Pin down Pat
20 Nov 2012
Springbok kicking coach Louis Koen says he has the utmost faith that Pat Lambie will develop into a world class Test flyhalf but stressed it is critical that he settles in the position in Super Rugby.
Lambie has been used at fullback, flyhalf and inside centre at the Durban franchise and himself said a fortnight ago that he isn’t prepared to ‘put all my eggs in one basket just yet’ in a positional sense. However, the time is nearing when the 22-year-old and his coaches will have to be decisive in this regard.
Certainly it is at pivot where he has looked most comfortable and most dangerous. He was initially seen predominantly as a fullback for the Springboks, but has since convinced Heyneke Meyer of his potential as a flyhalf. Koen believes it is where he is best suited and hopes the Sharks make the decision to settle him there.
‘I believe it is absolutely imperative that he plays at flyhalf for the Sharks next year and vital for South African rugby. I can’t speak for John Plumtree [Sharks head coach] but I believe the more he plays there the more he’ll blossom,’ Koen said.
Lambie appears competent in most of the key performance areas of a Test flyhalf but has struggled to get his tactical kicking to a point where it meets the expectations of the coaching staff. Koen said he isn’t overly concerned about this, explaining that refinement will come with more game time.
I’ve got a lot of confidence in Pat Lambie. He has everything you look for in a flyhalf. In the first half against Scotland you could already see an improvement in his tactical game. He isn’t there yet, but you have to take into account that he has played a lot of his rugby at fullback. Test rugby also offers you less space and time and the ball comes out slower, which presents unique challenges. But I can only see a great future for him,’ Koen said.
The former Springbok flyhalf, however, acknowledged that their kicking game has been inconsistent, highlighting a lack of protection for scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar as being central to this. He said this has been an area of focus and hoped that better ball protection would offer Pienaar the time to set and execute better kicks.
Defence coach John McFarland offered greater insight into why he believed their preferred method hasn’t yielded the results they’ve sought.
‘At the start of the year the refs were very hard on the opposition blocking our kick chasers. Now those chasers are like the ball in pin-ball machines, which has compromised our chase. That’s the reason we’re not as effective as we’d like to be,’ he said.
The Springboks won’t veer from their territory-based approach at Twickenham against England, with Koen explaining that the problems they’ve encountered are not attributable to the decision to kick but the execution thereof.
‘We were good in the first half against Scotland with our kicks. Out of the 14 we did, we had 12 positive outcomes. But of the 10 we made in the second there were only two positive outcomes. So certainly a game of two halves kicking-wise,’ he said.
‘I felt we rushed a couple of times when we kicked. The leadership at 9,10,12 will take more responsibility there against England. It was a combination of inexperience and lack of communication that forced us to panic. Although I though we picked the right time to kick, we didn’t execute well enough. The positive that came out of there was that we felt it was the first time the guys were making the right decisions as to when to run and when to kick. We can build on that.
‘This week against Scotland was one of the few Test matches that we kicked more than the opposition. Fortunately stats show that you are rewarded for playing in the right areas and teams that are carrying the ball less are winning games. That isn’t something I’m excited about but it is the reality. The key is when we kick, it has to be the right decision to do so and then the execution must be spot on.’
50 Comments
20 Nov 2012, 14:24 pm
Pin down Dragons!
20 Nov 2012, 14:25 pm
Pat can definitely be a world class kicker. I have my reservations if Koen is the person to take him there though….?
Best we get Monty or Braam in the Boks
20 Nov 2012, 14:37 pm
Are the Boks Genius Strategy Developers aware that there are different ways to use a kick as an attacking weapon?
Chip kicks, grubbers, long raking kicks for territory (that should go out after bouncing) are all interesting ways to attack and keep the opposition guessing.
To kick up and unders one after the other and chase them like a swarm of bees around a honey pot is not only boring as fark to watch but predictable and easy to defend against.
Plus, if you don’t ‘execute properly’ (Heynekes favorite way of explaining that his doff gameplan doesnt work) then someone like Dagg, Jane, Kearney, Beale etc will rip you a new @rsehole…..
20 Nov 2012, 14:40 pm
@bokfan1-2: Agreed.
It seems like all 3 of Elton, Goosen and Lambie kicked pretty well at their franchises – and as soon as they got to the Boks their percentages dropped off radically. Maybe its just nerves but the other possible reason is the kicking coach?
I woulda said Mornes kicking was also shite when he got to the Boks but truth is his kicking sucked at the Bulls too
20 Nov 2012, 14:42 pm
Kick kick kick kick kick
20 Nov 2012, 14:45 pm
Dont worry Louis, he’s definitely playing 10 next year for the Sharks.
