The boks were drawn into the Argentinians messy and scrappy style of play. Maybe it’s time for referees to start acting on the Pumas persistent illegal tactics at the tackle ball as well as their time wasting actions at the scrum and lineout.
One can go on and argue that this result is good for Argentinian rugby and that a competitive Argentinian team is good for the competition. Personally I don’t feel like going up that road.
It was scrappy; it was irritating; it was ugly and it pulled Southern hemisphere rugby right back into the nineteen sixties in my opinion.
In my previous post I wrote about three things in the Springbok game that I am concerned about and those three things (poor structure at the breakdown, no flair in the back three and player selections) were abundantly obvious in this extremely humiliating performance by the Springboks.
The Pumas gave us a rugby lesson at the breakdowns. They had better structure and exposed our lack thereof in no uncertain way.
So effective were the Pumas at the tackle ruck that we started to avoid taking the ball into contact with our usual bulls-pod-charges. Once we stated to take the ball wide we got back into the game but I cringed fearing for the worst every time Kirchner touched the ball. It was a horribly poor clearance kick by Zane Kirchner that created the ball for the Argentinians to start running at us and to manufacture their try. Kirchner either kicked badly or just ran into traffic everytime looking like he is going to loose the ball. Morné Steyn’s tactical kicking so by the way was just as poor not even to mention the multiple number of clearance kicks by him that didn’t reached the touch line.
The boks sped the game up and employed some decoy and angled runners coming from depth but they never really looked like they were going to score. The lack of flair in the back department was clearly evident every time the ball went to the wings. Why no Lambie to try and spark something and how I was hoping for somebody like Aplon that could inject some pace and clever angles when the ball went wide? The Frans Steyn charge down try was to be honest a very very lucky break for a Springbok team under the pump and rattled.
Jacques Potgieter??? Please Heynecke Meyer just get real!! Keegan Daniel made immediate impact when he came on while I would have difficulty giving Potgieter anything higher than 4 out of 10 for his performance in this match.
The Pumas are passionate and a handful at home and the Springboks clearly underestimated the passion and gamesmanship they will bring to the table. We kicked for lineout at least twice early in the match when we should have gone for penalty points. We also missed 12 points with penalties; at least two of those 4 penalties were easy kicks.
We were lucky to salvage a draw out of this even though we came out on top with regard to possession and territory stats.
The problem started the moment Meyer decided to get drawn into their type of game by selecting players to brawl with them. A fast pace recycle game that take the ball away from their beefy if not overweight forwards with loose forwards that can link and ruck effectively out wide is the way to go.
I predict the Aussies and All Blacks are going to take these Pumas to the cleaners by speeding the game up and putting the ball into the hands of players with real pace and flair like Cory Jane, Isreal Dagg and Digby Ioane, James O’Conner, Drew Mitchell and Hosea Gear.
We got pulled into their game and did not have the players on the field to play a different game plan.
In the end it was a lucky break for Heynecke Meyer but nobody is fooled in any way whatsoever and it’s time for Meyer to get rid of his blue tinted glasses and move beyond blue bull rugby and players.
Good post and accurate observation. Same old story with Meyer trying to play BB type rugby whereas NZ play with accuracy by winning the advantage line, phase ball accuracy and flair out wide when needed. SA have none of that whilst you dont have a Brussouw, a poor scrum half, an even poorer fly half (NZ and Australia love it when Morne is picked and now he cant even kick goals) Why is Kirchner in the team as he must be the worst full back in world rugby. Sorry SA but this selection poicy and type of rugby tactics will never get you a better team.
To be fair I haven’t watched the game yet, I don’t have SKY so I’ll watch it on prime this arvo but as an avid AB supporter I’m really interested in watching how HM moulds the Boks bearing in mind he’s new as head coach.
What are your thoughts on Dingo Deans future McLook?
Do you have much hope for HM as head coach in the future bearing in mind he’s only recently been appointed?
Did you notice any of Graham Henry’s influence for the Argies past 2 performances?
