10 primary challenges for meyer

Ex Keo

RYAN VREDE examines the 10 primary challenges Heyneke Meyer will face as coach of the Springboks.

Meyer is set to be unveiled in the role on Friday, and with it comes a myriad challenges. These are the ones, in no particular order, that he will have to master.

TRANSFORMATION

I’ve been consistent in my view that transformation is largely the responsibility of the provincial and franchise coaches, but as Springboks chief Meyer cannot be completely mitigated from responsibility in this regard. There will be a string of gifted, young black players at his disposal, among them Juan de Jongh, Chiliboy Ralepelle, Lwazi Mvovo, Bjorn Basson, Gio Aplon and Elton Jantjies, as well as a clutch of junior internationals who’ll rise to prominence during his tenure. How he fares in this facet of his job will be central to how he is measured.(Pick on merit Meyer and forget the rest of the rubbish) 

NEGOTIATING THE POLITICAL MINEFIELD

Immense political pressure will accompany the expectation for greater transformation at national level. Meyer’s predecessor Peter de Villiers was largely and curiously spared a grilling for his commitment to a mostly white match 22 for the duration of his tenure. Meyer, an Afrikaner, won’t be afforded such breathing room. (keep wining and the racial critics will be kept at bay - one hopes) 

PICKING THE RIGHT ASSISTANTS

In Gary Gold, De Villiers selected a forwards coach with good technical and tactical skills and an unrelenting work ethic. He erred in his pick of back coach, Dick Muir, whose fanciful ideas and philosophies were never going to be effective at Test level. Muir would become a well paid ornament by the end of his stint, with the senior players deciding the attacking strategy.(Dick showed nothing at the sharks an dwa srewarded with a Bok spot)  Meyer will have to be astute with his selections, installing men with high levels of skill and competency, innovation, experience, credibility and solid work ethics. There are no outstanding candidates. Meyer has a good relationship with Rassie Erasmus and could turn to him. Expect Victor Matfield to be used as a consultant at some stage, although his coaching inexperience could preclude him for consideration for the forward coach gig. Meyer was also never afraid to look abroad in a bid to improve the Bulls, with a number of foreign consultants sharing their expertise at Loftus during his reign. Backline coach Todd Louden made a marked impression on their attacking play in 2007 I totally agree an dsaid so at the time) and it not beyond reason that Meyer could look to him, or a foreigner of his ilk, to assist him. There is, however, likely to be resistance to this idea…

MEDDLING OF PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL

The suits on the gravy train at the South African Rugby Union have a reputation for killing the soul of national coaches and at some point are bound to impose their unique brand of incompetence on Meyer. He was given a wide berth at the Bulls in his bid to build the world’s best franchise, often travelling abroad to study the tactics, techniques, conditioning methods and recruiting strategies of various sporting codes. Whether these amateurs will rubber stamp Meyer’s progressive plans remains to be seen.

SELECTING A CAPTAIN

John Smit was the outstanding candidate for the job in 2004 but Meyer isn’t in a similarly privileged position. Schalk Burger seems a good fit, but Meyer could well opt for a player he knows and trusts. In discussions with me he has consistently spoken of the leadership credentials of Pierre Spies. Indeed he was central to the decision to appoint him captain of the Bulls. (Pierre is uncertain of his Bok spot and has to prove himself as a captain.)

FOREIGN PICKS

The selection of foreign-based players was a contentious one under De Villiers, who initially refused to consider them but later softened that stance. I haven’t yet established Meyer’s position on this issue, but would hope that he doesn’t share De Villiers’ outdated view and consider a number of men who could add great value to a Springboks squad.

ADVANCING THEIR GAME PLAN

Expect pragmatism to take precedence over panache with the Meyer-coached Springboks. He believes the breakdown laws don’t promote ball retention through multiple phases in your territory and that this dictates you play down in the opposition’s half through tactical kicking, then seek to force them into errors through organised and punishing defence. Sound familiar? It was the strategy the Springboks of 2009 through 2011 employed with varying degrees of success. Victor Matfield and Fourie du Preez – disciples of Meyer’s philosophies – drove that process. When employed accurately it is very difficult to counter, but failure to do so will result in the defensive line being exposed. There also needs to be another dimension added to their attacking play in opposition territory. He has the players to shape a formidable attacking force.

