Mozart stated that we have not been able to replace the 2007 "greats" in the team with players who are good performers. THat may be so to an extent - but the problem is not really as easy as all that. In the period after WC2007 - the team was run by the so-called greats and De Villiers as coach did the minimum. There was basically no team renewal in that period and substantial changes only came about after Meyer took over.
Meyer himself took some decisions that was really dubious - too often he ran back to some of the 2007 "greats - mostly of poor quality by the time he selected them - instead of building up a team of younger and better players. When he did make changes - most of the time the players got one or two chances and Meyer then panicked and made further changes - not really giving players a chance to settle in and start producing the goods in a new and higher environment. The result is that we have reached a stage where we are in deep trouble.
Lets look at the weak spots in the team:-
The wings
This year we actually only played four players on the wing - namely Habana, Pietesen, Hendricks and Mvovo.
Habana did nothing to write home about and the question is - has he reached a stage of spirallig down after a magnificent career? What is clear is that part of Habana's problem was he poor functioning of our center combination. Be it as it may - he still was the best wing we had and can still be of use. However, we are on thin ground here.
Pietersen was really of no value as a wing - his lack of pace (worse after playing in Japan) - makes him a liability rather than an asset.
Hendricks was looking good when he was put into space and he did score scome good tries. On the negative side - his defense and his ability to handle high balls - made him a serious liability in the team.
Mvovo is out of the league insofar as test wings are concerned.
So what is to be done? The problem was there never was any real player identification done with Meyer as coach. He basically stuck with Habana and Pietersen on the wing - and with a decline in performances by both this year - now has a major problem on his hands.
What can be done. There are good players on the wing in SA and it is time to take stock and look at performances in Super 15 - thus identifying the best talent available. Very late in the day for that - but I think they should look basically at four players and try them out on the wing. Those are JJ Engelbrecht - a natural wing - Senatla - Jordaan and Van Wyk of the Stormers.
Problem is that at least two of the four players is unlikely to get any playing time on the wing for their Super 15 team - so we are in serious trouble in finding three acceptable wings for the WC.
Centers
The position as inside center was fairly settled - the choice persistently was De Villiers - with Serfontein as his back-up. De Villiers was good in 2012 and 2103 - but showed serious signs of declinie in performances this year. His injury yesterday is very likely to be career-ending. He often enough had knee injuries - the last one before yesterday was in June - and at his age recovery from a serious knee injury as bad as the one yesterday is highly unlikely.
Meyer is now down to two options - either playing Serfontein or De Allende as inside center. One can only hope he does not fall back on the disastrous Francois Steyn - who was disastrously poor at center for the Sharks this year.
However, the problem case really is at 13. Here Meyer's selections was like a revolving door. As BB pointed out selewhere we had 9 players at outside centers since 2012. Most lasted no more than 2 games - the exceptions being Serfontein and Fourie. Serfontein essentially is not an outside center and has never been one before this year - when a panicking Meyer selected him as a stand-in since Fourie was not available. Fourie played in that position last year and was a disaster from an attacking perspective. He lost pace badly and that to continue with him to the WC would have been a serious problem. His retirement is a blessing in disguise.
If I was a selector - I would stick with Serfontein at 12 and De Allende at 13 - looking at a back-up for theose two players in Super 15.
Flyhalf
There is no real problem at 10 - a problem can ponly arise if Meyer decides on the return of the sub--par More Steyn to the squad.
Scrumhalf
This is a problem area. Hougaard failed in 2012 and was brought back as a back-up scrummie this year. For the rest Meyer used Du Preez and Pienaar as scrummies and when Hougaard failed brought in Reinach.
Du Preez had one good match since his return last year - for the rest he produced zip in any games and was even in some cases questionable and flat. Same with Pienaar. Reinach lookd very good at times - but is inexperienced.
It is indeed doubtful whether Du Preez and Pienaar are options - Du Preez had virtually no rugby in 2014 and Pienaar is colourless at scrummie. Bearing in mind his injury this year I have a suspision that Du Preez is going to do a Fourie on Meyer - ie retire from international rugby.
Pienaar is not really a house on fire - his service could be disastrous. So the situation has arisen that we are back to Reinach and a few of the youngsters - none of whom is experienced - to fill the void0.
Blindside Flank
Here we have another Meyer lottery. He started off with Alberts - who has been extrmely limited as a flank forward and showed near to zero in performance - whether on Super 15 or test level. A clumsy and witless player of low work rate - who are poor in ball skills as well.
For the rest Meyer tred Burger, Juan Smith, Arno Botha and Mohoje in that position. Botha got injured and had virtually no rugby since that injury in June 2013. Burger showed some class in the position, Mohoje and Juan Smit were disastrous failures.
To continue with Alberts would be an outright disaster. One can only hope that Arno Botha gets back and Burger keeps up performing. Then we have to look at players like Labuschagne, Rhodes, Elstadt and a few other Super 15 franchise players to find a solution to the problem.
Locks
Meyer made a complete hash of his lock selections. bringing in Bakkies was a foul up and keeping him in the mix after his early failures was a bad sign. He finally made a serious mistake with Matfield - not realising that Matfield would weaken the Tight 5 to the level he actually managed to do.
We now have a situation that we have to look for a strong enough lock combination to rebuilt what has been lost this year. So we have Etzebth and the back up should come fromn Du Toit, Van der Merwe, De Jager and Willemse.
Any continuation with Matfield will be sekf-destructive.
The above basically indicate problems in 5 positions - namely wings, centers, scrumhalf, no 7's and at lock.
What we can expect though is that Meyer as a coach will not find the right combinations and as a result would end up with a losing team in the WC.
