Does Hieneken Meyer Understand Test Rugby?

The rucking ability of the boks in 2012 is terribale. At the start of the season he said that a specialist fetcher is a dead position due to the amount of penalties they give away. He left Brussouw out of the squad to play England because of this. Now he has called up Flow, a player on the other side of the world who is out of season to be a fetcher.

His blind faith in Bulls players that are just not test match quality, but ok Super15 players is my main concern about his ability to select the best 22 for each test. Many of these selections lack the both physical abilty, and more so the mental abilty for test match rugby.

--

I still have faith in Meyer, I think he is capable of learning from his mistakes. I am optimistic for the home games. We need Lambie starting at 15, Goosen at 10, and Brussouw at 6. If Schalk makes it back then he can play at 8 for the boks assuming his form is still good(year end tour). Schalk is also a semi fetcher, having played at 6 for the start of his career. I think he could still make the next world cup, barring more injuries.

bismarck has proven to be very effective as a default fetcher, especially in the spXV and i wonder if maybe meyer gambled a bit too much on bizzy to continue that roll??? obviously his injury has thrown a spanner in the works, but even if bizzy or brussow were there, they would have changed little, cos the Bok forwards have been outmuscled in the breakdown by every team they have faced in 2012.

a hookers primary role is not fetching the ball come ruck time. that is were the balance got disrupted. playing the likes of bismarck and a brussouw will ensure a double edge to very breakdown and that in its self will give the boks so much more firepower with the ball in hand. the current crop of loose forwards cant match up because they offer the same skillset acros the board. the balance is wrong and that effects everything else.

lambie and goosen needs to start as early as possible morne and zane need to be dumped very soon

Our problem at loosie level is that the players are in fact far too slow and not streetwise at all. -- the only real exception is Coetzee.     By the time they get to the breakdown point - they cannot try and pinch balls from th opposition without giving away penalties - so why a fetcher if that is the case.

In the last three Super 15 games Brussow played in - he personally gave away 5 kickable penalties.   Is the gew turnovers worth 15 points that he gave away?   I think not and that is the problem Meyer realized.       

 @clevermike- what percentage of those penalties were when Cheetas had possesion vs opposition possesion? (or recycling possesion vs attemped turn overs)

If we could get opposition turnovers that would be a bonus. At the moment just retaining our own possesion to recycle for quick possesion is hard enough. 

If brussouw could just improve this aspect, and not worry about trying to steal possesion on opposition ball perhaps he would not give away penalties. 

I imagine that more penatlies are given away trying to steal possesion when the opposition is tackled at the breakdown, rather than when trying to clean out rucks of our own possesion. Although I have no stats to substantiate that assumption.

Sharkbok

I will have to look at the games involving Brussow again - but as far as I can remember all came about in maul situations when turnovers were attempted (3) and the other two by off-side play by him ending up on the wrong side of the mauls.

Now as to Meyer.   I believe that Meyer has a very good rugby brain and that he knows what he would like to see being implmented by the Springboks.   However, any SA coach have no chance of a honey moon period - he is branded virtually immediately after appointment.   Meyer himself  felt pressure from the word go - so he went conservative in his player selections.   He was familiar with the Bulls players and that he regarded as a safety valve in this case.   However, the players were not necessarily the best in SA and let him down badly - which just added further pressure insofar as he is concerned.

Although I am severely critical of performances thus far - I realize that no coach should be subjected to the kind of pressure and criticism level as is the case with Meyer.   It can only complicate matters further and cause further mayhem in his player selections.  

However, it is not only the Bulls players who let him down - there are a number of others that really should be seriously looked at as quality players.   In that category I include De Villiers and Francois Steyn, as well as Alberts and the props.   Alberts was good against the slow-moving POMS team - but failed badly against the other teams he played against - since he is no speed merchant.   In the southern hemisphere faster and cleverer loosies are essential.

I am not going to go into further detail about the other players who let Meyer down - it has been widely enough been dealt with under other threads. 

In all fairness people should give him longer to develop a proper team - since the so-called epereienced players are letting him down badly.   After all most of those played on losing Springbok sides over the past two years and was not really star players..

 Personally I think that Meyer should start  building up a team of players over a period.   There is enough talent around - especially younger players.   If he fails to do that - and get rid of the present failures in the team - he is not going to last as a coach.

I think there are enough realists around - if he pick younger players and they fail - he would not be subjected to the same kind of criticism he is subject to at present.   In developing a new team some experimentation is necessary = so lets hope he realized that and start getting rid of the rugby geriatrics.   In the latter regard I am glad that the Bakkies Botha issue fell flat - That would not have helped in the long run and that type of thing is exactly what Meyer should not do if he wants to succeed as a coach.