HOME SOLIDITY

Under De Villiers the Springboks won 71% of their home Tests. However that figure is improved by victories over weakened northern hemisphere sides in incoming tour matches. They lost five of 11 Tri-Nations Tests between 2008 and 2011, including being blanked by the All Blacks at Newlands in 2008. Meyer needs to forge his Springboks side into a side who are extremely difficult to beat on home soil, maintaining at least an 80% plus win record in the Republic.

TESTING TOURS

The Springboks won nine of 23 away Tests on De Villiers’ watch and just two of 11 in the Tri-Nations. This is an unacceptable return for a side packed with with world-class talent. Meyer consistently stressed the importance of winning on the road when coach of the Bulls and placed an intense focus on uncovering and remedying the reasons why they had struggled to do so. In 2007 they won three from five on the Super Rugby tour and could have come home with a clean sweep. Here’s hoping he has similar success at national level.

CONDITIONING CONSENSUS

With an extended Super Rugby and Rugby Championship format, it is essential that Meyer reaches some consensus with franchises about the game time of their elite players. This has proven near impossible in the past, with franchise coaches understandably concerned primarily with fielding their strongest combinations as often as possible. I don’t see this situation improving. (This is essential and MUSt be dealt with. The days of top players playing every match is over)

Lets hope therefore Meyer has a free reign and makes the right choices in selecting his coaching team. No bulle bias please Meyer!!! Always remember who bettered you in 2011.

 God you dumbass - why bring all the Keo crap here as well?

Why do I suspect its bedpan. Is it just the quite evident IQ of 1.5 or what!

Listen twit, on this board views are canvassed and considered unlike the bubble some mons and oaks live in on suppersupporter.  Bedpan I thought you  would be overjoyed I was gone. Are you missing my mentoring /tutoring role? Bwahahahahahahahaha you must be!

Tell your buddy dorkie dumbo that Sharkie has confirmed he will be signing up as well as Mike and a few others. We also have a few old hands still here so its looking very good once the rugby starts.

Becs has joined us and so has MO(NH).  Others are to follow.  The graph is heading north for sure!!

Give the board my love and best wishes.  Any oak or mong wanting his butt kicked knows where to try his luck!!

Must say we hosed ourselves when hawker threw down the iron curtain  - all of course to no avail. Bwahahahahhaahahahahahaha - give him and barlee my fondest regards and sympathies as they try to deal with the those rotton apples decimating the board there. 

I Thought though barlee saying I would not be posting there anymore and using that as a rason to delete my accont was pretty pathetic. The whole board knows I had asked for my account to remain open (said this many times) as I would visit and post there from time to time. Its a failure of integrity. I see rooinek and others who never post are still listed as members!!

bedpan here we do not have all this nonsense. Its straight dealing here. Honest stuff. Neither do we throw down the iron curtain. Openness and transparency. Anyhow, I am sure not too many are sucking up the spin going on behind closed doors!!

Hahahhahahahahaha so childish and cowardly really  - quite spiteful as well actually. 

You must be careful bedpan -  I am sure hawker doesn't like his little flock straying onto this board where that terrible  Beeno, shiver shake,  may influence them unduly with the truth. Hahahahahahahahaha this is sooooo funny .To think adults would find it necessary to hide their comments away behind the iron curtain.

Lastly tell dorkie his tirades against WP reflect only on him. Duncan must really grow up.

Beeno2, crawl back to your favella.

Beeno, regarding Meyer. He will no doubt be heckled by the ethnic cleansing brigade. The fact of the matter is that poc, particularly black, will NEVER dominate the sport. They are genetically smaller, less physical. Granted there will always be a place for them; though they will never be able to stand up in numbers in a sport that they do not take much interest in, receive no support in development in, or are physically able to endure. These are simple facts that will stand until the end of time. Black South African's aren't even physically capable of holding their own in football! Being outmuscled by their Euro and North/East/West African counterparts, how much more can they expect to dominate rugby. It's time to accept the obvious fact that numbers do not equate to quality. How many people in the whole of Asia can compete with our white players? That's nearly half the world's population, yet it doesn't equate to more players of equal or greater quality. Fact. So Meyer WILL come under fire at some point. But if he does yield to politics he will come under fire for poor results as well. He will be blamed for being a bad coach and the chaff he would select would be the poor unfortunate souls who never had the chance to succeed and all the other usual diatribes.