I think Meyer is the best coach we have at the moment. He know’s his stuff but are playing safe with his selections and game plans mostly due not having had enough time to prepare.
Dingo is under immense pressure but I think good Wallaby perfromances against SA and Argentinia will safe his butt.
The Wallabies are going to speed the game up against us and the Pumas and are going to win at least three of their next four games.
Henry’s influence on the Pumas is already showing. They are very good at the rucks, the tackle ball and extremely competive at the breakdowns with very good structure all due to Henry’s coaching I think. They were also well prepared for the box kick and started to show some nice touches with offloads and angles when carrying the ball. They are going to become a real problem for us unless we can step-up and start playing a faster pace game.
I don’t think they are going to pose a problem for the All Blacks or Wallabies because they started to ran seriously out of puff the moment we started to move the ball wide. We just didn’t have enough pace and playmaking ability in the back three to score tries. Also Steve Walsh allowed them to slow the game down at the scrums and lineout. Referees and opponents are going to wise up to this tactic and it won’t have the same effectiveness in their next four matches.
he is not the best coach we have! Rassie is! Look what he did at the Cheetahs in two years.
Heyneke is stuck in the years that he won super14 with the bulls and we are now in 2012
I am not disagreeing with you but i just want to know on what you base the your statement that Rassie is better than Heyneke? You use Cheetahs as some substantiation for the statement but surely Heyneke’s record at the Bulls far out plays that? I do think Rassie is good and he is supposed to be part of the Bok set up, not sure if that is happening.
The thing about Rassie that really bothers me and make we wonder whether he has what it takes to be Springbok coach is firstly the fact that he gave the Stormers coaching job over to Allistair after only one season. If he was so good why would he do something like that and why would WP top management even allow something like that. Further to that is the fact that the Stormers actually started to play better once Allistair Coetzee took over.
The second thing that worries me about Rassie is that he can’t seem to get along with people and kept on moving to new jobs. He and Laurie Mains had a massive ego clash at the Cats which essentially ended Rassie rugby career. Rassie was two (or three at most) seasons at the Cheetahs before he moved on and Cheetahs started to play better rugby once the current coach (who was his second in charge) took over. So who is to say that Rassies initial results at the Cheetahs had anything (or were exclusively his doing) to do with him.
Accurate observations. Henry’s influence is very clear, especially in the way the Pumas are keeping the ball alive in the offloads and tackles, exactly like the AB’s, where our players go to ground, and never even bother to look for the supporting runner. If our players could get coached that skill we would be much more dangerous team. Imagine one of our big forwards, charging up over the advantage line, tackled by 2 or three defenders and actually managing to get the ball away to a supporting runner, yet we keep on going to ground, even though we cannot even properly protect the ball.
Good points. During the RWC we started to do just that (keep the ball alive by offloading to a supporting runner) against Fiji and we had a very good game. We didn’t go brawling with big Fijians. Then we played Samoa and went back to brawling with almost disasterous results. We need to play opposite to the opponents strengths and the suggestions you make here are spot on.
About the all black, you have to remember the game for the rwc, the first half the pumas leave the game whit a victory, but the poor fisic condition at the second half cost a lot for them. I dont think the pumas can win any of the games to come but win in Argentina it´s a lot more difficult even for the wallabies and the all black
Didn’t watch the game but I notice that Lambie once again was used only to warm the bench. WTF! Are Mornetjie and Rasta HM’s love children?
Yip no game time for Lambie. It’s criminal. He’ll move on to Europe end of this season.
I was p!ssed off when he didn’t use Jantjies in the 3rd test and now I’m even p!ssed off for him not using Lambie.
Go figure.
I really don`t think & believe HM is the BEST coach,maybe for S15! Sorry but SA is still playing boring rugby,with PDV the Boks was showing a better style of rugby. I can`t see the Boks winning against the worse Aussie side ever & world champs NZ. The Boks will end up 2nd too last if not last on the log. I believe Rassie or Alister can lead the Boks.
