Players who changed Meyers mind

Ex Supersport

The best Springbok coaches have been those that have been prepared to admit their mistakes and who haven’t been weighed down by blind spots, and in that respect Heyneke Meyer has offered plenty of encouragement to those who want to see South Africa rise back to the top of the rugby pile.

Meyer has been forthright in admitting that he has made many errors, and got a few selections wrong on the way through an often turbulent first year at the helm of the Boks. And on Sunday he admitted before returning home to South Africa that there had been several players he had been wrong about and who had surprised him.

Patrick Lambie, after being backed to start at No 10 in every game of the just completed end of year tour, is of course right at the top of the list of players that Meyer may have a lot more faith in now than he had when he started out back in May.

Without quite saying it in as many words, Meyer made it clear that Lambie would be at the top of the flyhalf queue when the international season starts next year. He said Lambie had done all he had been asked to do when he was selected to wear the Bok No 10 jersey, and his praise for what Lambie did on tour has been a far cry from the message he gave the Sharks player when they first met for a one-on-one interview.

Back then Meyer made it clear that he considered Lambie more of a fullback than a flyhalf, and that Lambie was low down on the list of flyhalves but second on the pecking order when it came to fullbacks.

“I did think Pat was mostly a fullback. I had seen him play as a youngster in that one Currie Cup final (Sharks against Western Province in 2010) when I thought he was very tactically astute, but I thought he had lost a lot of that since then,” said Meyer.

“He hasn’t played much as a flyhalf since then, and I felt that there were big improvements he needed to make in his tactical game. But then I started seeing in training that he could play a good tactical game, and against England at Twickenham he really underlined it. I thought he was brilliant in the wet conditions.

“One of the things I really like about him is that he never panics, and he is so level headed (As I have often said he has the head for the position. Oh that Bok coaches would take more heed to the Beeno oracles!!). One of the problems before was that he was never one of those guys who boasted an 85% success rate in kicking for goal. I wasn’t sure he could handle the pressure of being the frontline place-kicker in a test match. Remember that Frederic Michalak appeared to end the last Super Rugby season as the frontline kicker for the Sharks.”

Meyer said that as he still rated Morne Steyn’s ability, the decision to select Lambie as the first choice flyhalf on tour had been a huge call for him to make.

“He is not a natural flyhalf, but he is getting there and the more he plays there the better he will get. He is great at seeing space and playing players into it. And his goalkicking on tour was good. He showed me that he can kick under pressure. One of the reasons we won at Twickenham was because for the first time this year we ended with a 100% goalkicking record.” (Imagine the score at Dunedin if we had kicke dat 100%!!! - Use ya imagination saSUE 0- if you have any - bwahahhahaha))

While Lambie has earned a thumbs up from the coach, and the Sharks’ decision to play him exclusively as a flyhalf next year will certainly help his cause, the man who really shocked and astounded Meyer this year was actually loose-forward Francois Louw.

After starting the year by invoking the ire of many Bok supporters by ignoring the claims of specialist fetcher Heinrich Brussow (wisely so given Brussouws effectiveness), Meyer eventually acknowledged that his loose trio lacked balance and an SOS was sent to the former WP player, who has been playing for Bath for the past 15 months.

“Francois was definitely the player who totally blew me away. I think we saw in these tests over here in the northern hemisphere that it is not so much about the battle on the ground. In Super Rugby there was a lot of blowing of players for going off their feet when cleaning at the ruck, but I haven’t seen it once in the November tests this year.

“So I don’t know if you need a specialist openside, but Francois brings so much to our game and he has really been phenomenal for us this year. The good thing is that Marcell Coetzee also appears to be learning from Flo, so we should next season have two players who can both play to the ball and carry when needed to.

“Francois also plays really well with Duane Vermeulen, and he is another guy I have been surprised about. I normally like my openside flank to play to the ball, and the blindside flank to be a carrier, and then the No 8 to be a really pacy guy like Ryan Kankowski or Pierre Spies who can contribute in broken play.

“But although Duane is certainly not the quickest No 8, he brings so many things. He sets the lineout drive so well, and he is a great stealer, and works well in tandem with Flo in that regard. He is the perfect player to have at No 8 in the northern hemisphere conditions.”

ON hard up country tests we could play Coetzee at 8 and Vermuelen at 7. I believe that i s an experiment well worth trying. But in NH conditions our loose trio appeared to work well. If however we get in another authorative lock, Bissie at hooker and our props play ups a tad we could still try Coetzee at 8 in the NH conditions. As it was this physically dominant loose trio saved our bacon.

A year or two ago I suggeste that Schalk, Vermuelen and Louw were possibly the  best loose trio in the world. How wrong could I have been- not much!!!! Beeno take a bow!!

