Letter to SARU.

Dear SARU.

It is with a heavy heart and pure frustration that I write this letter, let me firstly say I really do hope you read this and respond with an informative and thoughtful communication.

I have never been a Bulls supporter and therefor knew little of Heyneke Meyer prior to his appointment. I was well aware of the squad he built with the Bulls in the early 2000’s and the success he has had (Frans Ludeke subsequently).

With our very poor record over the last two years preceding Meyer’s appointment, I welcomed the thought of a new coach. By all accounts the Bulls supporters were in 7th heaven at the announcement that Heyneke Meyer will be taking the reign for the next four years.

Understandably due to little preparation time before the English Test series, I like many other Springbok supporters didn’t expect any revolutionary rugby during that series, but in turn would have been satisfied with a 3-0 series win.

For the Rugby championship my expectations based on the performances during the Super XV and specifically the poor form of the Australian Stars, my expectation was to win 4 out of six matches minimum with hopefully a win against the all Blacks at home to make it 5 wins. I also expected at least one bonus point win against the Argentinians at home.

You may say as Springbok supporters our expectations are unrealistically high, but then you need to understand that South African rugby must aim to be number one in the world.

Second place is simply not acceptable, anything worse than that is frankly embarrassing.

We have riches of talent that is only rivaled by New Zealand, however there is a question mark as to why of the more than 200 South Africans plying their trade overseas, more than 70% of them are forwards.

There is a belief that South Africa’s traditional strengths lie with our forwards, which in my view is fast becoming a myth. Prior to the professional era our natural physical prowess provided us an edge over the opposition and there for played a big role in our successes prior to the professional era. The reality is every professional player these days, spend enough time training in the gymnasium to negate our natural physical prowess. What other teams have learnt in the professional era is to play intelligent rugby, something we have as yet not adapted to.

Part and parcel of the belief that we are physically at an advantage, has encumbered our willingness to create intelligent forwards and backs, there is a distinct lack of willingness to create space, running a player into space, offloading into space.

This stems from the fact that we play too deep from 10. Look at any of our back line moves over the past number of years, our inside center receives ball way behind the advantage line, which essentially means that opposition defences simply have to drift as we naturally run towards the sideline, no player comes on the inside shoulder of the ball carrier and as what happened this weekend, the ball carrier and support runner are simply bundled into touch.

Hence we continue to believe it is better to attempt to run through defences rather than creating space.

The first lesson I learnt as a young boy playing rugby was to always pass the ball to a player in a better position than me.

Out Players have forgotten that principle.

Merely passing the ball from 10 to 12 to 13 to 14 (if it ever gets that far) is not achieving much at all.

We never create doubt in defences, they know exactly what we are going to do, so our primary focus is to hope someone misses a tackle, if not, well then we just don’t score.

I was listening to Victor Matfield commentate on the Currie Cup match between the Bulls and Lions the weekend, and by way of his comment it showed me the mindset the Boks have had for the past number of years. He spoke about kicking the up and under to pressurize the fullback, hoping that the pressure can turn into a penalty of maybe five pointer.

So our focus is not to create scoring opportunities, but rather hoping for opposition mistakes, be it a transgression or a turn over.

There are two things wrong with that sentiment, it tells me we don’t have the belief or confidence that we can keep ball in hand and display enough patience and creativity to outfox defences.

It also tells me our mindset is to accumulate points by three’s.

If that is the case, it is no wonder we have not cultivated any creative back play, our coaches don’t believe in it, and our players certainly don’t believe in it.

My question to SARU is simple.

Are we aiming to be the leaders in rugby, or are we simply content with being also rans?

If SARU and Springbok rugby are aiming to be world leaders, you are doing a very poor job of convincing this Springbok supporter and many others like me.

Hope you get a reply mate.

I really am worried about what Meyer will do now in Dunedin. Coming off a loss and a draw, he's hardly going to think up an elaborate way to break down the AB defence. Sadly I think he will go with what he knows best. Try to smash the ABs at the breakdown and put pressure on the NZ back three and keep them pinned in their own territory and wait for mistakes. Like you say, this conservative game is predictable and can be countered.

What else is there?
He won't choose to throw the shackles away for this match and open up as they risk a big score.

I'm worried about the teams confidence in his gameplan. Telling the world his team were to inexperienced to maintain the gameplan against oz. How is he going to convince them they'll be ok against NZ. Are they going to trust him?

There's a serious issue of credibility within the squad and meyer looks to have boxed himself in, putting all his eggs in one basket and its starting to fall apart.

I think it was a serious mistake blaming his side like that and not taking any of the fall himself. He's put a wedge between himself and his team for the first time it seems.

I understand kicking to Savea but the other two are among the very best in the world at dealing with the high ball and if the kicks are just a bit off-in the indoor stadium the ABs will run it back and kill you.

The preying on opposition mistakes game is a very dangerous one. NZ have been below their best in all RC games but if they click and don't make mistakes, it spells deep trouble for SA. I felt the NZ forwards acquitted themselves well physically against an opponent who kept taking them on out there and I back them to do the same this week. NZ played a very reactive game in 03-based on turning the ball over and capitalising on mistakes and it worked wonders on teams that did make them-but in the semi Australia didn't make them and won the collisions. Game over-NZ got thumped. With Spencer and no Mehrtens there was no Plan B but with Goosen/Steyn there is one looking Meyer right in the eyes. I was excited for Biltong and sad at the same time when they both came on. 10 minutes wasn't enough but it was a wee glimpse and Goosen played well.

Take O'Gara's kicking away and you have an absolute liability and so is the case with Steyn. Gotta get him out of there.

I think we are in for a bad one this weekend, Meyer is down to calling up has beens and 21 year olds to scrum up front against the all BLacks, not much hope for a decent performance this weekend.

Goosen is on a hiding to nothing, putting him on for 80 minutes against the all Blacks is going to be tough, he will either sink or barely stay afloat.

Our forwards aren't working together and Goosen will be under a lot of pressure.

I doubt Meyer is that foolish to play Goosen a full 80 minutes

NZ by 30 (at least)

NEVER right off a Bok side I fully expect a tight game Saturday,they have still only lost one game post RWC.With there usual goal kicking standards they could have won both of there last two matches. Win both there home games and they won`t be far from top of the log.

M Steyn will be targeted big time. They know he doesnt like to mix it up, or the unorthodox. Hes one of those players that needs to be left alone to do his thing and likes structure. Saturday he'll have players flying at him from everywhere.

He's consistently been poor against the AB's for that reason. Saders targeted him in the Bulls match and he had a shocker.

His channel will again be targeted and thats where both Arg and Oz went through to score untouched. Couple of years ago they put Steyn at Fullback just to have him on the field and Jane ran around him like he wasnt interested.

He just doesnt like playing the AB's and you cant have someone there whos in that frame of mind.

The basic plan is not without merits,play the game in the other teams half always helps.BUT when you get into the redzone at this level you need to come away with points.I was taught more years ago than I care to remember,to pass like you to a better placed support.BUT at some point a player had to straighten the line so it does`nt crab across the field.These days the creative 12 is seldom seen,more of a crash ball merchant.Defences now are almost completely league Style,the classic moves out moded and seldom seen.Like it or not if you have a player who can bang over 5 or 6 dropped goals he`s handy to have.Drop goal seemed to be a dirty word after Merthen s moved north in NZ.On the old 606 I queried if Dan Carter could actually perform as I had seen no attempt by him upto the time concerned.

Hope you've got a first class stamp on that letter Biltong.