Munster sign Stormers wing Van Den Heever

http://www.rabodirectpro12.com/news/16770.php

Rumoured for ages and ages. Munster have now completed the signing of Gerhard Van Den Heever. He is supposed to be an absolute flyer and one of the fastest wings around. On wiki its claimed that hes faster than Habana. Along with the signing of Andrew Conway from Leinster this will go some way to compensate for the loss of Doug Howlett.

Who are the starting centres then this year? Downey and who else? Sounds like some power and pace in the backs!

Isn't Casey Laulala still at Munster? Between him and Earles that will be your OCs with Downey and one of the 10s covering 12?

Starting to get an impressive set of outside backs there
At the risk of sounding mercenary, does he have Irish blood? From what I can gather, he isn't tied to SA yet

Absolutely brilliant signing! He should have been a Springbok three-four years ago but PdV, being an inept special, chose not to cap him.

Cryptoyourisan wrote:Absolutely brilliant signing! He should have been a Springbok three-four years ago but PdV, being an inept special, chose not to cap him.

Very hard for White wingers to get into the Springbok squad due to the quota system.

Cryptoyourisan wrote:Absolutely brilliant signing! He should have been a Springbok three-four years ago but PdV, being an inept special, chose not to cap him.

Couldn't agree more, used to love watching the Bulls while he was there. He is rapid. Quality signing.

So these are Munster's backline options. It seems that they loads of back three players and that Earls will play centre. Bolded players are who I assume will be the ones in contention for HC squads. Good competition for places.
 
 
Gerry Hurley Scrum-half  Ireland
Conor Murray Scrum-half  Ireland
Cathal Sheridan Scrum-half  Ireland
Duncan Williams Scrum-half  Ireland
JJ Hanrahan Fly-half  Ireland
Ian Keatley Fly-half  Ireland
Cian Bohane Centre  Ireland
Ivan Dineen Centre  Ireland
James Downey Centre  Ireland
Keith Earls Centre  Ireland
Casey Laulala Centre  New Zealand
Andrew Conway Wing  Ireland
Johne Murphy Wing  Ireland
Luke O'Dea Wing  Ireland
Ronan O'Mahony Wing  Ireland
Gerhard van den Heever Wing  South Africa
Simon Zebo Wing   Ireland
Denis Hurley Fullback   Ireland
Felix Jones Fullback   Ireland

Oh yes. This is a good one for the Munstermen.
 
I watched him in a couple of Stormers games and his flat speed over the first 30 is quite something.

Anyone still think Downey-Laulala is their best centre partnership? Those two with Zebo, VDH and... Earls? Earls has to be shoehorned in somewhere but this seems to leave him stuck in the position of not being the best 11, 13 or 14 in the province.

What to do with Keith Earls? Where does he fit in?

Why would you want to shoe horn anyone into a team if you think they are not good enough?

VDH will give us the option of a big winger. From what I've heard he had a great season in 2010, but hasn't been in great form since.  He was on the same U20s SA team and played with CJ Stander in the Bulls - who mustn't be too dissatisfied with his own time with Munster or else he would surely have put him off coming here.

Notch wrote:Anyone still think Downey-Laulala is their best centre partnership? Those two with Zebo, VDH and... Earls? Earls has to be shoehorned in somewhere but this seems to leave him stuck in the position of not being the best 11, 13 or 14 in the province.

What to do with Keith Earls? Where does he fit in?

Think a little trip to Connacht might be on the cards?  

Sin é wrote:Why would you want to shoe horn anyone into a team if you think they are not good enough?

I wouldn't but it seems Earls is seen as being too talented to omit for Munster and Ireland while we still haven't worked out how to actually use him best.

Artful_Dodger wrote:

Notch wrote:Anyone still think Downey-Laulala is their best centre partnership? Those two with Zebo, VDH and... Earls? Earls has to be shoehorned in somewhere but this seems to leave him stuck in the position of not being the best 11, 13 or 14 in the province.

What to do with Keith Earls? Where does he fit in?

Think a little trip to Connacht might be on the cards?   

The trip was made, but they knew they would be playing 3rd or 4th fiddle in Munster  

Notch wrote:

Sin é wrote:Why would you want to shoe horn anyone into a team if you think they are not good enough?

I wouldn't but it seems Earls is seen as being too talented to omit for Munster and Ireland while we still haven't worked out how to actually use him best.

Munster (or up to now, Ireland) has no difficulty figuring out where to use him and neither does Ireland. It works like:

@Munster = 13 (first choice).
@Ireland = 13 (2nd choice) and up to the arrival of Zebo, first choice 11.

When there are a few injuries, Earls can fill in anywhere in the back. He is a bit like Nacewa was for Leinster. Fullback was probably Nacewa's best position, but he was played on the wing to get all Leinster's best players on the pitch.

