From time top time there are discussions on this forum about Meyer as the Springbok coach and what has been achieve and what still has to be achieved as coach. So lets try and be objective and start a further discussion.
There can be no doubt that Meyer's dedication to the job is absolute and that he is a gentleman with high moral principles - principles he also expect from the players The dedication produced better results and most players perform better than they did lat year.
Meyer's 2012 record was a mixed bag - not really satisfactory and towards the end of 2012 he said that he made selection mistakes which impacted negatively on team performance. Like is to be expected from a new coach he preferred players whom he was acquainted with - and some of those players let him down big time. You only have to look at the achievements or lack of achievement of players like Dean Greyling, Werner Kruger, Francois Hougaard and Morne Steyn to see how bad the situation was.
Meyer is a very conservative coach - he ad no hesitation in getting rid of Greyling and Kruger - he moved Hougaard from scrummie to wing - and was nearly in tears when he was forced to remove Morne Steyn as flyhalf - he was thinking that Morne is his ideal flyhalf and would never have replaced him. For the rest he clung like a magnet to Zane Kirchner, Juandre Kruger, Pierre Spies and Willem Alberts - all under-achievers in 2012.
Come to the June series and <Meyer called up a first training squad for 2013 - despite his comments virtually all the players he had in his training squad for 2012 was in the squad again and no real team changes was foreseen. The numbr of injuries and the actual performances of the Cheetahs in Super 15 forced his hand and in the second training camp he included a few new Cheetah players and Catrakillis.
Basically the June tests Meyer went for his tried and tested 2012 team - but for some enforced changes because of injuries. Kirchner was injured and he came back from the bench for half a Super 15 game the day the team was announced. Kirchner put in a poor performance - and that forced Meyer to select Le Roux at full back. He was also as a result of injury to Francois Steyn forced into selecting a new 13 and plunged for JJ Engelbrecht.
Meyer had a problem with Le Roux - there was no way in the world that he could coach Le Roux into playing a conservative style of play - so he accepted the inevitable and the result was a complete turnaround in backline performance by the Springboks.
Despite the weak opposition there were other problems as well. Spies became an embarrassment and Kruger just slightly less so. He stuck with Kruger and brought back Vermeulen who was initially on the bench. Lucky for him he was not forced in n immediate change insofar as Zane Kirchner is concerned - Basson was not really good enough and with Pietersen in Japan - he selected Le Roux as wing and brought back Kirchner at full back.
The result in the CR was better than last year - but in the key test at Ellis Park the poor performers (Morne Steyn, Juandre Krugr and Sloth Alberts) were as bad as they were in 2012. Throughout the series Engelbrecht showed some tackling deficiencies - there were question marks about him as an attacking player as well.
For the EOYT the conservative in Meyer got the better of him. He retained the disappointing Gurthro Steenkamp in the squad and added Jacgue Fourie and Bakkies Botha to the squad. Le Rouc presented a problem for him and he put him n the bench for the Welsh test. Fourie replaced Engelbrecht at 13 and injury to Jannie du Plessis forced him to play Malherbe at tighthead. Le Roux came from the bench early and as per normal had a very good game. Fourie made some initial mistakes - but then his defence got up to standard. On the negative side he showed no attacking abilities and on balance he was disappointing. Botha had extensive playing time against the Scots - but despite the hype he was poor, He was slightly better in the French test - bit still rather ineffective.
Despite some noticeable improvements in the performances this year - we still lost against the All Blacks and it is obvious that we have a long way to go to reach achievable objectives. That being so - the question arises about what the future hold for us. There is obvious need for further improvement in the team - but one wonders what Meyer will do in future.
There are obviously some positions in he team that could be improved upon and those are basically at 13, 10 and 7. What is he going to do - that s the million dollar question.
Last year I gave Meyer a rating of 5/10, this year it went up to 7/10 - lets hope next year it is 9/10.