As for playing style. You can play rugby ANY way you want and succeed!! Fact!! Peter failed because he could not get any aspect of our play to function. It wasn't a failure because it was too pragmatic, it was a failure because it was flawed. I spent a great deal of time studying our defensive patterns and found it difficult to discern what was meant to be happening. On attack? There was very little planning or structure. It was all improvised and very bland. Jake had a fairly defence oriented style of play that was massively successful. We went two years at home unbeaten! Had a lethal counter-attacking game and scored great well worked tries throughout his tenure. Even in 2006, Jake's most testing year I recall Fourie's brace that was simply sublime against NZ. Yes, even Jean deserves merit here too. Well structured and finished by the entire backline. There is a place for every style. Like I say, it depends on accuracy and structure. How much work you put in off the field. Under Peter, there was no discipline, no planning, no leadership, no responsibility, poor selections, poor bench usage, the players were poorly conditioned, the list goes on. After losing against NZ he stated he didn't know what went wrong. It wasn't until Matfield studied the video that Peter stated that NZ cheated. He sat before these games and could never understand what he was seeing.

Bok rugby is founded on physicality. We must not abandon that. Peter abandoned that THROUGHOUT his tenure (Yes! Even 2009!) and it backfired, just like Viljoen and those before him.
 

Hell, we have some very disturbed people on this site for some reason. People are looking over their shoulders for guys by the name of bedpan, Barlee, dorkie and a few others and are chasing people away to some site somewhere. what the hell is this all about. I have seen it a number of times and have chosen to ignore it, but it is staring to bug me. What is all of this about?

I haven't posted on here for ages and have recently remembered that I was a member when I found an old password retrievel in my old emails, but damn, everything has changed and most of the old folk are gone as well.

Beeno, pray tell.....what the hell is a mong?

Zhaibatsu, your post is dangerously close to racist.

My post is dangerously close to the truth, that's the real issue. Read into genetics, read into the reality of development of these cultures. Black South African's are in the same boat as the Japanese unfortunately. The Afrikaner is descendant of one of the tallest nations but far more muscular. Pray tell, how does a much smaller ethnic group compete with that in a sport that is centered on collisions? Do you see where the problem is? The ANC want an all black team, that is the goal, but there are not and will never be that many, particularly in the forwards, blavk players that will genuinely be in line for those positions. Our two best black props are unsurprisingly not from South Africa! How many quality poc locks have we had? Loosies? Not many. In the backs it is more competitive, but the likes of de Jongh, Adi et al are not good enough. Before his injuries Bobo would have been a quality test centre, and that would have been the first and last to date. Like I say, this is not racism, this is fact. If the ANC were so interested in increasing numbers they would develop as many black players as possible. It will take a change in nutrition and physical development throughout the generations to increase their size. The same happened with black americans, only the strongest were selected or allowed to produce offspring. The result is that over the generations the weaker genetic elements were stripped from the gene pool. Now it is quite common to have incredible black athletes, some taller than our rugby players!! If they want to change things, this is where it needs to be done, otherwise they'll have to create systems to allow them to bypass competitions... the Quota system! eish!

Hey Beeno1 are all your posts such long winded affairs ? i would like to hear if you have any thoughts of your own instead of this stuff from other websites. And for the sake of all us rugby fans can you please keep your personal nonsense off this board. we have better things to do than read your personal issues.

VIVA LIONS !

He is right Beeno, we need to ignore these stirrers. Have we not learnt from Duke's antics? To respond is to fuel it. Ignore them and they can only get bored and leave. SARugby does not deserve to have their antics encouraged or entertained. That's why we are here in the first place, to get away from that. Leave these cretins to fade away into obscurity.

Jirrrra maar al wat ek wil praat is rugby.

Dis n rugby site. Nie n' soapie nie!

Maar kom ons praat rugby now asb!

Heyneke as coach on his own would be disasterous!

However, whatever he lacks in flari, he makes up for in strategy!

A great strength of Heyneke is to breed youngsters through the ranks. Something PDIVVY sucked at.

He is also great at making the best use of his support staff.

So with Rassie as tech coach, Nienaber as defensive coach and maybe Carlos Spencer (please god) as backline coach, we could just see a new Bok revolution.

Beeno, I agree with Zaibatsu, It's time to ignore the shit-stirring cretins. To date they have not posted about Rugby and it's mighty obvious that they're are childishly dragging their baggage across from the Supersupporter site. I have made the powers that be aware of the fact that the sole puprpose of  ruckingflanker(Bedpan) and Beeno2(TC Fireman) is to disrupt this forum with insults and untruths. This site deserves better.

