Give Morne a break!
June 26, 2012 in International, Rugby, Springboks, Super Rugby
Very few will like it less than me to have lost against the Poms on Saturday. Ok yes, it was a draw but everyone knows, a draw at home is as good as a victory for the visitors, and although the record books will show it as a draw, it was the English who walked off the park feeling they deserved a victory, not the Springboks.
It was a bitter after taste after the sweet victory the Junior Boks showed the previous night. Not without flaws, the junior Boks played to a game plan that worked for them on the day and adapted it when it was necessary. It was the great vision of the 18 year old Handre Pollard, and the undying commitment of Jan Serfontein, which got the Springboks the key break they needed to win the match.
After the Springbok loss, the knives are out for Morne Steyn who’s kicking woe’s continue to dilute his statistics, and the records that’s been touted around twitter as a reminder of what Steyn has done for his country and his province now seems a distant memory…and if nothing else, a confirmation of the fact that he is nowhere near the player he was a couple of years ago.
An interesting statistic which was touted was the record amount of dropgoals he succeeded with. Yet, the thought of him not attempting a single one in the World Cup quarterfinal against Australia once again haunted me.
What has happened from 2009, when the entire Loftus Versfeld chanted his name to replace to totally inept Ruan Pienaar, which he duly did and came out as the hero of the day, to 2012, when the entire Port Elizabeth crowd booed him, and prayed Ruan Pienaar will take over the kicking duties?
Yes, Morne is currently, and has been for some time, not in the greatest form of his career, especially since the 2009 season when the Springboks dominated World Rugby with their kick and chase approach. The same approach which became obsolete since 2010′s application of the ELV’s.
I won’t delve into the stats for this year, but compared to the records that have been broadcast over the weekend, it’s a darn shadow of his former achievements.
And after Saturday, Morne is the object of most rugby lovers’ wrath. The unforgiveable draw against the despised Poms needs a scapegoat, and for some, Morne is that scapegoat.
I too agree that had Morne’s performance been up to scratch the Springboks would have most probably defeated the English by a greater margin in the first two tests, and probably would have had the victory in the third.
But he was off song. Just like he was during the Bulls loss against the Blues.
The question we need to ask though is, is only Morne to blame? And if so, who would have been the right replacement for him on Saturday?
It would have taken a big time gambler to have sent Elton Jantjies up against the English on Saturday. In their destructive and spoiling mood, they would have eaten Jantjies for breakfast. To me, Jantjies would have been a step backwards, considering the match situation, and the fact that our forwards could simply not dominate to collisions.
Patrick Lambie was injured, and Johan Goosen has also not yet recovers from his injury he incurred during the loss against the Highlanders.
So in my mind, Morne was still the nr 1 choice for flyhalf for last Saturday’s match. Perhaps Ruan Pienaar should have taken over the kicking duties when he came onto the pitch though. But how ironic would that have been considering the 2009 sub against the British and Irish Lions at Loftus? And would the admittance by Captain Jean and Coach Heyneke, that there is something amiss with their star kicker, taint Morne so badly that it affects his entire future career? I doubt it.
Perhaps if we want to lay blame, we should look a bit higher up and a bit deeper.
In both the previous matches, Willem Alberts was key in setting up forward dominance at the collisions. With Alberts injured, everyone knew that there is a shortage of mongrel and grunt in the pack, and that even with the spirit of a rookie, Jacques Potgieter could never match up to Alberts’ brute force.
Heyneke persisted with the same game plan which saw the Springboks to a halftime draw of 6 all in the first test match in Durban.
But even then, the Springboks saw that it was’t helping their cause, and adjusted to bring out a walloping in the second half.
An adjustment we didn’t see this past weekend.
So is Heyneke’s quoted philosophy of “If we can’t get plan A right” the reason for the Springboks loss? Did the players not get plan A right due to the absence of Alberts?
Or did they not get plan A right because they were being complacent? Make no mistake, full credit to England for the way they played. But something in the Bok camp just reeked of not being “all there”.
It’s nothing new though. It’s an old disease which we’ve soon all too often. Alas, we’ve seen it a week ago when the Springboks were leading 22-3 after 20 minutes of play in the second test against England at Ellis Park.
And with the “series win”, next week’s Super Rugby matches, a new Audi R8, a 50th test cap, a move to Japan for two of the players, another fringe player off to Munster….well, it could well be speculated that mentally, these Springboks are still not there.
