Ex Supersport Gavin Rich. I will correct some of Gavins foogy thinking!
Looks unlikely that Heyneke Meyer will realise one of his initial aims of winning silverware on the way to the 2015 Rugby World Cup (Thanks to a RAW gift wrapped to OZ), but the Springboks do look a good bet to triumph when it really matters at the culmination of the current four year cycle.
With six points separating them from New Zealand and two matches to go in this year’s Castle Lager Rugby Championship, the Boks look destined to fall short in their quest for southern hemisphere supremacy for the third successive season. And with next year’s abbreviated Championship falling just before the World Cup and the Boks likely to again rest players for the main event as they did in the 2007 and 2011 Tri-Nations, it may well be that they will get to England without having won a major trophy under Meyer.
But while the Boks may not at this stage be good enough to reign supreme in the southern hemisphere (DUE ONLY TO THE RAW AND TWO INJUROES THAT ALLOWED THE ABS TO SCORE AGAINST 13 MEN), their narrow defeat to the All Blacks in Wellington confirmed the status that they started to assume on their last northern hemisphere trip as a team that has a great chance of winning the trophy that really matters.
Some might consider it odd to suggest that while the Boks are not good enough to win the Rugby Championship (ONLY DUE THIS FAR TO THE FACTORS MENTIONED) they are good enough to win the World Cup. It isn’t though, and it’s all about the conditions that they will encounter in England next year. (NOW NOTE HOW GAVIN ALMOST GETS THE POINT RIGHT BUT STUMBLES)
Those who didn’t take the party line before Wellington that the Boks would be smashed, based that optimism on the probability that the conditions encountered in New Zealand at this time of the year might work for the visitors in that it would slow the game down. Although there were times when the Boks were just hanging in during the Wellington game, what was predicted proved to be the case, with the All Blacks' pace and superior skill set being negated to some extent.
It isn’t a coincidence that the closest the Boks have come to beating New Zealand in the Meyer era has been in matches played on New Zealand soil. The most recent game and the one played in Dunedin in 2012 could easily have been won by the South Africans and there wasn’t much in it at the final whistle in either of them. Last year’s clash in Auckland was ruined by the erroneous sending off of Bismarck du Plessis.
By contrast, the two games played in South Africa have been won quite convincingly by the All Blacks. While many of those who doubted the Boks before Wellington will now have started to believe they can win at Ellis Park on 4 October, and it is most certainly time for everyone to get off Meyer’s back, it may well be that their best chance of beating the Kiwis this year has come and gone.
ELLIS PARK SUITS ALL BLACKS
Playing in front of the Ellis Park crowd is a massive lift for the Boks, some would say as much as 10 points. But the All Blacks have long since overcome the psychological barrier of the Highveld, with their wins there in 2010, 2012 and 2013 all being achieved after being under some duress at some stages but with great style in the end.
The reason the All Blacks have started to win on the Highveld is because the conditions there suit them. The fast surface and usually dry weather is tailored to their fast paced game (NOW SEE HOW THE OKA LIKE MEYER MISSES THE PLOT ENTIRELY - THEYFAIL TORECOGNISE AS I HAVE BEEN SAYING FOR YEARS THAT WHEN PLAYING ON THE HIGHVELD YOU NEED TO SPEED UP YOUR PACK. I SUGGESTED TWEAKING YOUR LOSE TRIO AND PLAYING THE FASTER STRAUSS. NOTE HOW GAVIN STILL DOESNT GRASP THIS GLARINGLY OBVIOUS FACT. HAS MEYER FINALLY TWIGGED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ) So perhaps those who are now expecting great things from the Boks in Johannesburg should temper that expectation. If there is a playing surface Richie McCaw’s team would like to wrap up and carry around the world with them, it is probably Ellis Park.(PRECISELEY BECAUSE WE DO NOT LEARN THE LSSON DISPITE ITS BEING REPEATED SO OFTEN. lETS SEE THE ABS RUN AGAINST A LOOSE TRIO OF cOETZEE, wHITELY AND VERMUELEN - RATHER THAN loUW, vERMULEN AND ALBERTS. STRAUSS RATHER THAN BISSIE. THIS IS A MASSIVE DIFFERENCE IN PACE.)
But while a win for the Boks at Ellis Park is something they need to go all out to achieve because of the psychological lift it will give them, a defeat there might not have much relevance to the World Cup. The RWC will not be played on a fast surface on a dry Highveld spring afternoon but in an England autumn on surfaces that should be a lot slower than Ellis Park.(AGAIN POR GAVIN ASSUMES WE CANT GET FASTER PALYERS ON THE PARK. CAN YOU CRDIT THIS STUPIDITY. SERIOUSLY HOW DUMB CAN ONE GET????)
As Wellington showed, that should bring the Boks more into the game. If the Boks can come so close on Kiwi soil in 2012 and again now, imagine what could happen when they play the New Zealanders in similar conditions but at a neutral venue.
With the World Cup in mind, the Boks returned home from their Australasian tour in a better space than they were in after the Argentina leg, even though they lost both games. There were some areas of concern that were ticked off in pretty resounding fashion. One of those was Handre Pollard’s confirmation that Meyer is right to regard him as the man to play flyhalf at the World Cup.
The youngster is that rare thing in a Bok flyhalf, namely that he is well rounded and is good at everything. With him in the No 10 the Boks can definitely pose more questions for opposing defensive systems than when Morne Steyn is there. The Boks had the right balance to their game in Wellington, in that they weren’t as frenetic as they were at Ellis Park last October, yet were more prepared to attack when it was on to do so than had been the case in Perth.
Pollard played his part both in featuring in the move that led to the try scored by Cornal Hendricks, where his distribution skills were to the fore, and in setting up the field position that laid on the platform for the score with a long kick into the All Black 22. That pretty much summed up the balance Pollard brings.
The other ticks would have been placed next to the scrum that was so maligned after Argentina, while Victor Matfield proved in both games that, regardless of his age, he remains a huge player at the highest level.(MORE NONSENSE THE GUY IS A HUGE LIABILITY)
There weren’t only ticks though, and the Boks shouldn’t kid themselves that they have closed the gap on the Kiwis when it comes to skill. They would have won the game were it not for some atrocious handling and misdirected passing, and the bottom line is that the Kiwis still protect their possession way better than the Boks do, and it was why they won.(tHEY LOST ONLY DUE TO A FREAK INJURY TO TWO PLAYERS THAT ALLOWED THE ABS A CHANCE TO SCORE. - THE FINAL 20 MINUTES IT WAS ALL BOKS AND ONLY A CYNICAL RED ZONE INFRINGEMENT SAVED THE ABS FROM A SECOND BOK TRY)
The All Blacks remain a fine team that is good at just about everything. They will take some catching if the Boks want to get to a place where they can beat them consistently and win the Rugby Championship. But in a one-off game in England conditions next November you shouldn’t write off the team in green and gold.
There shoudl be no doubt at all that if Meyer picks the right team we will beat the abs. It ALL depends on whether Meyer is learning. Meyer possibly learns but oh so slowly!I just hope he doesnt go back to Alberts and Bissie for a highveldt test!!
It's hugly frustrating that we are not comfortably putting away this mediocre ab side.
Right selections. Get in a real backline coach and it will all be relatively easy.