Alister’s stormers did not impress me; too defensive in their approach. Isn’t Rassie already helping with coaching at the Boks?
Nope Rassie is in charge of coaching from grass roots up etc. But not for the Boks. They can swop those two and we even win against the AB’s!
I AGREE WITH GEE MATT,PDV BROUGHT IN THE MUCH NEEDED CHANGES FOR SPRINGBOKRUGBY TO REALLY COMPETE AND EVEN BEAT THE ALL BLACKS.AT THE MOMENT WE ARE GOING BACKWARDS.WE WERE A WELL BALANCED TEAM,HAD EVERYTHING,POWER,PRECISION,PACE,FLAIR.I SUGGEST HEINEKE TO MAKE A CALL TO PIETER FOR SOME SUGGESTIONS.IT IS TO LATE FOR SQUAD CHANGES.THAT SHOUD’VE BEEN DONE AFTER THE ENG DEBACLE.
In fairness to Heynecke Meyer he lost some serious experience and leadership as opposed to PDV. Players like Matfield, Bakkies Botha, Danie Rossouw, Schalk Burger, Jaque Fourie, Fourie du Preez, John Smit, Juan Smit and on top of that he got some key players like JP Pietersen, Bismarck du Plessis, Pierre Spies (not that I rate him) injured. It’s a different ball game altogether; PDV inherented the most experienced Springbok team ever while HM is starting to rebuilt.
Are you lads even serious? Alot of the reason we in the pooh right now is that we held onto “leaders” too long and never developed talent enough to have a reliable pool. We could have been playing better rugby whilst expanding the pool of talent instead of focusing on 10 or so players… Take Pierre Spies the guy has had one decent season in his career yet we continued with him at the expense of growing talent and now? we have no real 8th man to select, that’s just one position. We are clueless at Full back, outside centre and fly half not to mention scrum half. Thankfully Eben at 4 lock is standing up to the plate on the basis of pure passion and talent – 5 lock is a joke as is 6 flank…. Have said all this, Henyeke’s job is to rectify this and he best move along.
Remember PdV attempts to extend the pool of players by taking a second string team to NZ and Aussie before the RWC. That was an absolute disaster.
When Jake White took over he selected a totally new team and there was immediate improvement. I can still remember JW first test in NZ just after he took over. They played the AB to a standstill in Wellington. Jean de Villiers scored a brilliant team try in the corner and the boks were in the lead right into injury time. In the last 2 minutes of the game JW brought Brent Russel on the field and he went out of line on defense to allow Doug Howlett in for a try. They played so well that Greame Henry went into the Springbok dressing room to congratulate the team after the match.
My point here is that you would see immediate improvement in the way the team play if you select a good coach. I’ve seen no improvement since Heynecke took over so I am starting to wonder about his ability to be frank.
The problem is not lack of player development. The problem we now have is that we had no proper coach for the previous four years. The senior players were running the show with the result that new talent that could play a faster high tempo game was never selected. Further to that is the fact that Heynecke is still in pre-high-tempo-game-development-mode since he haven’t done coaching for the last 4 years.
Morne =impotent ouma,Kirshner =scew runnung carthorse, J Devilliers = not a 13,Hougaard =technically poor, Alberts =not at 8 but second receiver,Bekker = pissgat banggat WE,Flip =just a doos, Jannie twoplusthree =dumbest repeat offender,Strauss = not Bissy but trys,Potgieter =???WTF should have taken CJ Stander if it must be a bull (before Ireland did )!!! I called this mess before it unfolded but was told how negative and unpatriotic I was being …I just thought it was plain to see…maybe now it is for those blinded by provincial loyalties…pick the man not the system!!!
Mate take a deep breath. I am just as upset; has been grumpy like hell since the weekend. I tend to agree with the majority of your statements.
Sorry you are rite, but Im just soooo dissappointed with HM lack of vision, it just small narrow mindedness and l battle to comprehend his thinking, Heyneke missed the bus 4yrs ago in terms of springbok coach but has not moved on from that antique way of playing or thinking,its a new dawn FRESHNESS is essential to move away from our 1 dimentional boring stupid tag that the rugby world is labellingus us with….big strong and …..DUMB !!!
