A team of Vetsak's "bests"

 DA

Moz that is where you are wrong, far more of our youngsters have stepped up and played CC and s15/18 rugby along with the odd test cap, compared to the England players who played u20 rugby. NZ and Oz are probably on par with the Baby Boks in terms of transition. There is an obvious reason for this up North in that their domestic game is polluted by foreign imports depriving the English youngsters of opportunity. Our current s18 sides are dominated by youngsters which is a healthy sign and thankfully we have had a change in guard when it comes to s18 coaches, which will hopefully reap some rewards.

Sadly our national coach failed to mirror the trend of our CC and s15 sides but instead chose to select players long past their best, players he was familiar with and was far too conservative to embrace the new. The only time he did was late into the WC, when it was too late. The step to invest in the best players should have been taken 2 years prior to the WC, with a view to the team building as a unit. Look at the Kiwi side, it was of a similar age to ours, not many youngsters on board, but that was because it had taken years to get there.

Meyer at the start of his tenure should have used the current Eddie Jones model……Eddie’s England side is dominated by youngsters, something Lancaster like Meyer never did. In the current England squad, we only have Brown and Haskell aged 30.

Meyer’s original plan for the WC was clearly to have the likes of Kirchner, Habana, JP, Mvovo, Fourie, Jean, Morne, Pienaar, du Preez, Beast, Bismark, Strauss, Brits, Jannie, Matfield, Louw, Schalk and Alberts on board……hell had it not been for Bakkies, Flip and Juan Smith making themselves unavailable, they to might have featured……not to mention all the game time Guthro Steenkamp was afforded……and people wonder why Meyer was a hopeless failure. 18 of the WC squad of 31 were in their late 20's or into their 30’s, which is not an issue if they were the best at our disposal as was the case with the Kiwi side.

We only had 6 youngsters in the WC starting side, the very same youngsters who happened to be the best players in that side. While Willie did not have a great WC, there is no doubting his credentials. Lood and Etzebeth were our best forwards and Pollard stood tall in the backs. de Allende beat more defenders than any other player in the WC, with Jessie Kriel making more clean breaks than any other centre in the WC. You can’t ignore these facts. Rugby is a team game, its about the unit as a whole, not the individual. Sadly the Bok side for some time has been handicapped by players not being the best in their respective positions, thereby discrediting the side as a unit. Meyer sold us short in a big way…….the fact that the likes of Kolbe, Senatla, Frans Venter, Faf, Kitshoff, Willemse, Jacques du Plessis and Jaco Kriel etc have not played for SA yet is insulting. There has been no faith shown in the youngsters – the likes of Serfontein, de Allende, Jessie Kriel, Lambie, Goosen, Jantjies, Hougaard, Reinach, Marcel, Coenie, Malherbe, Lood, PSDT, Coetzee, Kolisi and Arno Botha have only had tastes of test rugby……..Meyer being the conservative type was never comfortable investing in the unknown. Hell, Willie was forced on him through injury……de Allende and Jessie Kriel through injury to Jean and Fourie pulling the plug. Lood for Matfield. The only youngster he has shown faith in is Etzebeth wholeheartedly and Pollard to a lesser extent. Etzebeth is a great player but he is not better than Lood, Willemse and PSDT and if he is, its very, very marginal. My point being that we have 4 young locks of great quality with only one of them invested in. The same applies in all positions bar fullback.

Eddie Jones has it spot on…..start with a young side made up of the best players in England and build a side……look at his start with England to date…….how good will his side be by next WC? The mark of a quality coach who knows his business and is not handicapped by conservatism. We see the same with the Oz side right now, its made up of kids. No doubt with the changing of the guard in NZ rugby in terms of old players moving on, my guess is we will see an influx of younsgsters into the Kiwi side this year.

Meyer got it wrong from the start, his instincts were out of tune, his vision flawed. His instinct was to trust the old, pressure forced him into investing is some of the new, but by then it was too late for the new look Bok side against Wales and NZ in the WC had never had the opportunity to gel as a unit and was of course handicapped by the odd player who was not the best at his trade. But we beat Wales and lost by 2 against NZ…….imagine if that same side with a few additional tweaks had, had 2 years together prior to that NZ game in the WC?

We have better youngsters on board right now than we have ever had……evidenced by my six S18 sides I had a play around with. If a national coach can’t find 30 of the best from that group along with the experience of JP, Habana, Frans Steyn, du Preez, Beast, Bismark, Strauss, Schalk and Vermeulen then he is clearly not a Eddie Jones, Hansen, Gatland, Schmidt or Cheika

Yeah BokBF, what really saddens me is the prospect of Coetzee as the Bok coach. He has achieved absolutely nothing to merit elevation to test status.

We have more talent than ever - to be supressed once again by a substandard coach

T he joke is, Lood's miss was at the start of the game.......what about the Matfield penalty reversal in front of the poles with 15 min to go

But ultimately its a team sport, blaming individuals is counter productive and inaccurate.

We came close with an almost merit side guided by a coach out of his depth.

Imagine what a merit side and merit coach would do?

 By the way DA - like Mozart you also say nothing about the possession loss by Burger leading to the AB's second try.  Please paint the whole picture not a warped one.  

Very easy missed tackle by De Jager - Try