At 16.00 today (Sunday 15 April), Heyneke Meyer is set to release the names of his support team, but there may be a surprise in store……
It has been well documented that Heyneke Meyer wants to use the services of his ex-Bulls playmates, Johann van Graan, John McFarland, Ricardo Loubscher en Basil Carzis. For this privilege, he has asked the powers that be at SARU to advance this months pocket money to the tune of about R3,5 million so that can pop down to the local Bull-ders Warehouse to purchase them.
It is rumoured that the Bulls are willing to release the 4 musketeers, but they don’t come cheap. Apparently they would like, R1,5 million each for van Graan and McFarland, and R250 000 for Loubscher and Carziz. After a bit of haggling, it seems that the Bulls have got their way, and Meyer will be announcing his team today.
It is also widely known that Meyer has wanted to use the services of Matfield as a line out specialist for the upcoming test series. It now seems, according to JJ Harmse, writing in the Rapport, that Meyer is attempting to drag Matfield kicking and screaming, out of retirement for the 3 matches to not only play, but to captain the side too.
Added to this, he has said that the overseas players will be legible too, so that players like Du Preez, Rossouw, Steenkamp and Frans Steyn may join the fray.
I have no problem with that last part, if, the players deserve their place, but Matfield? Come on, please.
The man may be the greatest lock to have ever played the game, and he may be a genius in that position, and he may be a man mountain, but he retired after the world cup for heavens sake. He may well be fit – apparently he still runs with the Bulls during training sessions, but if he hasn’t played any competition rugby since the World Cup, and he won’t be playing any either, before the test series, how can he possibly be expected to play at his very best. What a daft idea. What of match fitness and match sharpness? They don’t come from the practice field – or rather from the side of the field, telling others what to do! Don’t kid me and tell me that anyone can just come in from the cold and play the way he was prior to his departure. He will be pushing nearly a year out of the game by the time the series comes round. Look how rusty the current players were coming into the season, and how long it took some of them to shake off some of that rustiness. By all means use him as a specialist – there probably isn’t anyone better, but please, not in the team. Trust me Mr Meyer, Matfield will be ridiculed by all and sundry if he plays again – the naysayers will be just waiting to pounce.
We have a wrath of locks that could, and should take his place, and these guys are the future. We have great leadership potential for a captain – Du Preez, Spies, de Villiers, Burger (if fit), Strauss, etc.
So, my final word, Mr Meyer, let the man be, don’t let him live with ghosts for the rest of his life. Use him wisely in the specialist role, and trust yourself that you can put together a team that can take on the world with out having to resort to the museum relics.
And to Mr Matfield, you were the greatest lock ever to play for South Africa in my humble opinion, please, please, don’t change that.
20@ grootblousmile:
Sounds like Paul Anthony has been doing really well coaching the juniors so maybe its his time to get the step up to the senior team, don’t really know too much about him is forwards or backline his speciality or all round coaching like Ludeke? They say that these coaches who are going to the Boks will still be available to help at Bulls through Super 15 but I have my doubts that they will be around much for the 2nd half of this years Super 15, once SARU are paying their salaries then they will not be as freely available and I guess can’t be partial to the Bulls anymore, will be interesting to get some feedback on the fine print of the agreement between Bulls and SARU regarding this. So I think we need to get new guys in fast. Maybe get on to the hierarchy at Loftus Gbs and see if they will be interested in sounding out Geech, from what I hear he is no longer involved at Bath rugby so could be available and have been thinking for a while we could use him as a consultant so now would be a good time to get him on board even if just as a stop gap measure, Ian Mc Geehan has great pedigree and could help with players and even mentor any coaches Bulls may want to promote from within, what do you think man?
30@ superBul:
Howzit superBul thanks man will have a look at that later, will be interesting. For now time to get moving is amper al laat vir werk, have a goood day that side.
Me also of to the salt mine.
Will follow this conversation tonight, have a great day
27@ superBul:
Super,
It would not be a masterstroke by HM bringing Matfield back. Infact it would be a seriously stupid thing to do. What will it say to Spies? That he has no confidence in him being captain? Or what message will it send to Kruger? That he feels he is not good enough? Kruger has been the best saffa 5 this S15 and Eben has been our best 4. Those two should automaticlly slot in as the Boks Locks.
