Meyer: 2012 a qualified success
27 Nov 2012
Heyneke Meyer says that the season was a success given that the injury-hit Springboks conceded just three losses.
The Boks returned to South Africa on Monday having won all three of their Tests in Europe. This ensured that they finished the 2012 season on a high, and allowed them to obtain an overall record that reads seven wins, two draws, and three losses.
Meyer feels that it is a good return considering the challenges a new coaching staff and team faced at the beginning of the year.
‘Our coaching team was only able to start working with the players relatively late as most of them were still part of Super Rugby,’ the Bok coach said, referring to the fact that he and his lieutenants had less than a week to prepare the new squad for the first Test against England on 9 June.
‘We always knew it was going to be a tough year with all the players we’ve lost. The All Blacks are still ahead of us, but we started fourth on the IRB rankings list and finished second. Now we have to close that gap and grow as a team.’
Despite their problems with injuries ahead of those three June Tests against England, they won the series convincingly. Meyer also took a side missing several experienced players to Europe this November, and while the side did not excel in terms of performance, they were deserved winners in all three Tests.
Where the Boks were less than convincing was in the Rugby Championship, where they finished third behind New Zealand and Australia. They scrapped to a disappointing draw with Argentina in Mendoza, and may have won the Test against the All Blacks in Dunedin had they converted more goal-kicking chances. However, they were soundly beaten by the Wallabies in Perth, and hammered by the All Blacks in their final game of the tournament in Soweto.
Meyer feels that while the year has been a testing one, the injuries have allowed several players an opportunity to stake their claim. Duane Vermeulen, Francois Louw, Adriaan Strauss, and Pat Lambie have certainly shone in the absence of regular or favoured starters like Pierre Spies, Schalk Burger, Bismarck du Plessis, and Johan Goosen.
The Boks will also be stronger when the latter group, as well as the likes of Andries Bekker, Beast Mtawarira, Frans Steyn, Heinrich Brussow, and Bryan Habana return from injury in 2013.
‘It will be wonderful for South African rugby when all the injured players are back,’ said Meyer. ‘The competition [for places] will be immense.’
274 Comments
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28 Nov 2012, 09:38 am
@Jeez-246:
I reckon so, but I doubt he’d get on with HM.
28 Nov 2012, 09:41 am
@David-251:
To be fair Venter struggles to get on with most people.
He’s like an intelligent version of Heaven’s Game.
28 Nov 2012, 09:44 am
It just shows that SA is seriously lacking in quality backline coaching! Not a lot to choose from… and now after he’s been appointed as the bulls attacking coach, you can even mention Matfield’s name, how ridiculous is that!?
28 Nov 2012, 09:45 am
@gunther-252: Also, he’s looking pretty haggard these days. Saw him on telly on the Weekend, and it looks like he’s been selling funny money jokes at a traffic intersection for well over a year. What’s going on there?
28 Nov 2012, 09:46 am
@katman-254:
I’m glad someone else noticed.
He looks seriously unwell.
28 Nov 2012, 09:48 am
@gunther-255: Couch sleeping? That can seriously age you.
28 Nov 2012, 09:48 am
@katman-254: @gunther-255:
Tik
28 Nov 2012, 09:49 am
@Slartibartfast-242:
risk of burnout and injury, slarti. huge risk considering AC wouldl play that eztebeth boy in his local sunday church choir straight after a brutal saturday derby game if given half the chance.
and on top of that meyer takes his pound of flesh during the incoming tours and straight after the super15 for the RC too…. and then its the eoyt.
28 Nov 2012, 09:50 am
@katman-256:
especially if the couch is under a railway bridge.
28 Nov 2012, 09:53 am
@gunther-259: Seems like you found the new Springbok couch.
28 Nov 2012, 09:54 am
@Jeez-257:
no thanks.
I’ve seen what it’s done to Capo.
28 Nov 2012, 10:02 am
What have the injured players got to do with anything? We put 3 teams in the playoffs of the S15 without most of the injured players and topped the log. Anything less than a 90% winning record is poor.
But anyway, the stats mean very little. The team are uncreative.
28 Nov 2012, 10:08 am
@gunther-252:
28 Nov 2012, 10:23 am
jeez: hawies fourie, alan zondagh ( he helped jake in his first year), alan solomons.
28 Nov 2012, 10:30 am
Loffie the Lofster. Give him scope for a 3-year plan and he’s your man.
28 Nov 2012, 10:32 am
who needs backline coaches anyway.
28 Nov 2012, 11:58 am
If we could only find a way of getting Jaque Fourie and Fourie Du Preez back for 2013. Du Preez, Goosen, De Villiers, Fourie, Habana and JP. Frans at full back, kicking the odd 60 metre penalty. Oh, and a backline coach with a bit of imagination. We have plenty of forwards to get the job done but we just aren’t scoring enough tries. 2013 will be a good year for the Boks!!
28 Nov 2012, 13:49 pm
@gunther-252: Awww shucks Grunter…
Farken skittleball mofgat…
28 Nov 2012, 19:02 pm
@UKSAFFA-267: We can’t go back to the 2007 backline. Bringing Jacques Fourie and Fourie Du Preez back might be good in the short term but it is not South Africa’s long term solution. Far more concerning is the fact that we rode the wave with apparently no succession planning.
We dont have a single 13 of Jacque Fourie’s calibre – we still haven’t managed to replace Percy and now with Morne returning to his pre-Lions tour form – we have no decent flyhalf either. Pienaar at scrumhalf is about the best we can do right now, which is sad and we just dont have the calibre of player to fill Bakkies and Victor’s shoes. Habana and JP Pietersen cant carry on forever either, yet we have very little in the way of obvious candidates to step in and take their places.
Part of the F up we have right now is thus not Heyneke Meyers fault, but in a strange twist due to his involvement at the Bulls – it partly is.
In short – we lost sight of the future when the ride in the present became too good. Bulls did the same thing and now it will take them a few years to rebuild.
28 Nov 2012, 19:04 pm
@gunther-255: Maybe he saw your wife naked ? Now he looks like that….
29 Nov 2012, 05:58 am
How old are you Dusky?
Seriously?
29 Nov 2012, 07:47 am
Ag man, I say we just go with Hawies Fourie, Cheetahs backline coach. Its as simple as that as no other team in SA expresses themselves on that level
29 Nov 2012, 09:53 am
@CharlesM-51: I’m not an England supporter but I feel Launchbury was pretty good too. He has good hands and skills, plus he tackles like a loosey.
29 Nov 2012, 12:00 pm
@Dusky-269: You make a good point but its just frustrating as most of the 2007 backline are actually not that old. They are in fact the same age if not younger than the likes of Nonu and Conrad Smith of the AB’s, and they could still be contributing. Having them around will get us results in the short term and hopefully help to get some of the younger guys up to standard. As you say, the answer is to give the younger guys game time and let them mature. The results may suffer as a result but its probably the best long term solution. Our forwards are going to be immense over the next 3 years or so, no issue there.
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