The irksome criticism of our coach

Many of us had a go at Meyer last year. His selections seemed Bool centric and suited to only one game plan. I have to confess I had a few moments early this international season as well. But the facts speak for themselves:

We have won 10 of our last 11 tests. And while we haven't distributed our efforts as well as the ABs.....we have by far the best points differential in the RC. Willie, Etzebeth, JJ and Strauss have been introduced effectively for the player and the team. Great contributors like Louw and F du Preez have been reintroduced under great criticism. Massive contributors like Jean, Habana and Jannie have been retained.....again to howls of abuse. Failures like Greyling, Coetzee, Basson and Mvovo have been removed.

In short the coach has been crisp in his decision making. But even today I read how he must stop being an idiot and introduce Steph and Lood on the YE tour. But hold on, the YE tour is against Wales, France and also Scotland. So the plan is to have these young locks start their first test against France or Wales possibly in wet conditions? And if we lose Meyer would be no good?

The fact is despite the loss of greats like Bakkies, Victor Schalk (for the moment) Fury, and Fransie....this team is better than our RWC team. And they are playing better rugby as a team and as individuals. Kirchner, Habana, Jean, Morne, du Preez, Louw are all playing better rugby. The coach has somerthing to do with that.

We may win or lose tomorrow, the ABs will try to the last. But whatever the result it  wont alter the fact that Meyer has done a great job this year and he deserves a little support. 

Mozart

I grant you that Meyer has made some changes for the better, but there is some further changes that he should make that can only improve the team.  In this regard there are players like Alberts - whose total contribution is near to zero as a loose forward - and there are question marks about Jannie and the lock partners for Etzebeth.   Even Vermeulen has had his ups and downs and will not be the long term answer.

Then there is the question marks as to Morne - Meyer ,must be aware of the problem and is trying to make Morne more effective if you follow his latest discussions on that issue.  The question is will he succeed in changing around a player that since his Under 21 days have never shown anything in playing an attacking style of rugby?   If that was the only problem - there may have been some hope - but Morne's strategic and relieving kicking has become a major problem as well.   In the end I do not think Meyer will succeed in that.

I think in essence there are about three of four changes that would lead to improvement to the team in respect of issues which at present show deficiencies.   These are in the main relating to line out performance, scrumming and ball handling plus ball protection.

I said elsewhere that when those changes are implemented there will not be any question about the Springboks being the number 1 team in the world.   There are at present more talented players coming through than we ever had before and the only way to really succeed is to ensure that truly talented players are utilized in the place of average or under-performing present players.

The question remains - will Meyer make the changes in future - or will he be staying with some incumbents who are deficient in performance?   If he does make changes based on performance - he has a much stronger claim to fame than at present - where we struggle to beat teams that we should beat easily and the All Blacks would be the underdogs when playing the Springboks and not vice versa.

I still think that a loss tomorrow will stem from lack of contribution by the few  deficient players at  present in the team.   However, we will see tomorrow what will happen and see who are performing and who are not.