Is it an excuse? Simply put, no. If the All Blacks can drill home a whitewash with 60 points to nil, whilst “experimenting” with youngsters such as Aaron Cruden, Beauden Barret, Ben Smith, Sam Cane and Aaron Smith, why can’t the Springboks not simply put the win away against an injured ravaged England side who they’ve defeated in 9 consecutive tests?
Heyneke Meyer’s words in the beginning was that he wants to win every match and that winning is the only thing. He drew the line in the sand, not the fans. The fans would have been more accepting of a reversal had Meyer opted for experimentation in the third “dead rubber”, much as New Zealand did. But he didn’t.
It’s still early days though in Meyer’s career, and we will have to patiently sit and see his career develop and make a few unexpected turns along the way.
No one is calling for Meyer’s head…just yet. And who in their right mind will? Three matches is not enough to judge a coach on, but with the strict standards Heyneke set for himself, and made us aware of, we can only but judge him on his results.
And considering that Morne was the only option, in Meyer’s phylosophy of “win at all cost”, I’d suggest we all just sheathe our knives for Morne at this stage. After all, he doesn’t pick himself, and if given the choice to, he would not have considering the embarassment of being boo’d at PE this weekend. Something that several Springboks and Bok teams have had to endure right accross the country. Remember Ricky January? Remember Loftus 2006? Morne is not the first and will not be the last and if you are one of those being judgmental of him being booed, ask whether you were part of the group that booe’d the Boks in the past.
And maybe we should all just give Morne a little bit of a break. And us all, I mean the Bok coaches as well.
Consider this for a moment:
Since Morne’s debut against the British and Irish Lions, he has played 2478 Test match minutes out of a possible 2660. That is 34 of the last 36 test matches and 32 of those as starting flyhalf.
Also consider that he’s since then played an astronomical 3375 minutes of Super Rugby for the Bulls out of a possible 3520, all of them as starting flyhalf. That is 43 of the 44 Bulls Super Rugby matches since the beginning of the 2010 as starter.
Perhaps there is nothing really wrong with Morne’s form. Maybe he’s just fatigued.
So give Morne a break, please Heyneke?
- Morne Steyn as played and started in all but 4 of the 36 Springbok tests since he made his debut in 2009. He has played in all but 1 Super Rugby match for the Bulls since the 2010 season. Maybe he needs a bit of a break?
The Dutchman said on July 3, 2012
Well done
Met uysh said on July 3, 2012
Great it works!
powa said on July 3, 2012
Getting better but not there yet
Powa said on June 28, 2012
Trying the link up from my wordpress site
Phil said on June 28, 2012
Speaking as a complete Blog Doppie – this new site/arrangement sucks big time. It lacks the immediacy and intimacy of the previous set up. Perhaps Sport 24 got tired of all the bickering, nit picking and slagging off (Kitchener and Truvan take a bow) and decided to remove us from the main site. What ever the reason, this set up doesn’t work.
Met uysh said on June 28, 2012
Agree. The “chatroom” effect is gone. Also don’t see links from the main page to these ones. It might cause this forum to die a slow death….
powa said on July 2, 2012
@Phil, the blogs24 or old mynews24 and others is stone dead except for advert blogs after 1 month. I expect the same to happen here
manuel28 said on June 27, 2012
in my opinion,the crowd had every right to boo! HM has been conning us from day 1! i dont blame morne one bit as he has done ENOUGH for this country and i consider him a kicking legend! BUT HM sure couldve given young elton a go on saturday, it could not have been worse than the way morne was playing! i think the crowd was extremely perceptive and boo’d not because he missed bit because of what he brought to the table and because of the fact that it wouldve been exciting to see if a youngster could cut the mustard! it was the perfect oportunity! face facts, this draw felt like a loss!
Hanjo said on June 26, 2012
the multiple reply buttons is seriously confusing, maybe it’s just me, also missed the delete button on the comment, oh well. guess with time I’ll feel slightly less lost, avatar and display name fixed…i’ll try writing a post another day .
powa said on July 2, 2012
It took until today to notify me that you had commented here ……. WHAT!
Darwinia said on June 26, 2012
Shit I hate change. Why this code thing? Now I am in as Unicorn. How do I get that to Darwinia. Nice post. Where are the stars? The people who went to the game said it was horrible when Morne got the bird.