How does a team ranked in the top 3 in the world find a way to play to their opponents strengths? Wait a minute, the Argentinians play a very similar style to the Boks and always have. They have tasted success by bullying the French on occasions and this draw shows that style for style Meyers men were outpunched. The Boks gameplan relies on perfect execution, physical dominance and on grinding the opposition down. There may be nothing wrong with this and it has been effective against more expansive sides, but against an Argentinian unit that loves a good scrap, it failed dismally.
Heyneke Meyer does not have the artillery to boss other teams the way he would like to. His halfbacks are out of form and his outside backs are stifled by the lack of opportunity coming their way.
It is a sad indication when a 20 year old rookie is your go-to hardman. Yes the kid is good, but is he really ready to shoulder the load? The Bulls failed to dominate physically during Super XV and I am not sure how Meyer surmised that Jacques Potgieter would fare any better at International level. Francois Hougaard was on the whole rather ordinary as a scrumhalf and are we surprised that he is struggling at Test level?
The Boks allowed themselves to be notched down a few levels and this is the most concerning flaw. There was no leadership on the field and this is of concern. The Boks got flustered and failed to impose themselves, they simply ran harder into the wall that constituted the Pumas defence and when they eventually tried to spread the ball they simply lacked any penetration.
If they are going to try bash up the phases they need patience, organisation and better rucking technique. If they are going to kick for attack it needs to be accurate and the chase good. Their decision makers are not making the right calls and to be blunt the Boks desperately need a general. Someone has to dictate play or the Boks are in danger of a very poor campaign.
Excellent remarks. Yip we just don’t have the players with the necessary experience and bulk to play the bully game HM wants to play. We might see some effectiveness against the Wallabies but are going to come up short against the AB.
Hougaard is not the solution at 9 and our current outside backs just have no penetration like you so rightly say. Our loose forwards are to similar and too slow and lack real skill. HM has a massive challenge the biggest being that he lack the personnel to play the game that he know (bash up and bully).
I really feel Meyer has dragged Bok rugby back to the stone age and has done nothing to suggest he is the best coach for the job. No attempt to take Bok rugby to the next level. Can understand if you have lots of veteran Boks used to play to a certain style like we had in 2008 when PDiv took over, but we see new players performing week after week in SR and CC with flare , but left at the side-lines with sideshow clowns that has never even performed at lower levels and then chosen for the Boks. Couple of BB players come to mind, not even considering those who have played well in the past, but are now well passed their sell by dates… Bring in new blood NOW…
Yes I think you are correct it’s the right time to start playing a different style with new players. All the old players used to a particular style is gone and this will be a good time to adjust to the modern trend of playing a more expansive game.
Yes the biggest disappointed regarding HM is that he seems totally unwilling to even try something new.
The worst Springbok on the field was Andries Bekker. He has no defence and also stay away from the contact areas. I don’t think he is op to it.
AMEN BROTHER !!!!! you are on the money there, bekker was completely GAY!
You are spot on, however I also think that Strauss, Hougaard and Morne Steyn were horrific – further than that Jean de villiers was horrible. I would like to see Francois Steyn at 15, Jean de Villiers at 12 and Juan de Jongh at 13.
Great post! Good read… don’t quite agree with the angled running much… the problem being that whenever Jean did get the ball it was usually in the wing position with the wings then having to stop running because there is no space or hope that in the 30cm or so they have to run in that they can do something with the ball. Our players must learn to run straight. Watch how much space the All Blacks give their wings. Why do we suck at it so badly? My opinion is coaching. Our guys are not taught to run straight. The other being that because Morné’s distribution is so slow that our backs try and create space for themselves out wide by running wide. Other wise they get caught behind the advantage line.
With angled runners I mean scissors type runners. Fullback coming in at speed going to the inside or straight where the ball was moving to the outside.
