When one reads what hogwash is produced on site one wonders what rugby idiocy was always supported by some members and how they describe as to what happened over the last ten years in SA rugby is a mystery to most members.
In reality we have in the decade have four coaches and only one of those four achieved anything in reality. However, the achiever are condemned and the others either not mentioned or at least one of them praised for his non-achievement. Lets forget about De Villiers - he spout nonsense and the decisions were really made by some senior forwards players who were more interested in protecting their own interests than the interests of the team.
The next coach was Meyer - coming in with high promise and collapsing in his first year as a coach. His selection criterium was always to pick players he was familiar with and in his first year he picked 14 Bulls players to play in tests - whether they deserve selection on the basis of performance or not. At the end of 2012 Meyer said he made a mistake in that regard and regretted his mistake in doing it - but he never really changed in his approach.
There were always the problem of how the Springboks play in tests - the famous Meyer game plan. We have a member on sigh who wrote theoretical treatises about flat rugby attacks by the backline while in reality what was played was 10 man rugby with the leather being kicked off the ball with no real regard to accuracy and quality of the kicks, Morne Steyn was King and as longa s he keeps on kicking accurately at goal, he remains to be their king. When aimless and inaccurate kicking was criticized by other members they were attacked all out as talking nonsense. The only flat attacks noticeable were when the no 12 center was passed the ball and had no option bar to crashball.
The situation changed for the worse when Myer started urging players who retired form test rugby in 2011 to return to play again for the Springboks. Of those players only one had a 50:50 record in performance - the rest was ta terrible disaster. After dropping Morne Steyn in 2012 for disastrous kicking performances. the age return era was made a fact of life in 2013 and in two cases endured to 2015. Meyer's famous term was - "I know what those players were capable of in the past" forgetting totally when that past was/
2013 was Meyers glory year and they beat Samoa. Italy and Scotland easily in the June tests. The RC was the normal - iffy games against Australia and Argentina and losses against the AB's. However, for Meyer it was an achievement - it was an improvement on what happened in 2012.
In 2014 the Springboks started well in the first test against Wales and nearly self=destruct in the second test. The geriatrics started failing badly and after the SR the whole card structure collapsed. The only thing noticeable was the only AB win in Johannesburg. This happened because of the top class performance of Pollard and despite the non-contribution by Matfield whose only contribution was to lose a line out on Springbok throw-in leading to a try putting the AB's in the lead. No problem - Lambie under constant attack by some members saved the day by a 55 meter penalty conversion. According to the site loonies it was not a pressure kick - the reality was that without the kick Meyer would have had a total losing record of all games lost against the AB's.
Despite the euphoria about Pollard he did not last long as Springbok flyhalf. The problem was that th only real requirement expected from Pollard was to kick balls and he was not very good in that. The other backline player who showed promise became totally demoralized and started to look silly in games. Both just dropped back in performance and that was noticeable in 2015. Meyer's selections for the WC squad was a total mess. He brought back players who did not play a competitive game of rugby for up to 18 months. Players injured seriously earlier in 2015 were selected without playing any rugby for 6 months or more. De Villiers after a horrific injury in 2014 and returning to play his first test after return against Argentina was injured again in that test - in which he was not really up to standard. Kirchner - who played no tests since 2013 was in the squad - Alberts who played no rugby for 16 months was in - Paige was in for no reason other than he played for the Bulls that year - and glory above glory Morne Steyn was back despite the Perth disaster of 2014. In total there were 8 out of the 31 squad members who can be classed as unplayable.
The easy way was to blame a player like Kriel for the loss while the number of players who under-performed reached an amazing level of incompetence- so the Meyer admirers ended up with the BS that could be expected from them. The Springboks ended up with a center combination who played combined a total of 3 tests as a center pair before the WC. Because of the Matfield scenario - players like Etzebeth and De Jager had to play in every subsequent test. since any further loss would have meant elimination of the Springboks in the competition. Come along the quarterfinal and six minutes before the end Wales was leading in the game. The players themselves took the matter into their own hands and won the game despite the Meyer game plan - the players tried a move in the Captains run an it worked, but never discussed it with Meyer, By the time the semi-final arrived the players forced to play in each test after the Japan disaster was dead on their feet. No wonder the Springboks lost the semi - not helped at all by Matfield - who buggered up royally when he replaced De Jager. A new game plan was in place - don't pass the ball to the centers if it could be helped at all. The AB's scored two tries - the one was after De Jager missed a tackle on an AB player - the other was to develop a lie to blame De Allende for the try being scored.
On return at the airport Meyer said he looked forward to renewal of his contract with all the young talent coming through. Everyone of his loyalists was on a witch hunt against the same players and was supporting Meyer all out, He soon enough got the message of no chance of any potential contract renewal and then opted out of applying for contract renewal. The refrain was that Meyer did not want the job - hence his non-application - the reality was that Meyer as a coach was useless and no real rugby enthusiasts wanted him anyway. So what happened subsequently - Meyer ended up as coach of Stade Francais and after 18 months was given a choice - either you reign or we fire you. He resigned but the lesson was clear and loud - he failed as club coach even more than he failed as SA coach.
Lets leave out the ugly Coetzee episode and move to Erasmus. The latter was attacked from the date it became known that he was appointed. The first attack was that he is a coward who rana way from teams he coached when the going got heavy. The second one was that he is not a coach's backside according to some and that he does not know how real rugby should be played. Erasmus found players who became used to play test rugby - but who was dispirited and lost all confidence in themselves and the team. Players had o be tested to find out whether they were in fact test standard. A monumental task was assigned to Erasmus - save the Springboks from the total disaster created by his predecessors.
Obviously the first task was to devise a plan in which the players would become partners. The second one was to find players to fill gaps in the team. The first year was largely experimentation as to where players would come from to fill the gaps in the team as well. On the whole there was encouraging signs - the first away win by the Springboks against the AB's in a decade is an example - but the overall result was a chorus of doomsayers by the same members who condemned him when he was appointed, The normal process was o give him a demeaning name - eg Eraser and J-Raz, When positive points - like a drastic increase in try-scoring - were mentioned they wanted to have a fit.
However, 2019 saw a marvelous revival in Springbok rugby and they won both the RC and the WC trophies. So what happen next. One of the most persistent idiots on site -
* claimed that the 2015 WV team performed better in the 2015 RC performed better when losing all three RC tests than the Cup winning Springboks did in 2019 and tried to use selected stats to prove it - leaving out critical elements like try and point scoring as well as test results'
* did the same as to the WC series;
* criticized the Erasmus game plan and produced a theoretical game plan never practiced to prove Meyer was a better coached than Erasmus - he obviously did not know what the real Erasmus plan was; and endlessly preached doom and gloom about the future of the team; and
* keep on attacking key players in the Erasmus squad necessary to win the WC.
The attack on Erasmus was relentless and kempt on happening all the time. Eraser is still the name they used for him. - he panicked and changed the game plan for the final because of media pressure.
Mozart suddenly claim that Erasmus is implementing the game plan he always favoured - while in fact he favoured the ten-man game in the past. He also claimed like AO that the opposing teams will find counters to anything Erasmus devise and the doom and gloom forecasts followe thick and fast.
As per normal we can expect the nonsense on site to continue unabated and if they are wrong a string of excuses and claims about how lucky Erasmus was in 2019.
