Meyer makes excuses about the breakdown

 ex sarugbymag

 

Heyneke Meyer is tired of the inconsistency between northern and southern hemisphere referees, and has called for a standardised approach to officiating at the breakdown, reports JON CARDINELLI in Pretoria.

 

The Boks beat Scotland 30-17 in Nelspruit last Saturday, but were unable to get clean ball at the breakdown. Scotland were the more determined of the two teams at the collisions and did everything they could to slow and stifle the Boks at the breakdown.

 

While Meyer conceded that the Boks need to improve in this area, he felt the Scots were allowed too much leeway. The Bok coach said on Monday that it has become difficult to prepare for matches when you don't know what to expect in terms of the match-day referee.

 

'I don't want to get myself in trouble, but if I was to describe it, I'd use a three-letter word,' Meyer said. 'It's very frustrating.

 

'I'm not looking to make excuses, but we trained hard at the breakdown in the build-up to that game. We took into account that there is a big difference between southern and northern hemisphere referees, but it has come to the point where you really don't know what to expect.'

 

The Bok coach reiterated that his team has to improve in this area, before the coming Test against Samoa, and before the all-important Rugby Championship in August.

 

But Meyer has clearly had enough of the vast difference in refereeing styles, and has called on the powers that be at the International Rugby Board to do something about it. Meyer confirmed that he would be taking the matter up with Saru's manager of referees, Andre Watson.

 

'It needs to be sorted out,' Meyer said. 'You want to have a good game where you get clean ball, you want to be able to play quality rugby. At this point, even if you are technically astute you still can't get to the ball.

 

'There needs to be one set of laws and they need to be adhered to.'

 

Meyer is likely to retain the tight five that started against Scotland and Pierre Spies could start his third consecutive Test at No 8. There could be changes on the flanks, however, with Francois Louw returning from leave and Willem Alberts coming back from injury.

 

While the breakdowns were a concern in the fixture against Scotland, Meyer has also conceded that the Boks weren't at their best at the collisions. Arno Botha went down with a serious injury in the fifth minute, and the Boks had no like-for-like replacement as Marcell Coetzee shifted from openside to blindside.

 

The Boks are still without Duane Vermeulen, a favourite of Meyer's due to his gainline efficiency. What will help the Boks' gainline ambitions this week is the return of Alberts, who like Vermeulen was one of the standout ball-carriers in 2012.

 

The Boks will go into the Rugby Championship with a first choice back-row that includes Louw, Alberts, and Vermeulen (who should be back from injury). While Meyer is concerned that there aren't many alternatives in that No 7 position, he is pleased that the June Test series has allowed him to develop the next tier of loose forwards in Botha (before he got injured), Coetzee and last Saturday's Man of the Match, Siya Kolisi.

 

 

Not sure how he considers himself prepared if he went into the match with no specialist fetchers in the starting team or the bench. 

 

It is not as if his looseforwards were all rounders either, with the likes of Spies. Spies has never made any contribution at the rucks his whole career and this is not going to change.

 

His starting opensider and reserve opensider are not specialist fetchers that play onto the ball.

Cotzee plays 7 and 8 for the Sharks, and Kolisii has also been playing in other positions in the backrow to accomodate Deon Fourie.

 

Louw and Brussouw are the only specialists 6 fetchers, along with Deon Fourie when he plays as a 6. (one last seasons form he was good, but Fourie has been crap most of this season at hooker and then played at 6 with broken ribs.)

Laberschagne would be a better bet on the bench as he can cover all positions in the backrow as an allrounder, that is if he does not start.

 

Sharkbok Meyer should forget about the referees and start thinking of his own selections. Last week he picked three back row players of which only one ever had any impact in breakdown ball recovery - namely Botha, who is more of an all-round player with impact on ball recovery in his arsenal without it really being his strong suit. When Botha got injured early he was left with three players with NO impact on that component of the game . Meyer has no regard for the one player in his squad who has a record of efficient ball recovery - Labuschagne - and now seemingly prefers another player with very near to zero contribution to that component of the game, namely Alberts. The latter has played has had only two games on Super 15 last year. The quoted article is wrong - Alberts role in ball carrying was minimal last year as is statistically proven. He also was nowhere to be seen in the two games he played this year. So Spies and Alberts will play on Saturday and the breakdown story in the news again wiith a massive load on Louw - when Meyer start blaming anybody else but himself for stupid selections.

Sharkbok I posted an article yesterday re the breakdown and the varying interpretations. That they vary is unquestionable.  Go read it if you didnt.

There is a genuine problem here. Ou maaaikie of course takes the opportunity to bash Meyer.

I also think it a pity that so many times we start new threads when one already exists. It breaks down the discussion. We should ALL try and avoid this. 

Mike I think I would like to see a loose trio of Louw, Alberts and Labuschagne.  Alberts could give us say 50 minutes. I also hope Meyer changes the props. Lets get in some energy and go forward with Coenie in particular. 

In my view Labuschane and Arno have been outstanding in the Super 15 and Labbers deserved a shot.

 

 Beeno no one is disputing that Northern Hemishpere refs allow more competition at ruck time. 

Also that what would often be a penalty in SuperXV is fair play to Northern Hemishpere refs

 

However the issue is that Meyer himself is aware of the problem, but fields a backrow that is not strong at competing for the ball on the ground. If Spies is in the team, which he should NOT be- this will certainly require a specialist fetcher given that it is not an allround backrow. 

 

Meyer and Spies can practise at the breakdown as much as they want, however Spies will never be competitive at the breakdown