I will not waste anymore of my time discussing the pair of them.

Of primary importance is that the Forum is growing and will continue to grow with anticipated new registrations. This past week we've had three new registrations and by the time the season starts we should have doubled that figure in new registrations.

Yes doubtless they have come here to stir and get their butts kicked being the masochists they are! I posted  arugby article for discussion and ou beeno 2 injects some poison.  I take it as a laugh actually.

As for my posting articles here, I do this for discussion purposes. If I find anything of interest I bring it here for discussion.

Jinx always remember the fundamental rule - nobody forces you to read anybodys post if you find it not to your taste. At the moment we need all the input we can get. So enjoy the contribution of the folk and leave what you don't like. That twit beeno 2 and his ilk got fed up becuase they would spend their time saying what a useless player schalk was, how useless rassie was, how poor jean was, how boksmust look t otheir own faults for loosing the WC match against oz etc etc etc . I would argue against this and take articles from Planet Rugby, Keo and supersport etc to show them they were living in a bubble. beeno 2 and his ilk hated this. Hate dit when Schalk was named SA Player o fthe year and the bubble was burst.

Hope the background helps.

I don't think Card is being racist in any way. Genes do play a role as he indicated by some examples. Think of pygmies playing american basketball! Explain the number of black sprinters in an olympic 100 meters final. Why polynesian islanders produce so many outstanding backs dispite their incredibly small population numbers. Why the Afrikaner produces the best forwards in the world out of a very small population. Why the Chinese/Japanese excell in fast accurate sports like karate, table tennis, precision diving but will not shape in rugby for all their many millions. Why Kenya and Ethiopia produce fantastic long distance runners (A small area in Kenya produces guys who can run world class time almost naturally!)

What is racist is picking on colour rather than merit. That is too be resisted. Nowhwere in the world is this practised as a policy matter but in SA

The point about genes is interesting and gives some insight into performance of races in sport  but practically speaking should have no bearing on selections as one should pick on merit. regardless of skin colour.

@Beeno.

Its a dangerous topic.  All this talk of genetics in races reminds one of Nazi Germany or Apartheid South Africa. Best to steer clear!!!.

I'm one for merit selection only. End of story. The fact is there are enough Black players around to be selected on merit so there should be no concern.

Card, to me Springbok greatness, and lets not forget that before isolation we were the top rugby nation with a better test win /loss ratio against anybody including the all blacks, has been based on unrelenting forward domination. Add in a good flyhalf, bone jarring defence and some attacking flair and that was the Boks.

As Dan Retief once said other sides feared taking on a Bok 8. Sean Fitzpatrick once said our competitive advantage was our big athletic men. We have strayed from our roots. Some folk prefer a Spies to a Vermulen. The prefer a Brussouw to a Burger. The lock who gets all the accolades is  matfield (107kg!!) rather than the great  Bakkies  - a truly great lock in his heyday!  Our pack is out weighed or matched at the world cup. The Samoans take liberties with us - no worries at all.

We could pick a pack that nobody would enjoy playing against. One that would subdue the opposition  in the old manner of Bok packs. I am hoping Meyer will bring a hard edge pack into the Bok pack. Once you get dominance or an edge in the forwards everything clicks into place.

As Chippo said - get in a great backline coach - yes even if its King Carlos!!

This year we must reclaim the number 1 ranking. This is a realistic goal - unlike  jvr and his lions winning theSuper 15 this year - hahahahahahhahahaha - sorry jvr and all you Lions supporters but it won't happen this year for sure!!  Beeno keeping it real!

juzzy the meaning of the word mong has been defined as follows:

Lacking in physical and cerebal ability. General retardation.
Generally: a total spastic

Or

A complete idiot
Or:
 

(Mong)- Slang for spastic, but used against a person who says or does something completely idiotic by accident or without realisation. This makes every witness simultaneously raise their hands to their shoulders and shake 'em while sticking their tongue in their lower lip and making 'urrgh' noises.

2. (Monged)- A vegetive state of mind/being usually effective after consuming large quantities of alcohol, weed, lsd, ecstacy etc or combinations of.

1. Steve you mong, you've just poured the kettle onto ya cornflakes.

2. Steve's well monged after we spiked his drink with acid, muhahahaha.

by Safecracker G Oct 15, 2004 email it
3. mong 146 up, 44 down

Mong is short for 'mongoloid', which was originally an anachronistic term for a Down's Syndrome sufferer

The modern Mong however is a total idiot, who deserves nothing less than complete humiliation for their idiocy.
That includes all those dope smokers too, who relate being 'monged' to being chilled and mellow.

