Heyneke Meyer
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer has warned his team they will need to be at their best if they are to keep their unbeaten record under his management in the Northern Hemisphere intact.
Meyer singled out the team’s first fixture against Ireland as a crucial one to kick off the team’s four week tour, and one which is the most tricky of all their fixtures.
While England has been singled out before as the fixture the Boks are likely to hold in the highest esteem, especially with next year’s Rugby World Cup being played there, the Boks know they cannot focus on the Twickenham showdown before getting past the tricky Irish, who have been a team that has plagued them at this time of year under previous coaches.
The Boks didn’t play Ireland when they went north last year, but the Irish will still be smarting from coming amazingly close to beating the All Blacks in Dublin last year, as the New Zealanders snatched the game away from them in the dying seconds to end their season unbeaten.
SuperSport
The Boks will know all too well how a poor opening performance can set the trend for the tour, and with chances to experiment getting less and less ahead of the World Cup, it is imperative that the team kick off the tour on a high note.
That’s why Meyer has underlined the difficult nature of the Irish clash, and the tour in general. In contrast to the running rugby seen in the Castle Lager Rugby Championship, the tour north is more likely to be a grind in conditions that the Boks will need to master ahead of their massive task next year.
“I don’t like losing at all,” Meyer said when asked if he sees the unbeaten record as one to protect at all costs.
“We have a proud record and we haven’t lost a game there. But we have a proud record and this is probably the toughest tour we have faced to the Northern Hemisphere. I truly believe Ireland is an unbelievable team, they were unlucky not to beat the All Blacks last year.
“They’ve got a great coaching staff, a lot of in-form players and their defence is great. They’ve got a good kicking game in those conditions. England are a tough team to play. In the last four games, we’ve won three by a few points and drawn one. They will always be tough.
“We’ve lost to lesser teams in the past, so Italy will be tough and Wales will be a tough challenge with a new look side. I’m confident but realistic as well. It will be tough to win all four, we’ve already had an unbelievable season. It is our goal. We’re going to have to be better than in the Castle Lager Rugby Championship if we are going to win all four.”
With a bigger squad of 36 making the tour, some players may not make it onto the field, but the opportunity for Meyer to work with them ahead of the World Cup will go a long way in determining how much value he places in them going forward.
Add to this the fact the Boks will be losing their European-based players for the last fixture of the tour against Wales, and it makes sense for Meyer to use the opportunity to work with the entire group of players in the month they are away from home.
“Before next year’s World Cup there are only four test matches, as there are no incoming tours. This is the last opportunity we have to look at every single player. There are a lot of guys who are really unlucky not to be here and at least 10 more could have been chosen,” Meyer explained.
“There are four games, and in the last game we will not have our overseas-based players available, so we will have to fly in one or two more positions. What is difficult is that you can’t fly in a guy on a Monday who you’ve never worked with, and he must play in a test match. A lot of the positions we’ve covered is in positions we may need guys to play. The main thing is that there isn’t a big difference between the players and this is the last chance to work with them.”
With all this in mind, the Boks aren’t likely to stray too far from the team that beat the All Blacks, although they may tweak one or two positions. Coenie Oosthuizen and Johan Goosen’s return to the squad may see them get a spot on the bench while Ruan Pienaar – if declared fit – will be likely to return to his starting role at No 9.
“We want to go on from where we left off. We had a great finish to the Rugby Championship, but a week is a long time for an international coach. We will probably go with more or less the same team, perhaps one or two small changes, but we will have to have some sort of continuity going into the first test match.”
The Boks will leave South Africa for Dublin in two groups, with some of the management flying Friday night and the bulk of the group on Saturday. They face Ireland in their first clash next Saturday in Dublin.
@ gunther: But with free wireless….. 😉
@ gunther: Au Contraire…
The little Diego Dutchmen had a cash bar……
Klippies in abundance but no Remy to be seen….
@ Stormersboy:welcome back Stormer.
Been waiting for you to reappear. You had The whole Jake white appointment down right from the start.
I was never a fan of his but you summed it up perfectly right from the start. His hubris was always going to get in the way regardless of how good or bad a coach he is.
@ Stormersboy:
Klippies is basically Portuguese for Cognac.
All this talk of high veld trash makes me miss Fernly.
😆
John Galt wrote:
Thanks JG
To be fair, it should have been obvious to most, including John. Still, now that you have Brendan back in the fold all’s well that ends well. Was in Durbs last week, and the guys are looking forward to next year, some really good youngsters identified during the CC (Esterhuizen, Terra etc) who will be good for depth with the returning Japanese and Bok players. The Sharks will be back to fight again. As will the rest of us.
gunther wrote:
I should have known. I made do with a few Black Label Quarts.
@ Stormersboy:
When in Rome…..
Hi guys
@ Victoriabok:
Howzit Vicky.
😆
Hi Gunther, I see all the guys are back
The SARugbymag site is crap, all the Cape Crusaders are ruling the roost there
Gunther, I see Brok is leaving Province, he’s joining Newport Dragons
The Taffs were in dire need for a Prophalf 😛
He wrote his own cheque
http://www.sport24.co.za/Rugby/CurrieCup/WP-say-farewall-to-front-row-trio-20141030
gunther wrote:
You can have Vicky
There’ll be lotsa takers for Cristina
Shrien D can have Juan Antonio
But I’ll settle for Maria Elena … 4sure!
