Heyneke Meyer and the All Whites

[ZCFOutkast]

Uh, quite a racist generalisation there. Kolisi, Mvovo and Beast all had cracker debuts and careers subsequently.

Don't blame the players who are there based on merit for political pandering.

Give that man a bells. ... or is it Klipdrift - gold in every drop?!

 

[Galactica]

Mind Games: Jinne mense, stop bitching and give us some colour in rugby

Dan Retief
22 September 2014 13:45

Just before the rugby World Cup in South Africa from May to June 1995, I was shown a press release by then SA Rugby Union CEO Edward Griffiths just before it was given to the media.

It announced that all national Under-17, Under-19, Under-21 and Under-23 teams would have to include a quota of players from disadvantaged and underprivileged backgrounds – black players.

This was Griffiths’ brainchild. He said transformation was progressing too slowly. Unions had to be forced to include more black players in their teams.

The move was seen as necessary to help then President Nelson Mandela pacify those in the ANC who were looking with horror at this celebration of a sport they saw as the preserve of the white right.

It was received with opprobrium for Griffiths and an outcry in many unions.

That was 19 years ago. Today we sit with the same problem.

A “strategic transformation plan” has recently been leaked, saying black players should make up 50% of national and provincial sides by 2019.

Saru says the percentages are targets, not quotas. Many commentators feel its goal is for seven of the 23 players (30%) in match-day squads at next year’s World Cup to be black.

As in 1995, the reaction is mixed. Some people laud the step. Others, along with some in sectors of the Afrikaans press, roundly condemn it.

AfriForum says it will lodge a complaint with the International Rugby Board about a racial quota *system – though an unspoken, race-based selection policy has been in place for years now.

Many rugby scribes jump to Heyneke Meyer’s *defence over suggestions that he is out of step with the imperatives of transformation. Their gist is that his job as national coach is to turn out winning Springbok sides. The blame, they say, should be *apportioned lower down the chain.

All I can do is quote Evita Bezuidenhout: “Jinne mense!”

It’s been 19 years and what do we have? Another policy document. We’ve had them before. We’ve had “development” indabas, replaced by “transformation” indabas.

We’ve had a succession of sports *ministers – Makhenkesi Stofile, Ngconde Balfour and Fikile Mbalula – beating their drums.

We’ve had 2009’s sports portfolio chairman, Butana Komphela, excoriating the game.

We’ve had a succession of Saru administrators like Silas Nkanunu, Mluleki George, Mike Stofile, and today’s president and deputy, Oregan Hoskins and Mark Alexander, who qualify on the awful “quota” ticket. Still we play the blame game.

The simple fact is that everyone in rugby is responsible. No one will grasp the nettle.

Everyone hoped the transformation problem would go away with platitudes, with some good, some insincere intentions.

It hasn’t.

For years I’ve been calling Saru to establish academies run by crusaders (old-school teachers) and top coaches (to coach the coaches) in the Eastern Cape.

Nineteen years is too long.

Saru’s fudged and stalled transformation. It faces the reality that South Africa’s demographic profile is changing so fast, it will soon have no supporters.

White support of rugby is decidedly elderly. Black support has been alienated.

It is time, Mr Hoskins, Mr Alexander, to waive the trips, give up the ceremonies, roll up your sleeves and actually do something.

Link.

 

[Wag]

Me think Heyneke Meyer with a All white team will always do better in rugby than Sipho Matwete and his all black team

 

[Werner Harding]

*Shaking head* Ja 2 years back HM was only selecting Bulls players and everyone bitched and moaned, last time I checked there were only 3 Bulls players in the squad and now you cant complain about that any more you play the race card really?

 

[ZCFOutkast]

Absolutely gutted! He should've been dismissed after the AB's dispatch the Boks next week, but Heyneke buys himself more time. Actually, the players stepped up for him, as did the seriously talented yet headless Wallabies. Considering most of his selections were not Bulls, they should've been happy to roll over and see him get fired! Alas!

 

[MickeyD]

Absolutely gutted! He should've been dismissed after the AB's dispatch the Boks next week, but Heyneke buys himself more time. Actually, the players stepped up for him, as did the seriously talented yet headless Wallabies. Considering most of his selections were not Bulls, they should've been happy to roll over and see him get fired! Alas!

Shame, your ring burning?

 

[ZCFOutkast]

Shame, your ring burning?

No!

 

[sand_man]

Absolutely gutted! He should've been dismissed after the AB's dispatch the Boks next week, but Heyneke buys himself more time.

Other than Kitch Christie, Meyer is SA's most successful post isolation coach. Why would you think he is anywhere near to losing his job?

 

[Dave]

Except, none of the above is applicable to Bafunny Bafunny

How do you mean?

What is the quota for white players in the Bafana Bafana team?

 

[ponder]

Other than Kitch Christie, Meyer is SA's most successful post isolation coach. Why would you think he is anywhere near to losing his job?

HM is just riding the wave. He has a schite style of rugby (which everybody refers to as blue bulls rugby). I cannot wait for him to be gone.

