Much has been written about the Meyer Game Plan and the latest comments of Jean De Villiers on the performance of Morne Steyn is significant. As to be expected from a captain, De Villiers is supportive of Morne and he said that from a comprehensive perpsective Morne played well in the English series. However, there was a problem with his goalkicking - but tht has improved in subsequent Super 15 games.
Why I mentioned Morne in special relationship to the game plan is that he is the key to the plan implementation.
In essence the question is - will the test against Argentina give an indication of what really is going to happen later in the series? That is why I am looking forward keenly to the game. If the Springboks struggle in the game we are going to be in for huge losses in the reainder of the tests series.
My initial assessment is that the inclusion of Argentina is aimed at development of rugby in that country - with the ultimate objective of strengthening rugby in South America - and not necessarily as an immediate threat to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It is a fact that Argentina reached the semi-final of the 2007 WC and more recently beat France in a test in Argentina. In essence Argentina has already gone a long way in rugby development.
Despite the above the Springboks should win the test with relative ease. However, we have not covered ourselves in glory in the recent series against England - winning two tests by a relatively small margin and drrawing the third one. Much has been said about the lack of preparation time for the English test series on the part of the Springboks as a reason for the lacklustre performances against an English team also in the rebuilding phase. The latter issue has never been mentioned. As a matter of fact the building phase in English Rugby witha new coaching team has not been treated properly and we are in fact paing far too much attention to the winning of the series and not enough to the status of English rugby in the development phase. That is why I beleive that the English series wa not necessarily a yardstick to judge whether the Springboks are really moving forward.
There can be no groans and grumbles about the lack of preparation time for the test against Argentina and it will be in essence a real indication of twhether the Springboks are in fact moving forward or not. In the meantime many people - myself included - are extremely critical of what is perceived to be the Meyer Game Plan. But do we really have to be or are we jumping the gun? It will be better to wait and see what is going to happen and to evaluate the player performances and game plan thereafter.
My forecast is a win for the Springboks by 15+ points - but that may be over-optimistic. What do other site members feel about that one?
