all the rage now… They made a movie about the blonde haired blue eyed messiah recently…

    Thor… Son of Odin…

  • 484.wnbb: Reply to this comment

    @Heavens Game-481: Obama destroyed your man,Romney.We can just about call it by a landslide.Why would I feel inadequate??Silly bugger!Only a Romneyrite would try to counter with Obama jokes.Blame it on the education system,ne HG. :D

  • 485.skopdiekan: Reply to this comment

    @Heavens Game-483: all fairy tales washed up on the mists of the foggy sound of the Atlantean fairy dance that went capsizing into the ocean before your history of aeons was born

    maybe its Thor they secretly were waiting for, so why the go and lump poor unsuspecting Jeshua ben Joseph with all that balderdash brainwashed bumph they so hyped up and romantically deluded by?

  • 486.wnbb: Reply to this comment

    Talking about HG and education system: ??”Mitt Romney was attacking Obama about our failing education system. He has a point. We are graduating millions of people in this country who are so lacking in basic analytical skills, they are considering voting for Mitt Romney.” –Bill Maherl

  • 487.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment

    @wnbb-482: He he… This humble poster get your goat…?

    Here’s a good one… Q: Whats the difference between Simba and Obama? A: One is an African Lion and the other one is a lying African!

    Spank that poodle, son :lol:

  • 488.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment

    @skopdiekan-485: Of course its Thor over Jeshua ben Joseph… all pretense is dropped… Rather a hammer than a nail any day of the week…

  • 489.wnbb: Reply to this comment

    We all know that HG is a Zimbo and that he used to live in the UK.He probably felt like Mitt’s family when he decided to jump the gun and head back to another foreign country. :D . “Apparently a large branch of Mitt Romney’s family lives in Mexico. … His grandfather in the late 1800s moved his whole family to Mexico to avoid being prosecuted for polygamy. … Mitt can use that to show that he’s tough on immigration. His family kicked themselves out of the country.” –Jimmy Kimmel

  • 490.wnbb: Reply to this comment

    @Heavens Game-488: You can’t claim the high ground here,loser puss y.Your man got fu kked royally in the arse,whilst Obama is still the leader of the free world. :D

  • 491.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment

    @wnbb-489: Capo… Capo… Romney is da man… You know it… I know it… America knows it…

    Obamarama learnt well from Georgie Dubya…

    Stealing an election is easy peasy…

  • 492.wnbb: Reply to this comment

    Time to go.Great to know that I own HG’s soul . :D . Cheers you Romneyrite loser puss y.

  • 493.wnbb: Reply to this comment

    @Heavens Game-491: They call it a landslide victory in the states.Fark,you Romney okes are dof!! :D . Have to go now.

  • 494.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment

    @wnbb-490: “got fu kked royally in the arse”…
    I see your frustration… :lol:

    Your poor, poor Fifi…

    Aaawhhhhoooooo…

  • 495.nikoli: Reply to this comment

    @wnbb-490: leader of the free world – who exactly is/are the free world?

  • 496.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment

    @wnbb-493: “the states”… You speak as if you been there…

    Internet explorer… See the world… Global traveler :lol:

  • 497.skopdiekan: Reply to this comment

    @Heavens Game-488: so who’s fooling who.. some say its a sickle and a hammer.. others a hammer over a nail.. others reckon its a cross of crestfallen chrysanthemums, and then others say its none of these cause when you croak the only one gonna meet you in the tunnel of love is queen Jehosheba of Judah

  • 498.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment

    @skopdiekan-497: No half mast Sophias, Magdalenas or Mary’s in a fuzzy tunnel of light for me thank you very much… I’ll far rather hitch a ride with a Valkyrie to Valhalla while flying over the resurrected bones shuffling their way to Mecca…

  • 499.Heavens Game: Reply to this comment

    Gute nacht… Aus…

  • 500.skopdiekan: Reply to this comment

    @Heavens Game-498: well according to Paul McCartney or Paul of Tarsus its all about sweet Mary Magdalene and merciful mother Mary who whispers words of wisdom and got you wrapped around her knee

    you got Norse mythology driving you batty the best thing to recognize is there no such requiem of renegade recklessness across Valhalla, your soul has no color no culture no creed and no condition., you are neither this nor that nor the other.. all you trying to do is patch a label across your consciousness because you believe that who you are is unique and conformed to crystallized conditioning through association and heritage.. That is all false, it don’t exist beyond the boundaries of birth and death and benign brainwashed bewilderment, there is no condition when the skin gets ripped off your raw naked consciousness.

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Keo.co.za has always promoted uncensored views, but has never tolerated racist or crass outbursts. Come on guys and girls. If you can't moderate yourselves or each other then I am going to be forced to regulate the posts and enforce a registration process for comments. The choice is yours.

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