20 Nov 2012, 14:47 pm
Louis Koen in an interview.
Wow, it talks….
According to Divvies’ book Plumtree refused to play guys in position where the national coach requested, so good luck HM and Louis in trying to convince him otherwise
20 Nov 2012, 15:43 pm
Louis sounds like a broken record of Heineke Meyer famous hits. He is just singing the chorus portion. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Kick kick, tacticle kicking, kick and chasing blah blah blah….
20 Nov 2012, 15:43 pm
“…..those chasers are like the ball in pin-ball machines, which has compromised our chase”
Lame attempt to be cute, Mcfarfetched.
WTF does it mean anyway?
20 Nov 2012, 15:44 pm
So Louis plans to “fix” (read – destroy) Lambie’s natural game. Plum must be crying his eyes out.
20 Nov 2012, 15:46 pm
What many people on here don’t seem to appreciate is that Lambie’s performance against the Scots was probably the best all-round performance we have had in the fly-half position all year.
We finally have someone who is getting their kicks. We finally have someone who is making their tackles…. His general play in the first half was actually very good (note – crossfield kick to JP + the chip over the top which found touch in the corner).
Don’t forget the importance of squad depth… Let Lambie rack up some test caps to his name. Don’t put all your eggs in the Goosen basket. Injuries happen!
20 Nov 2012, 15:48 pm
@Blokkies-4: Ja a bit of nerves is to be expected, but there seems to be a bad decline when they are Boks.
@rossoneri-8: Must agree with you – and HM is even worse! His post-match interview was literally just 1 long line of all the rugby cliches “ja we didnt play well but credit to the Scots, we knew it would be tough but we want to make our supporters proud, it wasnt good enough, but a win is a win, but credit to scots, they made it tough out there…” on and on and on
I know English is not his 1st language, but surely he can say something more interesting? Give me PDiv any day
20 Nov 2012, 15:49 pm
@Blokkies-3: Well said Blokkies!
20 Nov 2012, 15:51 pm
I take this little “generous” soundbite from Koen to mean that Lambie will not be starting against England… Watch this space…
Stab him with a smile… And then wait for the “horses for courses” quote…
Two FacedCunts
20 Nov 2012, 16:03 pm
Is Louw really that good a ball carrier ? I haven’t seen him make many yards…
He is one of our little wonder boys from the cape , that’s why after a handful of games he is world class, gotta love my peers!
Brussow IS world class and is a more prolific fetch than Louw any day of the week. However to say he hasn’t been impressive versus some of the inferior sides would be a lie.
20 Nov 2012, 16:04 pm
@wpallday-15: wrong effing thread haha
20 Nov 2012, 16:10 pm
Have this bunch of Bambie groopies nothing better to do?
20 Nov 2012, 16:19 pm
@rossoneri-8: And it’s about as entertaining as having a Spice Girls CD on loop….
Rather sad actually.
20 Nov 2012, 16:35 pm
The way the All Blacks handled SBW should be a roadmap for how the Boks manage all their players. SBW is a strong ball carrier with average speed and footwork. If not for his offloading ability, he would have been an average 12 in the mold of JDV. The All Blacks recognized his offload as a strength and improvised plays around it. We see All Black support runners looking to gether the offload. This had a knock on effect on the other players and now they all offload.
Contrast that with the way Hougaard and Lambie have been managed.
The game plan should enhance the strenghts of the players. Build a plan around your core players, don’t try fit them into yours.
20 Nov 2012, 16:35 pm
@Heavens Game-14: none more two faced than thou.. die hard Meyer apologist and patriotic messiah hallelujah supporter by day.. when Keegan and Lambie get the pat on the back in April – outright revolutionary underhand counter claim Boks must lose protagonist by night in November when Bambie and Keegie get proved to be flash in the pan soutie poeftas when found out on the international stage fright prom night stand
20 Nov 2012, 16:45 pm
@catchlightuk.com-19: the all blacks & chiefs coaches would vehemently differ with you on SBW only being a. offload merchant…
@skopdiekan-20: Damn right Skop, HG only changed his tune on Heyneke on the 30th of August…before that he was a Herr Heyneke disciple, a loud one at that…
20 Nov 2012, 17:13 pm
91.Heavens Game:
30 Aug 2012, 09:24am
Heyneke is a great coach….normally systematic, methodical, analytical…But HELLSTEETH he is starting to do some illogical stuff…
this is after meyer picked goosen, vermuelen & dropped keegan cullen…
before this HG referred to him as “King Heyneke”
20 Nov 2012, 17:16 pm
@Transformation-22:
20 Nov 2012, 17:24 pm
@Transformation-22: go back to April or May.. I wanna see some of those hail hallelujah the messiah Heyneke has come posts.. those are the ones I want you to bring to the revolutionary revelation table .. this one here he was already starting to sow some doubts in the die hard Bok patriots mind… took about one more game after that and then the bottom fell right out of the patriotic basket and out came the coiled snake writhing in viscous venom and desperation.