Beeno

I sometimes have difficulty in understanding Meyer's line of thinking.   He referred here to Lambie, Louw, Coetzee  and Vermeulen.    In discussing the players he spoke about the following:-

  *    He said Lambie is not a natural flyhalf and implied that Morne Steyn is one.   What does he mean by that?   Does it mean that he expect flyhalfs to mirror Steyn's style of play as that of a natural flyhalf - namely minimum attacking flyhalf play and passing and maximizing kicking as a weapon?    If that be the case it confirms my suspicion that Lambie played strictly a Steyn type of game in the Irish and Scottish test on instruction from Meyer - whilst he had permission to play differently in the English test.  

*      He spoke glowingly about Louw and also that Louw is helping in further developing Coetzee.   I think Louw was grossly underrated previously and I am not surprized that he now seems to be in high favour.   I think the situation was that Brussow was preferred at 6 - but when Louw really got the opportunity he really showed that he is a much better player than Brussow could ever be.   He definitely is stronger and faster than Brussow and I think it will be better for the Stormers to try and get him back to play for them.   They made fools of themselves in letting him go in any event.  

*     Vermeulen is a much more tight type of no 8 than Spies and Kankowski.   He does lack the speed of the latter two - but I believe he is better than them by a wide margin.   Both Spies and Kankowski does not produce enough in certain aspects of play.    Spies in particular is not a strong ball carrier - in space  he looks good (hence the description of him as a "show pony") - but he seems to go to ground in any format of tackle or even before tackles are effectively made - making him less effective as a ball carrier.   Spies also has the tendency to "vanish" during games and is often accused that he plays for short period of times in tests.   The latter cannot be said of Kankowsski - he is constantly an excellent ball player and I believe the selection should be Vermeulen as starting number 8 - with Kankowski as impact player.

Meyer is definitely not going to say negative things in public of players - but his silence on issues and his indication himself that he made selection errors also indicated that he changed his mind about certain players indicate as well that some players are not going to make it in 2013.   Those include De Jongh and Jantjies and I am going to look at De Jongh in particular elsewhere and try and get members inputs on my observations.

Insofar as Jantjies is concerned Meyer virtually from the first test against the POMS had Jantjies on the bench as flyhalf.    He was never used in any of the Pom tests and brought on from the bench whilst Morne Steyn went from bad to worse in that series.   Same applied to the initial Super 15 tests.   When Goosen became available - he replaced Jantjies on the bench and was given playing time in the Perth and Dunedin tests.   When Goosen was selected for the Pretoria test - Jantjies came back onto the bench and actually made it oto the field of play for 6 minutes after it was evident that there was no way the Springboks could  lose.  That was followed by a disastrous performance by Jantjies in the Soweto test - when he came on after Foosen's injury.   That was followed by the Irish and Scottish tests - where Jantjies was not on the bench and the English test - where he was again back on the bench - but never used.    I would say that the whole scenario indicated that Meyer does not trust Jantjies enough to give him playing time in tight matches.   I will also deal with the Jantjies phenomenon elsewhere.

All-in-all I think there are indeed some players that are Meyer certainties for selection and some Meyer is looking at in earnest as to future alternatives .   The certainties to my mind are -

  *    Pietersen, Habana, De Villiers (he is going to be Meyer's choice as captain in 2013), Vermeulen, Louw, Jannie Du Plessis, Etzebeth, Beast and Bismarck Du Plessis.

The players that can play themselves into contention in Super 15 are the following:-

  *   Taute (at full back), Hougaard (at scrummie) and Francois Steyn at center.

The flyhalf position seems to have only three potential candidates, namely -

  *    Goosen, Lambie and Morne Steyn.

There are indeed some younger players that make their mark in Super 15 and come into reckoning in earnest next year - where a similar statement on "changing of his mind" by Meyer can be read about next year.

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that is the thing mike there is not major thinking involved as he constantly flip flops on most of the things that he says and does like any great politician.

meyer was forced to make those changes as he saw he plans not working as it should. next year will be a different year all together for him

 My biggest concern about Meyer has been his player selection- and the stubborness around this.

By admitting his mistakes, he is at least not as stubborn as he seems. Their is hope for him. After another year of SuperXV he should have extra playing resources, just hopefully the injury pool is not as big as it was this year. Also interesting to see if both Lambie and Goosen are available. Goosen in my mind is still the better flyhalf although they should share the responsibilities between them to cover injuries and player rotation for squads etc. 

I think Morne could be finishes as is the case for Jnatjies. 

next year will a tough year if meyer does not show some progession in terms of game play and player selection. players like the ultra robotic zane and hougaard will get shown up badly.

i agree sharkbok but there is some fundamentals that meyer has overlooked this year some major ones and next year will be the real test. this year his brand of rugby was easy to read so as they say lets wait and see.