Heyneke Meyer & Jean de Villiers
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer said that his team’s defeat to Ireland taught them some valuable lessons about what it takes to win in Europe.
Despite dominating the set-pieces, the Boks could not find a way to turn that pressure into points as a stream of basic errors saw them slump to a 29-15 defeat in Dublin on Saturday.
It was their first defeat in the Northern Hemisphere since going down to Scotland in 2010, and although he was disappointed with the result, Meyer said that there were some positives for his team to take from the match a year out from the World Cup.
“We are sorry that we let our country and our supporters down with that performance. Every single defeat hurts.
“However, I’d rather lose one now and see where we’re at for the World Cup next year than it to happen then because now I can see where we can adapt and improve,” he said.
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The Bok coach was impressed with the way Ireland made the most of their opportunities in the conditions to secure what was a comfortable victory in the end.
“The Irish deserve a lot of credit though – they played the conditions better and were tactically superior. We knew it was going to be a tough tussle and we were not good enough on the day.
“Let us not kid ourselves – we played a world class side who nearly beat the All Blacks last year,” he said.
Meyer admitted that his side have struggled in wet conditions all year and said that improving their wet-weather play is a priority.
“We have to adapt to different styles of game. You can’t play Championship (southern hemisphere) rugby in the ones we had today and we haven’t really played well in the wet ball conditions like that all year.
“Although we’ve evolved in every game we’ve played against Ireland it is an arm wrestling exercise where you have to wait your moment to open them up,” he said.
With another tough assignment against England at Twickenham looming next week, Meyer said that they will be taking a hard look at themselves in order to turn things around quickly.
“We have to take this on the chin and show some character against England, who are a quality side too. We have to look ourselves in the mirror and reflect on what happened out there.
“But we can’t afford to dwell too much on what is in the past. We have a massive game against England at Twickenham on Saturday and we simply have to show a massive improvement because they will be just as tough to beat at home,” he said.
Meyer, who was experiencing just his eighth defeat in 34 tests, said that the yellow card for replacement hooker Adriaan Strauss 14 minutes from the end had halted any momentum they had managed to build having trailed the Irish throughout the game.
“The referee is always right, we’re not allowed to say otherwise,” said Meyer.
“However, there are no excuses. We could use that as one if we wished to but Ireland were the better side. They outplayed us and outkicked us,” he said.
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Springbok captain Jean de Villiers said that his side have to cut out the basic errors that plagued them against Ireland if they are to bounce back.
Despite dominating many areas of the game the Boks failed to make use of their opportunities and were handed a lesson in how to play in wet conditions by a determined Irish side that secured a fairly comfortable 29-15 win in the end.
De Villiers said that the stream of individual errors had been particularly frustrating as they halted any momentum the team was building.
“Each and every player will have to take a hard look at himself, come back on Monday and work harder,” he said.
Although there were some encouraging signs such as the dominant set-pieces, De Villiers said that building a platform means nothing if you are not able to capitalise.
“Our standards are higher than what we showed against Ireland and we simply made too many errors. Yes, our first phase play was very good and I thought we dominated the scrums and the line-outs, but we didn’t retain the ball and you can’t play rugby without the ball.”
“We were fine at tactical kicking and in the scrum but we just couldn’t hang onto the ball, which you do at Grade One rugby,” said the 33-year-old, who was winning his 103rd cap.
The Bok captain admitted that the players themselves will bear responsibility for what was their first defeat in Europe since 2010.
“It is not we played badly but we couldn’t hold on to the passes and that is not down to coaching. We as players have to take the responsibility because how we played was not good enough for the Springbok jersey.
“However, you have got to give Ireland credit. They were well prepared and played really well. We’ll take this on the chin and be hard on ourselves for a couple of days and then get on with the task ahead,” he added
Why do they insist on kicking for the corner and not taking the penalty shots? SA seem to be doing this fairly often. I get that they want the lineout, maul, try – but surely with our kickers, penalties are almost always certain points? Also – was it my imagination, or was there quite a bit on tension between Nick and Ashwin in the Supersport studio after the game?
In my mind the answer is simple. No 9 was the weak link. Hougaardt had an absolute shocker, and Reinach wasn’t much better.
@ GoBokkeAndIreland:
When you are p-laying test rugby you should always take your points IMO – especially when it is right in front !! You can still make a case when the penalty is next to the touchline and the distance might be a problem but we seem to make these (poor) decisions too often. I am just wondering if this was a call made by the coach beforehand or not.
There was definitely some tension in the studio !!
@ Lion4ever:
I guess Jano Vermaak might just be in the match 23 on Saturday
@ charlesm:
3: playing
apart from not taking the shots at goal and some crucial errors by hougie we were simply outplayed at the breakdown, ireland did a spectacular job in slowing the ball down and by preventing the cleaners to come through from our side. they are a quality team that out thought us. We got arrogant and we always take a dip in form after a week of praise in the media, they were all over us with their mind games as well.
i am confident we will show a massive inprovement against england, we just need a calmness at 9, and i hope vermaak can deliver.
If Vermaak gets selected, he will at the very least provide some crisp service from the base of the scrum. Something both scrummies failed to do on Saturday. I say just dump both Hougie and Reinach, and call up Niel De Kock.
And please Heyneke, stop using Matfield as a ball carrier. He cannot do that.
We need Willem Alberts back, and when PS du Toit available again?
We need some grunt up front. Ireland didn’t have to commit a lot of numbers to the tackle/breakdown/maul situations.
leon wrote:
I couldn’t agree with you more Leon !! I made a similar type of comment after the match. It seemed to me that Matfield decided to take the ball up on his own more than once. At least at one instance he picked up a ball at a ruck with no support with him and was penalised for holding on (after being tackled)
I’m not sure about PSDT – shouldn’t he be ready quite soon ? Perhaps somebody can give us more info
@ charlesm:
yes, and that was a scoring opportunity.