I hope ths igive syou a goo dunderstanding of this very funny term.

I divided a group of twits on SS board into two catergories : oaks - who were thick but there was some hope for them and mongs  - who were hopless cases. The two twits coming on this board from supersupporter were mongs! If you had read all their posts before the site attack you would appreciate why I call them mongs. Hahhahahahahahahahahaha hilarious stuff really.

I had a good many laughs correcting the oaks and mongs. I am sure they appreciated my efforts and hence have come looking for more of same. Hehehhehehe. Unfortunately for them I am no longer on the suppersupporter board so my free assistance to them has ended.

Its sound like you missed the posts of rucking flanker and Beeno 2 that disappeared when the site was attacked. These two were from suppersuporter and came here to attack 4 of us who left that board. Thier attacks were scandalous and they were told to get lost.

Ceradyne, if you have the addys of any of those who have left ccontact them and see if they will come back?

@Beeno1, I have no contact with them. I only remember the names.

Well said juzzy, I think most can gather around the principle of merit but race based selections will always divide folk.

Ceradyne we could ask Ed to follow up. I think Denny may be doing this.

Why SHOULD there be enough black players? Reality doesn't work like that. Quite clearly there are not. If it were so that there were large numbers of black players, why are coaches struggling to find them? The fact of the matter is that the poc are at a big disadvantage. Genetics plays a KEY role in this. It is has to be tackled first before it can dealt with. Until that day, they will always struggle.

I dont believe or agree with quota's so the number of black players in a team is not important to me....there can be none or 15, so long as the team is selected on merit, I will support it.

There are many black players out there, you just need to watch schools and club rugby to see it...plenty are palying the game. Not everyone can be good enough to play for their province or the boks. Like I said earlier, i dont buy this whole genetic thing......have you ever spent time with real Zulu's? Some massive, well built men amongst that nation.

My feeling as to why not more have come through to top level is the lack of real commitment on the part of SARU and the provincial unions. only an opinion.......

Juzzy in the end it boils down to merit selection. If the guy is the best let him get the spot. That is fair and the vast majority of folk can happliy accept that.

Whether blacks will make a bigger contribtution remains to be seen.  Provided things are done decently that is all that matters. Genes etc do play a role but dontmatter when it comes to selecting a player, I tend though to agree with Card although if there are those big Zulu's you speak of we need to see them playing!

The mixture of White and Polynesian genes has done very well for NZ. Here we have to see what the mix of White and Balck etc genes can do. I think though that the genes of the North African backs are more suited to rugby. This is all a background issue though because we should select on merit and not on colour so let things take their natural course whatever that may be..

There are not Enough Black players as they have not had the 40 years of advantage. the facilities, the coaching, the money, the backing. But with more Black and Coloured players receiving this we are seeing a rise of numbers.

there is no specific set of genes that makes a rugby person. if there is i would like to see more evidence of it.

its like me saying that all wingers should be black, as they after all are the fastest people on earth.

or maybe all lineout jumpers should be black as well, after all Basket ball players are predominantly black

and the word mong. careful where you use it as Down Syndrome is a common occurance and you never know who you may use it in front of. 1 in 700 odd births will result in a Down Syndrome child. thats alot and its a sensitive subject.

VIVA LIONS !

Spot on Jinx. The only reason not enough Black players are coming through is directly the fault of SARU and the provincial unions who have paid lip service to transformation. Anyone who believes that tranformation is not neccessary is living in a dream world. This is South Africa....proper transformation that results in a fair representation of all race groups, based on merit, is a necessity if we are to succeed as a nation.

Using genetics as an argument reminds one of the Wouter Basson's of the world.....racist trash that shold be left in the gutters where they belong.

It was mentioned that our two Black props are not even South African.....I dont understand how this proves the genetics argument. Why would Zimbabweans have stronger genes than Black South Africans? Zimbabwe, like South Africa is made up of many different tribes. Did you know the Matabele are direct descendants of the Zulu nation.

Nope I will not buy this genetics argument.....borderline racism.

No one has used genetics. We are agreed merit is the criteria.

As for genes - yes they do play a role  but if one selects fairly on merit then this should not be a problem a sthe best palyers regardless of skin colour gets selected.

End of story.