 

[KOPITE]

HM is just riding the wave. He has a schite style of rugby (which everybody refers to as blue bulls rugby). I cannot wait for him to be gone.

He has also never beaten the All Blacks, even PdV has gotten to,play better rugby then what we playing ATM. Apart from the last 15-20min we looked very ordinary where the Aussies dominated us. We need a change in mindset and a change of coach.

 

[sand_man]

He has a schite style of rugby.

What? Winning rugby?

 

[OGroteKoning]

What? Winning rugby?

Hardly

 

[phoneJunky]

He has also never beaten the All Blacks, even PdV has gotten to,play better rugby then what we playing ATM. Apart from the last 15-20min we looked very ordinary where the Aussies dominated us. We need a change in mindset and a change of coach.

Most other teams haven't either. You make it sound that PdV was bad, he currently has the 4th best win loss ratio since readmission. And Heineke has the second best. Yes some things are not as we want it, but we are currently second best and we were in the top 3 basically from 2003 till now. Our coaches must know something.

And we didn't look ordinary as you put it. We looked threatening the whole time apart from the few times their 13 made some gaps.

Yes there were times that conditioning looked a bit off, the counter attack were JdV knocked on etc, but in the end we looked fitter than them.

 

[sand_man]

Hardly

Other than Kitch's 100% win ratio, HM has the highest win ratio since readmission. Those are the indisputable facts. The rest is opinions, prejudices and perceptions.

 

[OGroteKoning]

Other than Kitch's 100% win ratio, HM has the highest win ratio since readmission. Those are the indisputable facts. The rest is opinions, prejudices and perceptions.

Can't argue facts. Can you perhaps isolate the win ratios only against the ABs and Aus? How would all the coaches then compare?

 

[ZCFOutkast]

Other than Kitch's 100% win ratio, HM has the highest win ratio since readmission. Those are the indisputable facts. The rest is opinions, prejudices and perceptions.

I think I've seen some of the worst rugby on display by the Boks more often under HM than anyone else. That's just my opinion.

I stand to be corrected, but every other "top" nation I can think of has produced some magic during the time HM's been coach - Eng, Aus, Fra, NZ, Arg, WAL, IRE&SCO - but I can't pick out one time that the Boks have made people stand up and take notice unde Heyneke. It's been punishing to watch!

The saddest thing in my view is tha Argentina have grown leaps and bounds while it seems the Boks have gone backwards as much as the Argentinians have progressed. Sure the Wallabies are unpredictable, turning into the French, but there's serious talent there and everyone knows it's enough to take the WC if they click. Even if we click I don;t see us winning the WC. Not by a long shot!

 

[MickeyD]

I think I've seen some of the worst rugby on display by the Boks more often under HM than anyone else. That's just my opinion.

I stand to be corrected, but every other "top" nation I can think of has produced some magic during the time HM's been coach - Eng, Aus, Fra, NZ, Arg, WAL, IRE&SCO - but I can't pick out one time that the Boks have made people stand up and take notice unde Heyneke. It's been punishing to watch!

The saddest thing in my view is tha Argentina have grown leaps and bounds while it seems the Boks have gone backwards as much as the Argentinians have progressed. Sure the Wallabies are unpredictable, turning into the French, but there's serious talent there and everyone knows it's enough to take the WC if they click. Even if we click I don;t see us winning the WC. Not by a long shot!

You never saw the 1974 Boks, did you?

 

[sand_man]

I think I've seen some of the worst rugby on display by the Boks more often under HM than anyone else. That's just my opinion.

I stand to be corrected, but every other "top" nation I can think of has produced some magic during the time HM's been coach - Eng, Aus, Fra, NZ, Arg, WAL, IRE&SCO - but I can't pick out one time that the Boks have made people stand up and take notice unde Heyneke. It's been punishing to watch!

So I take it you weren't watching the last 20 minutes of yesterdays test? Or the last game of last years Rugby championship at Ellis Park against the AB's?

Don't suppose you watched Jake Whites 2007 Bok team take 49 points in Brisbane against OZ either?

 

[ZCFOutkast]

Don't suppose you watched Jake Whites 2007 Bok team take 49 points in Brisbane against OZ either?

Eish, don't remind me. I'm still shell-shocked to this day.

I put those guys down to indiscipline. Something was wrong in their heads. If they weren't being hooligans at times, they were simply being clumsy&careless. Unfortunately for him PdV inherited that, but somehow he made the boys comfortable in their conduct and it was gradually normalised to good effect. In the end they were brutal but played within the laws of the game. Unfortunately life for the average Bok fan was to turn on referees and adopt an us against them mentality.

Going back to Jake White's boys, there were times when they absolutely dominated sides - physically, tactically & technically. They played sport properly sometimes and enjoyed it. Heyneke's boys don't enjoy it. It's hard graft. So how can we as fans enjoy it when they clearly don't? Then again from my experience, the average Afrikaaner has a Jimmy Anderson persona. Seemingly angry with life, disinterested, knuckles down and gets on with it as best as possible. That's how the Boks go about it, so maybe you find that appealing.