Where will Kruger play from here on then if Victor comes back? Does Kruger have to make way for Victor? Cause he sure as heck will have to play S15 to get fit enough to play TEST rugby boet. I personally think it won’t happen. Meyer will not select a brand spanking new team either but will keep the core of players that are still playing S15 in the Bok team. I feel he will make Spies captain and show he has faith in him. If he does not and brings Victor back I then have my doubts about Meyer being our Bok Coach. It was one thing for PdV to bring John and Victor back but they were STILL playing rugby at the time and both were 5 years younger then too. This is a whole lot different when a player has retired and has not played rugby for almost a year.
Think this will be Meyers Bok team:
1 Beast/Steenkamp
2 Bissie
3 Jannie
4 Etsebeth
5 Kruger
6 Brussow
7 Burger (vice Capt)
8 Spies (capt)
9 Fdp or Hougaard
10 Morne
11 Habs
12 Frans
13 Fourie
14 JPP
15 Lambie
He won’t venture far from that side for the England tests. If Burger is still injured think it will be Alberts there then. Beast is back in training as of today. So either Beast or Steenkamp at LH.
34@ Puma:
meant – automatically.
Man need to check my posts before submitting. Just don’t have the time to do that and lazy to check it. If there are any other typos just ignore it…hehe
I personally would play Hougie ahead of FdP also probably De Jongh, Sadie or even Whitehad ahead of Fourie. Whitehead is having a outstanding S15 though is playing inside centre, but his natural position is outside. Meyer won’t select JPP at 13 he will keep him at 14 so no use putting JPP’s name at 13.
Also Coenie from Cheetahs is playing some damn fine rugby. He just may get selected in the squad. Would like to see Goosen also given a chance even if playing off the bench.
Also with Meyer being our Bok Coach, no matter how brilliant Goosen or Lambie are playing at fh Morne will be our Bok 10. Lambie though is equally good at fb.
31 @ Bullscot:
Paul Anthony might be a good idea… he’s a bit of an anomaly for me.. the “Ingelsman” at the Bulls who seems to fit in so well.
Ian Mc Geehan… I’m not sure whether you mean for him to be used as a consultant to the Bokke or at the Bulls. Look I think Geech is and has been a marvelous coach… also at the B & I Lions, but maybe SA should somehow rather look at luring Gert Smal back from Ireland and involve him back in coaching structures in SA… maybe he’s the right man for the job which needs to be done in Pretoria, and ultimately to succeed Heyneke one day at the Bokke.
Rumours flying around today are that Matfield may don a Cheetahs or a Sharks jersey to get some match practice. HM has said that if he can get him match fit, and out of his SS contract, he will be his captain if he can’t use FdP.
My question is this – if he is not good enough to don a Bulls jersey, then how can he be good enough to play for the Boks? He is with the Bulls at the moment, surely he should take Krugers place? He must be better than Kruger if he’s going to take his place in the Bok line up.
As for FdP, HM is just going down the PdV route now, choosing his captain first and then his team. What good id either FdP or VM really going to bring to the team? If HM doesn’t believe in Kruger or Bekker, they’ll be on that gravy train to Europe faster than the ink will dry on the contracts, you mark my words.
I just hope it is all just media speculation and hype, because if HM insists on using the “old guard” and not investing in a young dynamic team for the future, then, for me he is just falling into the PdV trap, and I will lose all respect for him before we even start.
As far as the Rassie issue goes, as I understand it, he will be the high performance general manager, and as such, it will be his job to bring through future Boks. I don’t think he will be to heavily involved in the day to day Bok squad.
34 – 37 @ Puma:
Damn but you are quick to judge Heyneke Meyer….
Who says Meyer won’t pick a Lambie (I would not pick him at flyhalf but rather at Fullback) or Johan Goosen.
Heyneke Meyer is quoted as saying if he had to choose 2 players of equal standing, he would probably pick the non-Bulls player, to show he has no bias.
He’s on no ego trip or Bulls ego trip, for that matter… if he had been he would have left the Bulls coaching structures alone so as not to disrupt the Bulls side. His focus is clearly putting SA first…
Look at him intelligently holding Springbok camps now already in the Fanchise bye-weekends – 3 Training camps… firstly getting to know the Lions and Cheetahs players, in depth, in the first camp, then the Bulls and Sharks lot combined and lastly the Stormers lot.