@ Angostura:
Hey Boet, nobody can have me, I’m not into that
And I’m sure Gunther ain’t either
10 @ nortie:
11 @ MacroBok:
i agree with norts…
to compare hooper and jannie is not too logical… imo… hooper makes a helluva lot more tackles than jannie… i wonder what percentage jannie misses compared to hooper…?
i’ve mentioned before to some mates on RT that i used to keep spreadsheet stats of our players for 2010, 2011 & 2012… (yeah… sad, i know… but too many people throw ‘stats’ around as facts and have no clue what the stats really are)
however many stats are meaningless… especially comparatively… because some guys play more minutes than others… so most of my stats i would also work out ‘per minutes played’…
as far as tackles go… i worked out tackles per minutes played… or in other words one tackle every how many minutes…
jannie over those 3 years… made a tackle every 17 minutes…
guys like wp nel and brok harris (and jinga ninja when he came along) would make a tackle every 6 minutes… which is right up there with the good loosies…
so yeah… norts is dead right… jannie has never put his body on the line… and so remains injury free…
jannie scrums… (sometimes…) and that’s about all he does… besides pout and lecture refs when he catches his breath… but basically has cruised on his brother’s jersey and should’ve been bulleted long ago… imo…
it’s become a huge problem because tightheads like wp nel and others… have all gone overseas because they knew they would never get a look-in over jannie…
Victoriabok wrote:
😀
I was referring to “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”, not to you – have you seen that movie? – not to be missed!
@ Angostura:
Yes I have, hard to pick between Scarlett and Penelope, I think the former’s cup size swings it in her favour
@ ufo:
hey dont get me wrong, I am not saying Jannie is a world class player. he will rarely make a “team of the weak” and will never be a “player of the tournament”. The point I was trying to make is that we are not really knee deep in tightheads.
With Jannie there there is at least some consistency or we would have a new tighthead every one and a half tests, also there is a sort of combination they have going with beast and bissie.
The fact that coenie is there again is debatable in my opinion, as Charles said, coenie will never be a (quality) tighthead.
I was also making the point that it has not been from lack of searching for a replacement for jannie willie nillie because any potential players that gets earmarked lose form or get injured.
wernerKruger has been there, pat cilliers, nyakane, marcell vd merwe, malherbe, coenie, adriaanse etc have all been tried but are either sicknotes or hasbeens.
Basically as charles stated what if jannie gets injured and we are forced to play coenie for 70mins? as far as I can see we almost have no other choice.
That said I cant wait to see Julian have a go to see what he has, give him a healthy go at it, but remain realistic.
@ MacroBok:
I agree with you, Jannie manage at tighthead but that’s it
It’s a shame Marcel got injured
Coenie ain’t a tighthead, he barely can scrum at loosehead anymore. They really messed him up by moving him around
47 @ MacroBok:
cool macro…
yeah… charles knows his stuff… especially in the forwards and front row… and i agree with all his points above…
no doubt it’s a real problem for us now… created over the last 6 or 7 years by the frustrations of other tightheads knowing that jannie would always get the nod…
coenie is definitely not the answer at prop either… if i was coenie i’d slim down and start playing flank…
yeah… we’re all excited about how julian goes… he is going to be supported by every rugby fan in the country… we’re all going to be willing him to have an exceptional tour…!
I don’t buy the Jannie is the only option debate. He brings so little to the game that any of the props mentioned above would have been better. Even Brok Harris, who I know people love to mock, but when you look at his scrumming it is no worse than Jannie, and when you consider his work rate, tackle rate and more importantly tackle completion rate (over 90%) he would have made a much greater contribution to the game.
But Brok aside, Pat, WP Nel (who can fly in from overseas just like FLO, Bryan, Morne, Ruan et al have been doing) Lourens, Dreyer (going forward) or Malherbe could have done the job, even on rotation.
It’s not as if we dominate on scrums in the first place and Jannie has the dubious distinction f being the player with the lowest tackle completion rate in the Champions tournament this year. That coupled with one of the lowest tackle attempt rates makes him a non contributor on the field and a passenger, plain and simple.
50 @ Stormersboy:
perfectly put Stormersboy…!!
Stormersboy wrote:
Malherbe looks like the answer, but he needs to loose weight (imo) … perhaps Tim Noakes can prescribe some extra fatty oxtail, but without rice, mash or bread, (& instead served on a bed of fatty mince, of course) 🙂
And Redelinghuys & Dreyer should be his back-ups
That’ll sort Bok tighthead dilemma
Stormersboy wrote:
Malherbe looks like the answer, but he needs to lose weight (imo) … perhaps Tim Noakes can prescribe some extra fatty oxtail, but without rice, mash or bread, (& instead served on a bed of fatty mince, of course) 🙂
And Redelinghuys & Dreyer should be his back-ups
That’ll sort Bok tighthead dilemma
@ Victoriabok:
They’re going to miss Brokstar.
😆
@ Angostura:
I see someone on moneyweb described Noaksies diet as a Ponzi scheme.
😆
@ gunther:
It works well, I lost 22 lbs in three months
@ gunther:
yip, I noticed
My doctor told me a while back that I need to lose 5kg’s so I went and got circumcised.
Job done.
gunther wrote:
Methinks Magnus took a haircut on his food industry shares
Stormersboy wrote:
Are you bragging or moaning?
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