Met uysh said on June 26, 2012
You need to go to your dashboard on your page, and change your settings. You can change your username etc, put up your own header and so on. I don’t like the captcha either!
Darwinia said on June 26, 2012
I still dont get how to change the header and background?
Met uysh said on June 26, 2012
Go to your Dashboard, then choose Appearance.
The header is a bit tricky, it has to be exactly 1250 x 133 pixels to load. The background not so tricky.
mickeynelster said on June 26, 2012
dumb fucking question….where is the dashboard? I dont see it
Darwinia said on June 27, 2012
Uysh, the friend request thing. If I ask to be your friend and is accepted will I then get notifications if you had done a new post?
Met uysh said on June 27, 2012
@Darwinia, no you don’t. But if you log in and look at your friend’s activity, you can see who’s done what.
Labach Tanai said on June 26, 2012
Under the profile settings you can edit the name of your blog, but this bloody Captcha code is killing me!
Hanjo said on June 26, 2012
Nelster, under the heading ‘my sites’ , you’ll find your blog and the dashboard option should appear…complicated still though.
mickeynelster said on June 26, 2012
Now for the million dollar question……Why the hell did they Try to fix soemthing that wasnt broken? Now everyone suffers!!!!!!
Labach Tanai said on June 26, 2012
I think Morne is definitely not solely to blame for the draw, but I do think by using Louis Koen as kicking coach instead of Vlok Cilliers, he has taken a step back. His technique has been tampered with and he has now lost his one truly superb weapon, his accuracy. It was sad to see him miss kicks that he would have laughed off in the past! There is of course also the issues with his dad and the law that must plague him as well. The whole plan A plan B thing is ludicrous, having only 1 plan is one-dimensional per definition.
Met uysh said on June 26, 2012
His kicking was fine under Percy too…
Labach Tanai said on June 26, 2012
Yes, but he still had Vlok at the Bulls. Maybe its fatigue?
The Green Man said on June 26, 2012
I must agree that I think he needs a break. Absolutely terrible that he was booed in PE and those fans should feel ashamed! I do however think that a break could very well become permanent once Meyer realises how much better the Boks will be with Goosen as the pivot. Of course if you ask Baylion he will say that same sentence and just replace “Goosen” with “Jantjies” … go figure!
PS. I truly hope we don’t have to keep entering this stupid captcha code every time we want to comment!
Met uysh said on June 26, 2012
Haha! Personally don’t think Jantjies is up to the standard we require against Nz, Aus, Eng etc. Maybe vs Argentina or the likes…
I see there is no subscribe widget….
The Green Man said on June 26, 2012
Yeah, that is one problem with this twentyeleven theme. The widgets disappear on the posts. They are only there on your home page. Nobody is ever likely to go to that!
Also, any idea @powa and @uysh how we can get notifications for replies to our comments?
Met uysh said on June 26, 2012
Under your Profile there is a Settings option and under there you find notification settings. Although its all ticked yes, I don’t get the email notifications…
Labach Tanai said on June 26, 2012
I have ticked yes for the comment notifications and also for replies @Labachtanai, but not one of them work. Just got a friend request from Powa by e-mail so that seems to work.
Met uysh said on June 26, 2012
Ja, friend requests work.
powa said on June 26, 2012
captcha code is annoying me too
Met uysh said on June 26, 2012
Also trying to figure out how to get my email notification of comments on my own blog and how to subscribe to a blog…
powa said on June 26, 2012
I don’t think there is a way. When you type a new post there is a yellow s2 button that is supposed to show a subscribe to block at the bottom of the post.
I overcame that by getting all the feeds on google reader. I pick up all new posts and comments but it is a bit delayed.
powa said on June 26, 2012
Morne will still be Bok 10 until end of the year.
PS How did you change your background and header. I can’t change mine on either theme,
Met uysh said on June 26, 2012
I just changed it from the Dashboard…
powa said on June 26, 2012
you’re the chosen one. nobody else can do it. It just reverts to the default one all the time.
Labach Tanai said on June 26, 2012
Mine seems to be working if I use the 2010-theme,
The Green Man said on June 26, 2012
@powa mine works too. Using the twentyeleven theme. Will likely change though!
powa said on June 26, 2012
ok thanks will try it
baylion said on June 26, 2012
The 2011 theme’s sidebar is only on the main page isn’t it?
Met uysh said on June 26, 2012
Ja. I changed back to the Sport24 theme….