Or straight running by 13 to get his body between the defender and the supporting runner coming into the space and take the ball out of his hands alla Jamie Roberts and Brain O’Driscol for the lions in 2007.
Our back line play is piss poor. We just swing the ball wide in the hope that something will happen. We’ve got no starter moves off set piece like the AB.
SO true, run at the defenders inside shoulder keep him honest and create much needed space…our outside backs will be so surprised they might even score.
Heyneke Meyer = Bok-drol !
Saturday has to rate as one of the Boks worst performances – there appears to be no on field leadership that can or will make changes to the gameplan when it is apparent that the the initial plan was not working. We seem to have lost our flair and even with a very good backline I do not remember the ball going through the hands to our wings once. I see two problems. 1. There is no control at the base of the scrum – Hougart spend more time flapping his arms trying to get a penalty than he does in getting stuck in, grabbing the ball and releasing his backline quickly. We have Ruan – one of the palyers of the year in the North who does just this and what a difference when he came on. 2. With Morne at flyhalf we do not have an attacking player who attacks the advantage line and aggressively gets his backline going with front foot ball – and with his poor kicking maybe it is time for him to start from the bench or even go back to CC and get his confidence back. Lambie is so much better at this and his positional play is excellent (and he can also kick). It is not good enough to say we did not get clean ball from the forwards – that happens but we have to have the players that can turn that into something – clearly Hougard and Steyn are not those players.
But who are we to comment – HM is the coach and he has the attitude that he knows better and will not listen to any outside “noise”. Good luck to him!
The halfbacks play a lot better when they get front foot ball. We got bullied at the breakdowns and could not establish acendency at the advantage line. Hougaard was under a lot of pressure behind the rucks due to our poor structure at the collisions and the ferociousness of the Puma tackling and counter rucking.
That said I agree that Pienaar is a better no9 than Hougaard. The thing that bothers me about Ruan is the fact that he look like a player who lost his passion to play for the boks. He just go through the steps and shows very little die for my country attitude as was evident when he missed that tackle on the Puma No9.
I would agree with bringing Lambie in (at least as an impact player if nothing else) but do believe Morné will play better if he get quick front foot ball.
The problem for me is the outdated gameplan and the lack of flair out wide. Also there is no starter moves of set piece. The backline is seriously under coached. Ouir backline play is the weakest of the top 5 rugby playing nations. Definitly far worse than Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Wales.
Our other big problem is the make-up of the loosetrio. Alberts is to slow for a No8 and to heavy to last a whole match. Jacques Potgieter does nothing else than run into a brick wall on defence and on the rare occation that he tries to carry the ball. His defensive skills are poor and his defensive running lines non exsitent. He is to high in the tackle close to the rucks and shows very little leg drive in the tackle. Marcel Coetzee is reasonable but to slow to link with the backs out wide and he is more interested in running with the ball than contributing at the rucks.
Great post, well done! Not sure we ran at angles, we ll perhaps not enough anyway. We just seemed to have no other plan to counter what is effectively a game we can relate to in many ways – in your face pressure at line out, scrum and breakdown… In cricket there is saying – you cannot face your own bowling… perhaps this is true of rugby as well. I like the fact that you identify illegal and scrappy tactics from the Pumas, with everyone clamouring to shower them with tradition and glory I sit silently thinking how stupid are people really? Graham Henry’s influence is clear for all to see in my opinion, classic structure on attack and illegal slowing down of the ball on defense and from there the scrap is evident for all to see.
Having said this, with all of this mess, the Boks should still be 15 points up oon the pumas and HM has his work cut out for him.
No we don’t run angles as a rule. Aplon however is one of the few players (the other being JP Pietersen) who has the ablity to run up in support at angles that beat the defense.
The fact that Aplon were sacked by Heyncke Meyer says I think great deal about Meyers draconion style of coaching. It is my way or the highway and players that don’t fit his way because they are innovative and has ability to play heads-up rugby (read the play and react to opportunities) has to go because the don’t fit his robotic playing style.
