Just to clarify – I am not a HM apologist at all! If anything I wanted PDiv to get another 4 years, and even before that I wanted Jake to be kept on, or Mallet to take over in 2012.

I expected more from Heyneke, as I think we all did. But I am sticking up for him on this point you brought up.

We need to support him and the team. We should praise, applaud and reward every step taken in the right direction.

And any coach would start the best kicking flyhalf when the team plays like the Boks do.

Its like PDiv in 2010 – no coach wouldve changed the team, yet when they got klapped in 3Ns everyone went crazy. Hindsight is an exact science, but the man who has to make the hard decisions in real-time as they happen, needs to be supported. Our team must be supported. And when the coach shows the realism and humility to make the necessary changes then it is certainly NOT “caving in”

BOKKE!

only thing i don’t agree with as i believe its not about entertainment, but rather having a balanced attack and not just one string to your bow. if you do it well enough then it becomes entertaining

Quite a surreal day yesterday as I “watched”
Heyneke Meyer announce his Springbok team to
take on the Poms via Twitter on my phone while
sitting at the press conference where Paul Treu was announcing his Blitzbokke squad for the Dubai and Port Elizabeth legs of the IRB Sevens series.

And after enjoying a truly enlightening hour long chat with Blitzbokke stalwart Paul Delport on my Front Row Grunt radio show yesterday evening, it seemed worth jotting down a few comparisons between the two codes…

While Meyer announced an unchanged run on side with Elton Jantjies replacing Morne Steyn on the bench being the only unenforced change to the match day 23, Treu was making light of losing
Seven-a-side legend Cecil Afrika while speaking
highly of new boys Kevin Luiters and Warren Whiteley.

Meyer has been open about Jaco Taute’s best position being fullback, but is not keen to give him (or others like Lwazi Mvovo or Raymond Rhule) a run for fear of making too many changes and handing out Bok caps wily nilly.

It has long been my opinion that South African XV-a-side rugby players are not as well conditioned as their peers Down Under or, swoon, even up north in the Mud Island. My thinking confirmed by both Brendan Venter and Rassie Erasmus in answer to my query as to why SA sides do not play a more expansive game that attacks the channels out wide.

This in complete contrast to the Blitzbokke, who have added some fantastically innovative drills and initiatives (like wrestling with Coenie Oosthuizen and hypoxic training with Hannelie Prinsloo) to their industrial training regime. Delport reckons it takes some time for the XV-a-side boys to come to terms with the training when they join the squad.

The lack of basic skills in our rugby players is
another bugbear of mine, with the fact that
schoolboys are playing to win and climb much
published rankings rather than entertain being a key factor.

Delport confirmed this, saying that guys come out of school or age group rugby not able to pass both ways, throw 40m skip passes, or run basic attacking lines that allow you to play off the man with ball in hand. Treu and his coaching team spend hours and hours on improving the player’s skill set as that is what seven a side rugby is all about. You simply cannot rely on physical dominance and a monster box kick!

I have been calling for a central contracting system where SARU contract either all the professional players in the country (like they do in new Zealand), or at least the broader group of Springbok players for a while now as I see it as the only way to enforce the player management needed given the ludicrously long season.

The Blitzbokke do that, and while initially paying
peanuts (less than a Vodacom Cup player), Delport says that has now changed, meaning that he can make a living as a specialist seven-a-side player.

Sure, it is on a much smaller scale, but to my mind, the shorter code is leading the XV-a-side guys in four key areas: Embracing young talent, conditioning, improving skills, and contracting.

Far from being the afterthought they once were,
perhaps it is now time for SARU to use the
Blitzbokke’s methods as a guideline for managing
the Springboks?

I would also add that we only use 1 kind of kick (on attack) ie the box kick / up and under type of kick.

If we have to kick on attack so much we could at least vary our kicks with chips, grubbers etc so we are not soooooooooo predictable.

Then he, and his assistants,presumably as the best available in SA, have to be able to get each player to understand where he fits in, drill his actions and improve him (previously think Habana, F Steyn, Brussouw etc). To me, this is one area where Meyer has come up short so far. The only stand out performers seem to have stood out in CC and S15 etc (Etzebeth, JPP, maybe Strauss, Alberts and Flo). Quite a few have gone backwards (Morne, Lambie, Hougaard even Pienaar and a few forwards). Players with the potential of Potgieter etc haven’t stood a chance.

We wait to see what Lambie’s “free dom” means and whether it will be enough for the same weary Boks to weather a heavyweight Pommie onslaught.

‘Stupidest post” ….clearly you haven’t read any of tacklers posts

its ok to be an HM apologist but his ****** record with the boks speaks for itself.

Wow an 86% kicking record for Morne in practice wow … and it didnt translate to anything on the field …well duh! if you pick a 10 who’s only saving grace is he’s ability to kick and not create play for the rest of the team ala Dan Carter /Goosen/Lambie thats exactly whats going to happen in the real game when the pressure is on. he’ll start missing all his kicks and then what ?

a coach who changes a few things is making adjustments a coach who changes everyhting hasnt a f’ing clue