The following from News24:-
" Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer is confident that wing JP Pietersen will soon return to top form.
Pietersen had an indifferent season with the Sharks in Super Rugby and was also not at his best in the Boks’ 46-10 win over the World XV at Newlands on Saturday. Pietersen, 29, plays club rugby for the Panasonic Wild Knights in Japan but is allowed to return to South Africa in time for the Super Rugby season.
“JP has not been at his best for a while now and the reason for this is because he moves between Japan and the Sharks without having an off-season,” Meyer toldNetwerk24.
“We’re working hard at his fitness. He is as good as any wing out of Australia and New Zealand, and he’ll return to that level.”
The Boks start their Rugby Championship campaign Wallabies in Brisbane this Saturday."
Meyer is on sauce in this case. It is not because "JP has not been at his best for a while now and the reason for this is because he moves between Japan and the Sharks without having an off-season,” In Japan they play rugby only twice a month and the players coming back from there is below standard insofar as physical fitness is concerned. Over the past two years Pietersen suffered from one serious deficiency - he has lost his pace and is now in rugby terms a SNAIL. Nothing is going to change unless he recovers his pace and there is no sign of that.
The problem with Meyer is he lives in a dream world devoid of reality and that dream world results in him making decisions bad for the Springbok team.
