Both Meyer and De Villiers said the conditions thee match was played under were atrocious and De Villiers said it was the worst conditions he played under in his long career as a professional player. I must agree - I cannot remember ever watching a game live or on TV where a game was played when it was hailing when the national anthems were being sung.
Wet conditions are a great leveller in games and there is no doubt that it is at the same time a leveler insiofar as outcome is concerned. One do not have to look far to prove that truth - just watch the game between the Wallabies and the All Blacks were played on Saturday - the field was wet and playing conditions difficult, but not half as bad as the case was in the Pretoria game. The outcome a draw without any tries being scored.
The question is how does it affect player performances. Some players - especially those with dubious performance records in any event - perform even less efficiently in such conditions. Others who normally plays well, do not adjust at all and there performances goes down the drain. Very few players in fact thrive under those conditions.
In general the situation in fact is that such conditions are not a good enough basis to determine whether players are suitable for the positions they were selected to play in. In reading the comments on this site - it seems as if only some players played well and the younger players in the Springbok team are the real cause of the problems encountered on Saturday.
That would have been a fair assessment if the experienced players performed better. Looking at the game from a broader perspective - there were very few players sin the SA team that performed satisfactorily - only the loosies in fact can go largely without being criticized. Suddenly what happened on Saturday is a career-defining norm for some players and not for others.
Bearing in mind the above I think that Meyer selected the best team in his view for the Saturday test and he puts his faith in the players he selected - I think it will be wrong for Meyer to change his team because of what happened on Saturday. Many fingers are being pointed at the younger players - yet very few of the older ones covered themselves in glory as well. In any event to select a team on the basis of weather conditions is a fallacy and would be a greater problem on the field of play if the conditions turns out to be fine and very playable.
I feel that the team should only have minor changes. Put Matfield on the bench and start with De Jager and Etzebeth at lock and forget about changing the rest of the team. I may be wrong - but I think that is exactly what Meyer is going to do in any event.