“In cricket there is saying – you cannot face your own bowling… perhaps this is true of rugby as well”. Good one – in other words we were beaten by a side that played our own traditional style better than us.
They were better at our own game because their structure and ball slow-down tactics (thanks to Henry) was better than ours. The had more bulk and experience in the pack and their scrum and lin-out play was on par with ours. In fact I think they won the line-out contest and they were better at keeping the ball alive and offloading in the tackle.
Four years ago, when PDV was appointed as coach, everybody scream for Anneke Meyer for the job. Maybe he would have been the best coach then, but judging from his recent performance, I doubt if he ever was or will be the best coach the Boks have. He is arrogant and will always make sure that his bluebull lovers will get a bok jersey for free. I don’t have anything againts the Bulls, but tell what is Morne, Zane, Jacque Potgieter, JJ Engelbrecht, Flip vd Merwe doing in a springbok setup. These guys is very good in a bluebull jersey, but unfortunatly, thats where it ends.
THERE IS 1 PROBLEM AND 1 PROBLEM ONLY:
Jake White & PDV had some of the best rugby players this country has ever produced at their disposal. We had the best lock pairing in the world with Victor Matfield & Bakkies Botha, combining tactical brilliance at the line-outs with brute “enforcer” strength when needed.
We had -according to many – the best Captain in World Rugby in John Smit.
We had probably the best scrum-half in Fourie du Preez. Many people rated him the best “rugby player” – while Dan Carter is the best fly-half of course. Du Preez could read a game like few others.
We had arguably one of the best centre pairings in JdV & Jacque Fourie. Jacque probably being the best in his position at that time.
We had one of the best finishers (add inventiveness, passion and pace) in Bryan Habana before he was marked to death.
All our key positions were filled with “the best of the best”.
Which of our current players would you say is one of the best in his position?
Anyone?
Ironically – the only one who has been tried on INTERNATIONAL level and made a mark, broke records etc, is our much maligned fly-half.
So I think we should give Heyneke Meyer a break… he said something which is the answer to the problem. The youngsters need to step up. They have big shoes to fill and they better start filling them.
Everyone understands Heynecke’s challenge namely the challenge to built a team. The challenge to mould youngsters into a team.
The thing that is starting to create dissatisfaction is his player selections and his unwillingness to change his ways (in terms of player selection and gameplan).
Last weekend will become Heynecke Meyer defining moment. He will always be remembered for this draw against the Argentinians. Not because we drew the match but for how piss poor we were.
This moment is also going to define his career due to the way he responded by saying that he not a picker but a coach. His job according to him is to coach players how to be better and not to reject them and pick other players.
In effect he is saying I am not going to be manipulated to pick players that are in form and belong in the team. I will pick players that can play the way I want to play the game. He is saying I will prove that I can win with an outdated gameplan and I will change mud pies into meat pies.
He will be remembered for this as this will prove to be his downfall. Make yourself ready for some massive losses against the All Blacks and the Aussies in the next few weeks.
HM definitely showing his coaching abilities he got from his mentor : Julis Malema…more talk and excuses than brains with wisdom (rugby @that)
Good article, and agree with all the comments, so no point in going over those again. My question is, is Hougaard the best wing in the country? If he isn’t, why do we move him to the wing halfway through the match? If he is, why do we start with him at scrum half, when clearly he should be on the wing?
My point is, that the starting line up should be the best players in that position. If you want to use a bench that is full of Jack of all trades, so be it, but start with your best team. This is the same throughout the team. Is JdeV in his best position, should Frans Steyn perhaps start at full back, was Habana on the correct wing on Saturday? Was Alberts playing out of position?
If we aren’t even getting our team selection right, then we are already in trouble. I see they delayed the squad announcement to today. Unless there are serious injury concerns – and I have heard nothing to substantiate that – surely the squad should have been settled a few days ago. If you are still pondering players at this stage, you are in serious trouble!!!
Rumours are a couple of strange announcements are on the way. Don’t have a hernia when you see the squad announced!!!