Exodus of talent headache for coach
THIS WAS always meant to be a bit of a moving year for the Springboks under Heyneke Meyer.
The trouble for the coach is that it’s the players rather than his team that are on the move.
A solid core of his top personnel has moved on to overseas clubs, testing Meyer’s resolve to select domestic talent unless there are no quality options.
Meyer made a pretty good fist of his first year in charge of the Springboks last year. With little preparation time, he saw off England at home, did adequately in the Rugby Championship and finished with a solid end of year tour.
Meyer is a methodical man. He took a fair while to lay the foundations for his fabulous era at the Bulls that brought the first of their three Super Rugby titles.
He’s taking a similar approach with the national team.
But the performance graph needs an upward curve and it’s not the June romps over Italy, Scotland and Samoa that he will be judged on in 2013. It’s the next couple of months where Meyer’s ways will be tested.
This loomed as the season to bed in real contenders for the 2015 World Cup, to sort out the value of some veterans and the worth of the new-wave.
The exodus of top talent will certainly cause Meyer headaches as he charts his course forward.
It wasn’t a stellar Super Rugby season for South African sides and it ended with first-five Morne Steyn, wing Bryan Habana, utility JP Pietersen, locks Andries Bekker and Juandre Kruger, hooker Chiliboy Ralepelle, loose forwards Dewald Potgieter and Jacques Potgieter, halfback Jano Vermaak, centre Wynand Olivier and fullback Zane Kirchner packing their bags for European and Japanese destinations.
Flanker Francois Louw and halfback Ruan Pienaar already play in Europe.
Meyer’s long-term loyalty is suddenly under the gun. Another World Cup looked unlikely for several of those players, though they still offer value with their experience alongside the new players that must now be introduced.
Meyer will certainly be without lively backline utility Francois Hougaard, who needs ankle surgery, and there is a massive question mark over Schalk Burger, who is back training after a year out of the game with injury and illness.
The Boks were pretty awful on the road against their southern rivals last year, drawing 16-all in Argentina, losing 26-19 to the Wallabies in Perth and 21-11 to the All Blacks in Dunedin.
They were impressive at home until the All Blacks delivered a reality check with a resounding 32-16 win in Soweto.
That will be the measuring stick Meyer uses for this year’s campaign as the world No 2 looks to close the gap on the world champions.
It’s another tricky start with home and away matches against the Pumas, followed by a clash with the Wallabies in Brisbane where they haven’t won for more than 40 years and a match against the All Blacks at their Eden Park fortress. By the end of that, they’ll be doing well to still be in the title hunt for a campaign that finishes with home tests against Australia and New Zealand.
It will be intriguing to see if Meyer chances his arm, not just with selections but also style.
There has been little evidence that he can break away from the blueprint he managed effectively with the Bulls – power up front, a good kicking game and an occasional flick wide. CONFERENCE SPLIT TO BE TACKLED A decision about the shape of Super Rugby in 2016 and beyond is some way off, but splitting the threeconference system for most of the season and bringing it back together for a finals series is on the table. As reported by Fairfax Media last week, Sanzar is looking at the proposal as a solution to South African demands they have six teams in the competition instead of five. A potential complicating factor, should Sanzar agree to a model that splits the conferences, is that South Africa, which boasts the biggest domestic market of the three Sanzar nations, brings the most money to the table from television rights. But insiders say a twoconference model – South Africa and potentially Argentina in one, with Australia, New Zealand and an Asian team in the other – where the top teams meet in a finals series, would ensure a continued sharing of resources. Trans-Tasman games are also viewed well in South Africa, we are told, so it would not necessarily be a case of Australia and New Zealand going it alone financially. NO.7 WOES HURT BENJI Sir John Kirwan could be on to something amid rumours he considers Benji Marshall a No 12 in rugby, rather than a first five. Marshall’s first rugby league coach, Greg Lenton, believes the Kiwi superstar is paying the price for Wests Tigers’ inability to find a quality halfback. Lenton said he was suffering from having to fill the halfback and five-eighth roles for the Tigers since Rob Lui’s departure at the end of the 2011 season. ’’He was never a seven, he was never going to be a seven and he suffered as a result of a few of the things that happened there, particularly when the club lost Rob Lui,’’ Lenton said. ’’Benji was a natural six or second receiver, he was never, ever a first receiver and he knew that. But of course when they lost Robbie, they haven’t had anyone to replace him in that period of time and he has been playing that complete role – trying to guide the football team around the paddock, take all the responsibility. Why wouldn’t the flair and flash go from his game when he is trying to do that, so it has been very difficult for him.’’ Lenton said Marshall had been heavily criticised for his playing style at schoolboy level. ’’No one knows better than me the criticism he has copped because people used to say back then that’s not how you play the game.’’ BILLY FOR SEVENS It’s not just in New Zealand that the prospect a ‘‘Dream Team’’ representing the country at sevens at the Rio Olympics is driving imaginations. The prospect of Sonny Bill Williams, Benji Marshall and Shaun Johnson playing for Sir Gordie in black in 2016 has many salivating here. Kooky notions of Billy Slater doing the same for Australia are popping up. Such thinking clashes with the philosophy of Aussie Sevens coach and former league star Michael O’Connor, who is on record as saying he isn’t necessarily looking at poaching players from the 13-man code. Slater is off contract at the end of 2015. His management reports no approach has been made. But if Aussie rugby wants to set alight its code, picture the Queensland fullback carving through just seven players. Ola!