20 Nov 2012, 17:58 pm
ok…just at the gym now…
20 Nov 2012, 18:11 pm
@skopdiekan-24:
297.Heavens Game said:
3 Jun 2012, 01:21 am
Want to be a world beating side…
Select Bulls and Sharks, add a couple of Lions and CHeetahs and complete the circle with a few Stormers…
Sounds good to me…
20 Nov 2012, 18:12 pm
308.Heavens Game said:
3 Jun 2012, 01:40 am
Just voted its a great squad on the poll… I see from the results that are a few too many unthinking hysterical Camps Bay hairdressers putting their tuppence… They are wrong…
Its a great squad…
Go Meyer…
Honest Bok supporters 100% behind you Coach!
20 Nov 2012, 18:44 pm
Can some1 count how many times Koen and McFarland used the words kicked?
Is this really all we’ve succumbed to as a rugby powerhouse? We are soo obsessed with kicking as our primary means of attack its a joke!
Soo disillusioned a Bok supporter am I
20 Nov 2012, 18:48 pm
@papaown-28: And yet they will quickly point out that we kick less than the All Blacks.
They are right. We do kick less than them.
But they won’t discuss what type of kicking game the All Blacks play.
They play the corners. We play the air.
So, we channel our concerns regarding the kicking game in a wrong question. We shouldn’t ask why the Boks kick so much. We should ask why they kick so much in the air.
20 Nov 2012, 18:49 pm
Another thing about our kicking game versus that of the All Blacks.
We look to kick first. They don’t.
20 Nov 2012, 18:55 pm
@willievz-29: Naas, Joel S, Bosch, etc all played for the corners. We combined such tactics with skillful backs.
Oh wait, that sounds like the All Blacks, those very people our current management says we shouldn’t emulate…
How I hate this destruction of what Bok rugby is truly about.
20 Nov 2012, 18:55 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-27: Yeah well it comes from a doofus whose numerical skills are on par with my shoes’.
20 Nov 2012, 19:01 pm
Oh dear… seems like this humble solitary poster could be stealing a bit of thunder from the self proclaimed Doc Quack amateur, the Hancockian Historian and the Transformed Sharksworld expert…
It seems they gotta attack the messenger because this humble messenger’s message is absolutely spot on…
Fark Lol… Dumbfucks…
I have the right to change my mind and make my own choices, not to follow you getalong gang locals, girls and mofgats like the majority sheep on this fckedup propaganda mouthpiece of WP…
20 Nov 2012, 19:04 pm
@skopdiekan-24: Skop, don’t bother yourself too much with him. He is a delusional windbag *shrugs*
20 Nov 2012, 19:05 pm
Will say it again, Meyer is fcking up totally with inconsistent statements, illogical selections and a frightening tendency to be predictable, closed minded and myopic… Although this should not be surprising because myopia, hysteria and unimaginative predictability are traits of modern day Saffas – specially those of the Cape persuasion…
Then again Meyer does hail from those South Western parts, no?
20 Nov 2012, 19:09 pm
@mikeybrass-34: I tell you what delusional is… Delusional is a skinny runt midget “historian” who reckons he actually knows what the fck is cutting with a game where said runt has never ever experienced the camaraderie of brotherhood in blood spilt together…
Thats farken delusional…
Along with that definition is the backline “expertise” of a short squat Caprivi veteran from Springs….
Also farken delusional…
20 Nov 2012, 19:12 pm
@skopdiekan-20: Are you “after” me with a vengeance? Lol… Your farken magic mushroom fed ego been bruised by a bit of truth somewhere, somehow by little solitary me?
Call them troops, son… Bring your getalong gang gatkruipers… Looks like you cant cope…
Dunce
20 Nov 2012, 19:34 pm
@Blokkies-3: That is why we can never have Morne Steyn again because I am not sure who you are describing, but the ultimate protagonist of the up and under, kick and chase game is Morne Steyn, Heyneke Meyer’s love child.
Not his fault really – He was trained that way as the Bulls live off this strategy. Both Morne and Toilet seat cover head play that game. Hence the reason the Bulls are spiraling downwards in ever decreasing circles until they disappear into their own a-holes in a year or two.
20 Nov 2012, 19:35 pm
@skopdiekan-24: Hey did you have a good evening. You dream about what flavor my a-hole is today ?
20 Nov 2012, 19:38 pm
@Heavens Game-37: I called him out on his p0rn addiction yesterday. He got very sensitive and started assigning flavors to my out hole like strawberries and cream, and cheese curls and cream puffs.
