Massive challenges and oddities await Coach Meyer

Two quotes by Heyneke Meyer encapsulate the focus of the new Springbok coach.

“There are two kinds of rugby – winning rugby and losing rugby and I subscribe to the first type.”  Regarding his vision for the next four years as the man at the helm of Springbok rugby: he said: “Every single game the Springboks play is extremely important, and the mission is to win every game we play. I want to see the Springboks back at number one in the world, which is where they belong.”

Where other coaches had fixed ideas on the Springbok-brand of rugby, and also focused almost exclusively on the Rugby World Cup, Meyer wants the Boks to be more successful in the Rugby Championship, formerly known as the Tri Nations competition.

The winning percentage of the mighty New Zealand team was 85% the past four years. South Africa’s winning percentage was 62%.

For a team that has fielded some of the very best Springboks to ever have played the game, it is truly mediocre that the South Africans were only able to win three Tri Nations-titles – in 1998, 2004 and 2009.

The question is whether Meyer will be given a free hand with the Boks like he had with the Bulls.

On more than one occasion during a heated press conference after his selection as Springbok coach was endorsed, Meyer emphasised the need for excellence when selecting his backroom staff.

‘It’s very important for me that I have only the best people involved in my management team, because I truly believe that all the other nations out there have got unbelievable coaching units and so it’s going to be a huge challenge.

“Obviously I’d like to start tomorrow with the coaching staff in place, but I’m realistic. The coaches are in contracts – if they weren’t in contracts they wouldn’t be good enough. I want to start afresh but I know there is still a lot of negotiations that need to be held.”

There is a suspicion that an exodus of management members at the Bulls in Pretoria is on the cards, with Johann van Graan (forward coach), defence coach John McFarland and conditioning coach Basil Carzis whispered to be targeted by Meyer as part of his team.

Meyer would be opting for Brendan Venter, a former Springbok centre, or Allister Coetzee for his backline-coach.

It would be surprising if Coetzee accepted the appointment, for the Stormers would not be keen to release him after they lost the services of Rassie Erasmus as director of rugby.

Venter coached the London Irish and is director of rugby at Saracens.

New captain

In terms of the possible Springbok captains, there might be three candidates, Schalk Burger, Juan Smith and Jean de Villiers. De Villiers is the least likely candidate. He is susceptible to injuries and also on the wrong side of 30. He also might not be the preferred choice at inside-centre, with most pundits supporting the claims of Frans Steyn.

Smith is a world-class flanker when fit, but his Achilles injury might have long-term repercussions and put his career in jeopardy.

Burger is 28, a veteran and was magnificent during the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand in 2011.

Meyer’s challenges with regard to his backroom boys and on-the-field leader are minute compared to his quest to unify the team and get them finely tuned and fully focused for the series against England.

This series starts in June, and the players might only be released for Springbok-duty a week before the first test against England.

Winning the hearts, the minds and the support and loyalty of the Super Rugby coaches and presidents, as well as the support of the nation, would be Meyer’s main challenges.

Without the support of the unions and their assistance, his new position might provide him with many headaches.

Meyer was pressurised by the Blue Bulls just 72 hours before the announcement of the Springbok-coach, as the union claimed they would not stand in his way, but were very disappointed in his decision.

It almost seems as if the union played hard ball with the South African Rugby Union and hoped that the heat in the kitchen might become so intense that Meyer would opt out of his original decision.

The Blue Bulls are a professional rugby union and a business focused on making money and winning trophies. That is their ultimate goals.

But what about the bigger picture of Springbok-rugby? Would they ever have denied Naas Botha the opportunity of representing South Africa with the excuse that they don’t want to lose him for the Currie Cup-competition?

The Bulls’ handling of the matter – especially the nature of their announcement about Meyer’s decision to make himself available for the Springbok-job --  could be seen as ultimately disloyal to the national cause.

Their media statement is also an example of the provincialism and in-fighting that still forms an integral part of the South African rugby landscape.

These are the types of barriers that Meyer will have to break down before he can take Springbok-rugby to the next level.

But before he wants to catapult them to greatness, he needs to rebuild the team. The Boks have lost Victor Matfield, Bakkies Botha, John Smit, Fourie du Preez and Danie Rossouw.

Finding a new lock partnership, a world-class halfback, a new captain and the right mix of players to stop the might of England, will be a massive challenge.

But Meyer is a superb tactician and visionary and his work ethic and team values are unrelenting.

Meyer, if given the right support from the unions and the appropriate backroom boys from the South African Rugby Union, should indeed be able to propel the Springboks to greatness.

The Southern Kings

“If” is the appropriate word. Nothing is cast in stone with the SA Rugby Union, as their odd decision to include the Southern Kings in the Super Rugby competition in 2013, indicates.

Who will be dropped from the cast of Super Rugby representatives of South Africa to be substituted by the lowly Southern Kings, who have not even qualified for the Currie Cup Premier league and have lost to the Boland Cavaliers in the final of the First Division of the competition?

And yet, despite their mediocrity, the Kings are guaranteed a starting spot in the Super Rugby competition.

This is the sort of oddities that Meyer will have to deal with and that he will have to ‘defeat’, if he is to be successful.