Personally, Jannie du Plessis would not nearly make my Bok Team or even extended squad at the moment… he has been super shit this season.
Schalk Burger would not make my squad or team either, right now… but maybe Kolisi or Jacques Potgieter or Joshua Strauss would.
Fourie du Preez won’t make my current side either and neither would Jaque Fourie… we just do not know how up to par the Japanese League is at all.
Regarding Big Vic… I think we all agree that he needs to be the Bokke lineout specialist coach… in a coaching capacity. I think that is beyond question.
But providing he is fit and has played one or 2 Super Rugby matches (in which he succeeds to reach the required standards) I do not see a problem in him leading the Bokke for 3 games against England, whilst at the same time mentoring Etsebeth, Juandre Kruger, Flip van der Merwe and even Langek Bekker (the lazy centre)… and helping to pave the way forward for them.
Look, if Heyneke had a month or even 3 weeks between Super Rugby and the 1st England Test, I would have said… no, just get Matfield as Lineout coach and not as player, but the very fact that Heyneke basically has mere days to work with and hone a Bokke side for a series against a side just ONE down from the Bokke on the IRB rankings list, tells me that one goes for Bok experience and Bok pedigree as the interim measure, and then gently phase in the youngsters and future stars. Personally I would not have selected Matfield as player / captain, but I also don’t blame Heyneke Meyer for how he sees it or intends it to run.
Heyneke Meyer is a guy who made it clear (about Super Rugby) that he is of the opinion that one needs 12 or 13 Springboks and solid Experience to stand a chance of winning the Super Rugby Title… in other words he values experience very, very highly… that is who he is, that is how he thinks, that’s how he works.
On the other hand, he is known for his talent identification and bringing that talent through to absolutely shine, so his long term vision would undoubtably include brining a nice mix of youngsters right through!
Heyneke Meyer is methodical, he is conservative yet innovative, he is strong.. and obviously has a clear vision in mind.
Have faith man… you guys go off on a wild tangent so bloody easily in stead of analizing the man, looking at what he’s done before… and how he’s managed to build an empire.
Judge him on his results!
Consider that he is a clear and deep thinker, who makes intelligent and coherent decisions!
39 @ Just For Kicks:
One of the REASONS for Heyneke Meyer’s 3 Training camps to be held, is to INFORM players what to expect, WHERE they stand and where they need to IMPROVE.
He has the uncanny ability to be convincing and to get people on the same page, so under him I do not see people earmarked to Bokke honors moving abroad so easily.
To be honest, I don’t believe Langbek Bekker is our prime No 5 lock in SA at the moment, whereas I believe Eben Etsebeth is our prime No 4 lock at present…. so if Parkiepiel wants to replace Matfield, he better up his game and workrate where it counts up front (not in the backline)… and then also get past Juandre Kruger, who has been putting his own hand up big time for selection.
Would I use Bakkies or Danie Rossouw or Fourie du Preez or Jaque Fourie or Gurthro Steenkamp this year… no probably not, unless forced to due to a bad run of unexpected injuries…
42@ grootblousmile:Agree 100% on Langbek, this year, his form hasn’t been good, therefore used Krugers name before him in my previous post. Having said that, he has been improving, and the last match, was, in my book, well on his way back up. He has come back from a long injury, and has had to play himself back into form. We all know how good he was playing prior to his last injury. With all due respect to Matfield, I think he may find it an uphill struggle too, and may well need a fair few games to get back to form too. Also, if truth be said, Matfields form at the end of his career wash,t the greatest either, so coming back may just not be so easy.
43 @ Just For Kicks:
Matfield got the award for Man Of The Match in his last Test for the Bokke… our World Cup exit.
There was nothing wrong with his form on that day.