Bedaar, my volk… bedaar!
A month and a week ago we beat the All Blacks with the same side.
But I think complacency set in at the Bokke and Ireland played clever… sort of caught us with the pants down on the ankles.
The Bokke will be hurting bad and will be better this coming Saturday.
England is a bloody tough challenge though, look how close they ran the All Blacks.
Sure Matfield was not good taking the ball up, sure the Bokke made a lot of forced and unforced errors… and sure Hougie was not good at all on the weekend.
I think the little shortcomings of this past Saturday is relatively easily fixable and our set pieces were going well all afternoon.
I am not blaming Romain Poite, but he let the Irish get away with a lot around the rucks and ground ball situations, largely causing Hougie to play under pressure the whole time, and Hougie did not handle it well at all… well neither did Reinach.
I think the Bokke approach about where to run at the Irish was also wrong. Bokke chose to run at the centres with forwards and continued to do so, thus making it very easy for the Irish defence to drift, as the Bokke were pushing themselves wide at every opportunity already.
The Bokke should have seen what was happening and should have adapted and tried to round the Irish forwards pack closer to the rucks and ground ball… in between the No 9 and No 10 channel, limiting the Irish drift defence closer to the breakdowns and not making it that easy for them to use the drift defence.
Bokke should also vary their options more, they tend to become very stoid and predictable about where the next assault would come.
Largely the Bok backline was nullified by pressure on the scrummie and by knowing what the Bokke would do next… that has to change.
Some small adjustments is all that is needed…
How many opportunities did we blow?
How many sure points did we turn down?
Some soft moments also cost us big time!
grootblousmile@13 wrote:
I don’t blame the ref for this, I blame our pack not protect the ball and no 9 enough
My thoughts exactly. It looks like they did try to do that, but was ineffective with carries. They were tackled back.
Jip, agree.
I’m not that upset. Ireland is a very good at the moment. But I still think we need better ball carriers.
@ grootblousmile:
@ leon:
Am I wrong, or are there a number of parallels to the RWC quarter final (2011) that are evident?
A ref’ not toally in control of the game.
A highly motivated opposition.
One or two key SA players slightly off colour.
A distinct inability by the SA side to change tack mid game and make changes needed to win it?
Why can’t SA seem to make on field decisions to change the course of a game once things are going awry?
I suppose it’s better to lose all four on tour in November 2014 than to lose a crucial knock out game in October 2015!
Still, a very timely reminder methinks.
@ Scrumdown@15:
Hmmm, you might have a point there.
Maybe they thought that they are making progress and just waited for Ireland to get tired.
@ leon:
I believe the catch phrase is , backing their systems
In 2009/10, when Hougie toured with the Boks for the 1st time, questions were asked about his selection. Those who asked how someone who played wing for most of the season, were told back then that he was singled out by F. du Preez to be his natural successor as Bok scrum half. We were told that FdP knows a hell of a lot more about SH play than us.
Jano Vermaak was released by the Bulls a couple of years ago because they wanted to sign Pollard and other young “stars”. They expected Vermaak to take a pay cut in order for him to stay on. He decided to leave instead. The Bulls felt that his leaving will not be a problem because they have Hougie.
Now the same Vermaak is the front runner to start on Saturday for the Bok team ahead of Hougie and Reinach, if you are to believe the reports in the media. The self same Vermaak who was not even in the Bok squad to start with. How the mighty have fallen.
Fransie…Hougie…some more, of these hyped up players, to follow. Watch this space.
15 @ Scrumdown:
They don’t believe that there is something wrong with WHAT they are doing so why change anything?
They believe that it is just their execution that let them down at any stage when things go against them and that they just have to continue doing what they were doing. They believe that something will eventually click and everything will come right somewhere along the line during the game.
@ Nama:
some of them already out of the mix. 😀
Nama wrote:
As was David Moyes by Sir Alex Furguson…….
Nama wrote:
And even a blinf squirrel finds a nut……………..eventually.
22 @ Scrumdown:
blinf = blind!
@ Scrumdown:
And what a disappointment Moyes turned out to be…just like Hougie.
In my opinion the problem with hougaard is that he is stuck between a rock and how he wants to play, what the coach wants of him, how the public wants him to play and how his forwards allows him to play. He tried to speed the game up when it just was not that type of game.
It is ridiculius that people expect us to run everyone ragid because of our apparant “new ball in hand rugby”.
Unfortunately though its not like we are rolling in scrumhalves atm and hougaard is locally still our best option.
Stop stressing fellows….it was just a minor glitch with the player’s “character” being misplaced (probably flew SAL)
Hold thumbs that the character is found before Saturday….dan gaan die Pommies afchop
Hougie had bad day. Wasn’t only one though. Willie at back wasn’t great. Their kicks into space showed we weren’t playing great positional game. De Villiers and Serfontein were poor. Decision making by de Villiers was shocking, its a test when you get points take them. Loose forwards never put enough pressure on Irish FH, had so much time was adding ice to Jamieson’s while thinking about what to do (to pass time not because he normally drinks it like that). With that much possession we should have creamed game. Sad to say, difference between us and All Blacks is they have ability to win under any circumstances, we only win under some circumstances. Boks have long way to go before next world cup.
Pollard will get there but we missed a Morne, get kicks over, play in right half. Still believe Lambie must start, Pollard still young will get his chance.
Opposing teams are slowing but surely learning how to counter the premeditated driving mauls.
Ireland didn’t commit to defend the maul which enabled them to come in from the side.
Play Kriel.
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