It all involved ‘cream’ which made me think a bit about Skops real orientation which I of course raised as a point of concern. He quickly scattered after that.
20 Nov 2012, 19:39 pm
@Heavens Game-33: Careful – Nikita will say something nasty about us Sharks fans again. Actually she is welcome to talk nasty to me if she likes.
20 Nov 2012, 19:53 pm
@Dusky-40: Farkenhell… So that Breezer fan brokeback generalisation definitely got a ring of truth to it after all… Hellsteeth, I was joking of course but it seems that these flippancies may actually have that element of truth that really goes right to the core of these flip flopping hormonal getalong gatgabbas that seem to revolve their lives around this WP propaganda mouthpiece…
Farken funnyshit these fools and their rugby, backline “expertise”
20 Nov 2012, 19:56 pm
@Dusky-41: Of course she can… Some Black and White Gonzo will really give her something to be naaasty about…
20 Nov 2012, 21:47 pm
A couple of years back Google reported Keo’s site to have malware. It happened again last week. This week, your site wants to install something from arcobalenofoz.com.br. Anyone from the crew that want to comment?
21 Nov 2012, 00:21 am
@Dusky-40: you the one with the fck’d up mind you stupid bloody degenerate imbecile and you want to offload you fckup tendencies onto others with your f’ng p0rn addiction and the rest.. get fucked you stupid rancid fckup moron and take your pathetic sick fckup mind with you stupid idiotic filth ridden degenerate punk…
and @Heavens Game-42: you wanna talk about getalong gangs..check the garbage you and this filthy rat start hallucinating about.. dumb fck sharkshit garbage prats.
21 Nov 2012, 00:28 am
@Heavens Game-37: there no vengeance whatsoever I simply find it rather a amusing at your self engrossed supposed astute rugby intelligence one minute up the coaches back side with all the patriotic fervor of a vervetmonkey on heat .. and within a spate of some weird irrational calls you do an abrupt about turn like a spinning top in flip flop revolution at a rate of knots and all that patriotic die hard love you so fondly felt for the dude has become blackened with the complete antithesis..
My concern is all this so called insight your rugby senses are supposed to be imbued with, how come they were blinded once but now they suddenly see..? so if you are as blind as that in one instance how much clarity of sight do you reckon you have any other time if ever?
21 Nov 2012, 01:26 am
What would be ideal backline for next year and onwards?
9-HOUGAARD(24)
10-GOOSEN(20)
11-HABANA(30) mvovo(25)
12-STEYN(26)
13-DE JONG(24)
14-PIETERSEN(26)
15-TAUTE(21) lambie(22)
21 Nov 2012, 06:17 am
Really? Has this whole forum now caught Skoppie’s disease? Like some sort of suipgat Tourette’s syndrome? Sies man! If your mothers could hear you now…
Can you all stop your disgusting language and vloeking each other like wino’s after each others mommas, and try talking some rugby for a change? It sounds like the last time any of you had some class was in school.
Keep in mind that kids also like to read about rugby. I am all for freedom of speech, but your comments have become like the Boks play – predictable and BORING, and playing the man, not the ball.
21 Nov 2012, 08:14 am
@skopdiekan-46: “weird irrational calls you do an abrupt about turn”… Why weird irrational?
Like most supporters I was hoping that with the appointment of Meye, at last, the Boks had a coach worthy of the team… Especially after the reign of the little madman and his 2 stooges…
Unlike you and other Cape persuasive rugby “supporters” and “kenners”, obviously in all but name only, I did not hold a prejudice against Meyer because of his association with the Bulls… In fact, I initially welcomed this association, because after all, the Bulls have been the most successful SA rugby franchise of the last decade, followed by the Sharks…
Subsequently, however, I have changed my mind, not irrationally – but perfectly logically… Due to:
1. Inconsistent statements that assume all Bok supporters are idiots
2. Poor and inconsistent selection
3. Poor onfield strategy and style
4. Favouritism of Bulls and Stormers players
5. Lack of ambition in onfield tactics
Actually I would go as far as to say that those diehard supporters of Meyer, though admirable in sticking with their man, are the irrational ones here…
Now FIFO… Fit in or FuckRight Off…. Confused Twat
21 Nov 2012, 11:48 am
For me Heineken’s biggest failing has been his selection and organisation of his supporting coaches. From what we’ve seen of the Boks, only the lineouts have been acceptable. Defence has improved. Almost all the other facets of play remain mediocre, totally reliant on individual ability rather than talented indivduals fitting into a structured game plan and and showing improvements in tactics and ability. In this he is like PDivvy, not very able himself and stuck with assistants even less able.
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