Meyer says 2012 a qualified success

Ex Keo

Heyneke Meyer says that the season was a success given that the injury-hit Springboks conceded just three losses.

The Boks returned to South Africa on Monday having won all three of their Tests in Europe. This ensured that they finished the 2012 season on a high, and allowed them to obtain an overall record that reads seven wins, two draws, and three losses. (Man that Dunedin result should hav e been a comfortable Bok win)

Meyer feels that it is a good return considering the challenges a new coaching staff and team faced at the beginning of the year.

‘Our coaching team was only able to start working with the players relatively late as most of them were still part of Super Rugby,’ the Bok coach said, referring to the fact that he and his lieutenants had less than a week to prepare the new squad for the first Test against England on 9 June.

‘We always knew it was going to be a tough year with all the players we’ve lost. The All Blacks are still ahead of us, but we started fourth on the IRB rankings list and finished second. Now we have to close that gap and grow as a team.’ (To listen to snapster and Mike you would think we had dropped out of the top 8)

Despite their problems with injuries ahead of those three June Tests against England, they won the series convincingly. Meyer also took a side missing several experienced players to Europe this November, and while the side did not excel in terms of performance, they were deserved winners in all three Tests.

Where the Boks were less than convincing was in the Rugby Championship, where they finished third behind New Zealand and Australia. They scrapped to a disappointing draw with Argentina in Mendoza, and may have won the Test against the All Blacks in Dunedin had they converted more goal-kicking chances (Wha tmay coul dthere possibly be!!! - Ditto the OZ game). However, they were soundly beaten by the Wallabies in Perth (really!!!!!!!), and hammered by the All Blacks in their final game of the tournament in Soweto (That and the Mendoza games being the low points).

Meyer feels that while the year has been a testing one, the injuries have allowed several players an opportunity to stake their claim. Duane Vermeulen, Francois Louw, Adriaan Strauss, and Pat Lambie have certainly shone in the absence of regular or favoured starters like Pierre Spies, Schalk Burger, Bismarck du Plessis, and Johan Goosen.

The Boks will also be stronger when the latter group, as well as the likes of Andries Bekker, Beast Mtawarira, Frans Steyn, Heinrich Brussow, and Bryan Habana return from injury in 2013.

‘It will be wonderful for South African rugby when all the injured players are back,’ said Meyer. ‘The competition [for places] will be immense.’

Add to that the younsters who will be challenging. You cant really fault Meyer's qualified sucess statement unless its to say its too modest a sassessment. He was exrtremely unlucky that Mornes goal kicking imploded as he would be sitting with one loss  - and that due only to fatigue and injuries.

Ever optimistic Beans, but that is not always a bad thing. It is true what you said about Morne Steyn, if he had just kicked as he had done for the rest of his career, then our win/loss ration would have looked a lot better. We probably would have turned our two draws into wins as well.

Beeno

Meyer apparently think that the draw against Argentina and the losses in Perth and Soweto was the low points in our performances - but I think there are three other games where huge under-achievement was discernable - namely the draw against the POMS in PE and the narrow wins against Ireland and Scotland (the latter taking into account that Tonga beat the Scots more convincingly than the Springboks did).

to be fair i would give meyers first year a 5 or a 6 out of 10. the english side in june was woefull to the extreme. the rugby champs we basicly played 2 decent games the dunedin game and the pretoria match where we run up against a injury ravaged aussie side so in retro spect we played very one dimensionally and 2013 will be the real test for meyer and his limp attacking game plan. the irish and scots were nothing short of rubbish and we scraped past them just about so to be honest it could have every easily been different for us.

not one bok game filled me with the type of confidence that we are world beaters. school boy like coaching errors repeat themselves on a weekly basis and the rucks was for a better part of the year a complete joke as meyer was hell bent on his 3 ball carrier mindset. the so called power pack was debunked very very quickly and the meyers and the harpies that really just enjoy rehashing what he says in public to make themselves feel more competant

 Still banging on about "should have", "could have" and "if only" eh Beeno?

I know how you feel mate. If the ABs hadn't lost all those crucial WC games from 1991-2007 then we would have won all the WC championships to date. If only!

You remain a nong.

Right as per normal in this case.   I rate Meyer as 5/10 - 4.5/10 for player selection and 5.5/10 because of  gme plan deficiency.     

Incidentally did you read what I wrote on De Jongh and his play in the English  test.   I followed him all the time when I watched the game again on Monday - because I could not understand why he never got the ball on Saurday - despite quite a number of backline moves.   His positional play was diabolical.    He was away from actual play 90% of the time - be it in defence or on attack.   What do you think about that one?.

your spot on with your views as always mike

www.youtube.com/watch

if on looks at the amount of work de jongh puts in off the ball its nothing short of diabolical. the boks attack lacked width as they are also just obsessed of bashing it up. which is not a bad thing but the quicker ball needs to go wide. the backline also lacked width and speed of pass.