44@ grootblousmile:There were 29 kakker players on the field. hahaha
morning guys
seem like the matfield issue is likely to cause quite a stir leading up to the england tests.
now
matfield has been out of rugby for 8 or so months, but as far as i can gather he’s been actively involved at the bulls … whether its active enough to make a comeback within the next few weeks remain to be seen.
how much of an issue will the fact that he “retired” be and how much of a change of mindset will it require to come back into the game again? will it require more of a mindset change than someone coming back from a serious injury? i dont think so. please keep in mind that matfield (according to reports last year already) said that he may consider playing again if hmeyer became bok coach. o think with that in mind he may have been more active that most of us tend to believe.
would it be a good thing if he went to either the cheetahs or sharks (according to the media)? yes, i think so .. it will allow him to necessary gametime without denying it to kruger.
can he get back to his best (and in a short amount of time)? remain to be seen
is he too old? .. remain to be seen
whats my take on this issue?
well, i agree with those who talk about the message sent to younger players when you bring someone out of retirement
but
i can also see the need for bringing back someone with matfield’s experience. yes, both our best locks at the moment are youngsters, but would you really want to give both of them their first starts at international level with only a fe days available to work on them if you were the coach?
Lets make a list of top Sportsmen who’ve come back from retirement, next to their names. I’ll start with two:
Lance Armstrong – Disastrous
Michael Schumaker – Disastrous for 2 years
Keep ’em rolling, boys
ek het gehoor HM is oppad Ierland toe om met Stefan Terblanche te onderhandel …. hou hierdie spasie dop.
As Vic wil terugkom, laat dit tog net in een trui wees, die blou. Ek het amper vergeet, of die pienk !
Juandre Kruger is die toekoms, maar hy moet ook gerus word, hoekom nie ? Steenekamp is OK, maar nie in Vic en Juandre se klas nie. Sal nie goed wees as Vic vir ‘n ander franchise speel nie, veral nie sekeres nie. 😉
47: WP/Stormers teams, 2002 – ?
michael jordan … came back to lead the Chicago Bulls to 3 consecutive Championship titles … and that after a 2 year retirement!!
bdb @ 49
lmao.
cant remember who said this, but here goes;
“possibly the only harder thing in sport than making a successful comeback is knowing when not to come back”
46@ Ashley:
Howzit Ash,
I think if a player is good enough no matter how young he is he should get selected. Remember Frans Steyn played in wc 2007 at the age of 19 and was superb there and Lambie played in the last wc at the age of 20 and was one of our best Boks in that world cup.
Also have to remember S15 is not far off test rugby. Etzebeth and Kruger are playing against the very players that they will play against later this year in The Rugby Championship (if Meyer selects them) which I think he should and definitely for the England test as well.
Etzebeth is the best 4 Lock in the S15 never mind just our conference. So why must he wait to get selected? Kruger is best 5 Lock in our conference too. We should be building another world class lock partnership right now rather than later.
Another thing that worries me is Victor might just want Bakkies to come back and play as well. That would be totally unfair on Etzebeth that is playing outstanding rugby.
puma @ 53
point noted!!
ok, lets put it like this … i’m willing to give hmeyer the benefit of the doubt given his trackrecord and his ability to bring youngsters through the system. i’m just worried about the amount of time available to him before that 1st test and the effect of that last few derbys on our player resources!! its gonna be one heck of a introduction to international level for him and his coaching staff!!
Yeehaa, harvest finally finished harvest, pressed the last tank of red, just a bit of barrel filling then thats it. At last I’ll be able to focus on rugby-talk – Hahahaha
Bulls flank Dewald Potgieter will be out for four to six weeks after tearing his hamstring against the Lions, wish, poor guy, more bad luck
see that the stormers have sent for quinn roux as replacement for andries bekker. for those of you who just went: ‘quinn who?” … well ive got news for you … roux was judged better than etsebeth and was assured of a starting place before injury ruled him out!!
hoe lykit? julle bulle dalk vi andries hê? julle kan hom ve’niet kry en hy kan nog senter ook speel (amper soos matfield, lmao)
#58
jeez as ek sien hoeveel jong talent besig is om deur te kom raak ek sommer so opgewonde dat ek eers moet stilsit tot die opgewondenheid gesak het … fok, kannie wag vir die internasionale seisoen nie!! lmao
57@ Ashley:Will be great to see him in a Stormers jersey. They say Etsabeth should be fit again, so Quin Roux will probably play off the bench. Looking forward to the Reds match, should be a goodie, especially if Quade Cooper is back
57: Roux is ‘n baie goeie speler, wonder waar is hy gebore en het leer rugby speel ?
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