I have read this one - and realized that the ideas of DF is sound in some respects and totally unrealistic about others. Lets look at his comments and see what the actual position is:-
"Another problem for our rugby is the affect of Super rugby itself. A game based on speed, lack of line integrity, a lower regard for set piece quality and frantic running."First of all his comments on Super Rugby is basically flawed. Super Rugby is played and based on changes made to the laws of rugby in 2008 to make the game based on scoring of tries and less dependent on penalties - on other words on more thinking and flowing rugby. All the countries - also the NH teams - in the world has adjusted to that norm - bar South Africa where the system was never introduced by coaches. The result was that through the years our competitiveness in Super Rugby and in tests showed a drastic decrease.
"This World Cup was too soon for the Boks. In spite of what the media told you, we do not have a strong enough pool of players to build a #1 team. The coaching is there, the right structures have been put in place but the pieces are not all there."
This is a very questionable statement. What is clear is that Meyer had a period of more than 4 years to design a proper player planning structure and wasted it by lack of proper player planning. The end result is that we have an aged team without any present performance ability. The case is similar in respect of the other SA Super 15 coaching structures and the SA conference side of the competition became poorer and poorer. The result was that three of the Super 15 coaches (White, Ludeke and Coetzee) was told to hand in their resignations or be fired. Meyer's turn is coming soon.
What happened in practice is that Meyer in 2012 decided on a core of about 20 players for the 2015 WC and had to add only about 11 or 12 players to that core. He remained loyal to that core of players - all hangovers from the disastrous 2011 WC campaign - and kept them going, even when their performances deteriorated to a farcical level. For the rest - with the exception of Etzebeth, Marcel Coetzee and Le Roux - he never gave other players a chance to settle into the team and gain experience on test level. Draad elsewhere evaluated Meyer's selections since 2012 and found that there was no real player development programme in place and the result is the present disastrous squad.
It is to be noted that 10 of the players in the debacle on Saturday were in the failed 2011 WC campaign. None of them performed up to an acceptable level and that has been the case in tests played over the past year - where the performance record of the Springboks were so bad that we slipped down from no 2 to no 5 in the world rankings.
Most observers in the media is clear on the issue - there was no player planning in evidence and there were serious deficiencies in coaching as well. Whenever Meyer tried to introduce changes such changes were negated because the generation of players he carried on with was unable to adjust to the changes in the game Meyer tied to introduce and made a mess of it.
Then we have the myth in criticizing certain younger players. The problem here is that DF has a particular support preference for certain players and those players who are a threat to the selection of his favourite players are demonized by him. His favourites includes failed players like Zane Kirchner, Juan de Jongh, Francois Steyn, Morne Steyn, Willem Alberts and Matfield. So everybody in opposition to those are never any good and his comments on them should be treated with the disdain it deserves. For example - his constant campaign against De Allende is farcical and he has no idea how silly it is to state that Frans Steyn is a better center than De Allende. Another example is the reference to locks and one can accept De Jager is in that category. De Jager shows what a lock should be like - not like Matfield who is not performing in Tight 5 play at all, reducing the Tight 5 to a Tight 4.
Be it as it may - the Springbok squad for the 2015 WC campaign is in shambles because of Meyer's poor player planning and his total dependence on reputation selections without any regard to present performance. If Meyer had a proper player development programme and not total dependence on reputation players and players past their sell-by date we would have been ready for the present WC - we are not ready and the fault lies with the coach - nobody else.
Lets conclude with what James Small said about coaching:-
"Small concluded with a subtle dig at coach Heyneke Meyer, writing:
"Congrats Eddie Jones.. Just shows what a proper coach can do!!"As well as what was one of five talking points after the game on Saturday:-
:"It’s a bit ironic that the most experienced Springbok team in history also suffered the worst result in their history. Coach Heyneke Meyer has been criticised for his continual backing of older, more experienced players. He brought Victor Matfield in out of retirement, basically assured Jean de Villiers a starting spot if he could overcome a horrific knee injury and picked players who played very little rugby this year. Sadly, it appears to have backfired badly on the Bok mentor."
The above says it all.
