Meyer pleased with Boks
HEYNEKE Meyer is largely pleased with his Boks and has managed a full house in their four matches in the June international window period despite some areas of concern.
HEYNEKE Meyer’s Springboks have managed a full-house in their four matches in the June international window period.
The coach will be largely pleased, but there are areas of concern he will need to look at as he continues to build towards next year’s Rugby World Cup.
Victor Matfield and Schalk Burger returned to the Bok setup after two years and managed to gel and almost pick up where they left off with other trusted old hands in Meyer’s squad.
The coach used Saturday’s match against Scotland, the last of the four games this month, to blood some young guns, with five new caps and 13 changes to the team that narrowly beat Wales 3130 the week before.
Meyer is pleased with what his charges have achieved in four consecutive wins, against the World XV, Wales (twice) and the Scots.
He admitted to having been impressed with the team’s attacking game and defensive effort in the 55-6 win over Scotland, but it is the growing depth in the side that puts a smile on his face ahead of next year’s World Cup.
Meyer will have the Rugby Championship, which starts in August, and the year-end tour to further bed his Test combinations before heading to England to attempt to regain the crown the Boks won in 1995 and 2007.
“I’m very proud of these boys. I’ve really been blessed this whole (past) month,” Meyer said.
Some individual performances by players given a chance to prove themselves impressed the coach.
“There were a lot of guys who took their chances. I thought Marcell (Coetzee) played very well. Schalk (Burger), Duane (Vermeulen), the older guys all did well. Lood (de Jager) really played well … There are a lot of guys that put their hands up and I’m really proud of them,” he said.
Leading up to the June Tests, there was concern over the lock positions. Eben Etzebeth and Pieter-Steph du Toit — considered the natural replacements to Bakkies Botha and Matfield — were battling injuries and there were no experienced options to fill the gaps. Flip van der Merwe was also injured during the tour.
But Meyer is now content with the talent at his disposal in the lock position after De Jager proved himself and Stephan Lewies received his first cap in his first Super Rugby season.
“The one thing we are proud of is that we said that in the three years (2012 to 2014) we want to win all of our incoming tour games, and this is the last one before the World Cup, so we ticked all the boxes,” Meyer said.
“With Flip and Eben out, and some other locks, we were suddenly really in trouble but luckily Lood came through. At No 5 Victor is back to playing his best.”
But it’s not all rosy. Meyer is concerned about the depth at halfback in SA. Veteran Fourie du Preez came off early against Scotland with an ankle injury, prompting the coach to say: “I’m worried about Fourie. I still believe he’s the best scrumhalf in the world. You could see when he played, Handre (Pollard) was brilliant next to him.
We said in the three years we want to win all of our incoming tour games, and this is the last before the World Cup
I spoke to the doc and he had a big concern there (about Du Preez). I just hope he’ll be ready for the Rugby Championship. Fourie is so mature and gives the backline more stature, especially with a youngster on his side.”
Meyer went on to make a comparison between half-backs and loose forwards in the country: “We need to work hard on our No 9s and No 10s. The loose forwards I think are brilliant, even guys who are not in the squad. We need No 9s and No 10s coming through. Johan Goosen has been injured, Pollard is a shining diamond and it’s up to him now. I think he is good enough to play for his country for a long time.”