Sounds like in summary Earles best position is 23 where he can cover the entire backline and add attacking impetus as the game opens up. Personally I think his defence looks a little iffy when he's at centre but then again I don't see the Rabo games only Ireland and HEC.

Indeed, but in Casey Laulala you have a very classy 13 who makes good things happen. I'm not sure why Earls should be ahead of him if he's in form- he struggled in his first year but was looking the part towards the end of the season. His offloading game will add an extra dimension to your backline.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Sounds like in summary Earles best position is 23 where he can cover the entire backline and add attacking impetus as the game opens up. Personally I think his defence looks a little iffy when he's at centre but then again I don't see the Rabo games only Ireland and HEC.

Have a look at these stats to see how iffy his defence is. Looks like his stats fares very  favourably with all the other centres in the 6Ns. All the games included are when he has played in the centre for Ireland (mainly the 2012 6Ns).

Notch wrote:Indeed, but in Casey Laulala you have a very classy 13 who makes good things happen. I'm not sure why Earls should be ahead of him if he's in form- he struggled in his first year but was looking the part towards the end of the season. His offloading game will add an extra dimension to your backline.

See my attachment comparing the centres in the 6Ns as to why Earls is a better centre. Casey had two decent games for Munster this season - other than that he has beer poor to shocking. Offloading to the opposition has been one of his specialities. All very strange considering he is a Canterbury/Crusaders player and was coached by Penney in the past. Seems he only started to play well when Munster reverted to their old ways when POC came back and ROG started dictating things.

Instant name change to Gerry O'Heber. Sounds like a Kerryman for sure.

I was thinking more his positioning. Prime example being against England in the RWC warm up games. His tendency to drift towards the ball leaves potential space on the outside such as Manu exploited. A fairly dated example admittedly but that's what I've seen when I've seen him play.

formerly known as Sam wrote:I was thinking more his positioning. Prime example being against England in the RWC warm up games. His tendency to drift towards the ball leaves potential space on the outside such as Manu exploited. A fairly dated example admittedly but that's what I've seen when I've seen him play.

He may have missed a tackle that resulted in a try in a warm-up game in 2011, but he obviously learned from it. During the warm-up games Earls was playing on the wing & centre, so its hardly surprising if you get caught out once or twice. The following six nations you can see that he didn't miss many tackles. His defence is top notch now and compares well to BOD who is known as being a good defender.

But what about his attack! Manu is the only one who gets within shouting distance of him when he is in the centre.  He is frequently criticised for his distribution, but funnily enough in that 6Nations Ireland were the top try scorers with 13 in the 6Ns (compared to Ireland scoring 5 this 6Ns with BOD in the centre). Zebo does very well outside him for Munster (2 HC hattricks when playing outside Earls).

Munster are putting together a really good backline. Fullback looks like the weakest position atm. Hurley is solid but is too slow, jones hasn't looked the same since that ankle injury prior to the world cup. I'd expect earls, zebo and conway to get some decent game time at 15.

I am a bit surprised about this signing, van den Heever(shadow) has been around for a few years , but has never really cemented his place as a starter for the Stormers, even when he started as a rookie for the Bulls he never really managed to get many starts.

He reminds me of a quiet mouse with little confidence. I suppose he is leaving the Stormers to get more game time.

Maybe he gets an opportunity to blossom in Ireland, not convinced though.

I'm not that bothered about him leaving... he's a decent enough player but he doesn't have the x factor, doesn't have great pace and isn't of bok calibre now or in the future.

It was a bad trade taking van den heever and losing Engelbrecht (from and to the bulls).

I think he could make the Ireland team but there are probably better wingers in Ireland and certainly in SA.
For the stormers he was a good impact sub come 65 mins. I imagine Coetzee let him go because there was someone on half the salary who was just as good.

fa0019 wrote:I'm not that bothered about him leaving... he's a decent enough player but he doesn't have the x factor, doesn't have great pace and isn't of bok calibre now or in the future.

It was a bad trade taking van den heever and losing Engelbrecht (from and to the bulls).

I think he could make the Ireland team but there are probably better wingers in Ireland and certainly in SA.
For the stormers he was a good impact sub come 65 mins. I imagine Coetzee let him go because there was someone on half the salary who was just as good.

He doesn't have great pace? Really? All the stuff I've read on him says he's the fastest wing in SA.

Biltong wrote:I am a bit surprised about this signing, van den Heever(shadow) has been around for a few years , but has never really cemented his place as a starter for the Stormers, even when he started as a rookie for the Bulls he never really managed to get many starts.

He reminds me of a quiet mouse with little confidence. I suppose he is leaving the Stormers to get more game time.

Maybe he gets an opportunity to blossom in Ireland, not convinced though.

The Irish teams can only afford these types of signings (squad players) these days. Van Den Heefer is replacing Doug Howlett. Theres too much money in France and Japan to be able to compete.

Artful_Dodger wrote:

fa0019 wrote:I'm not that bothered about him leaving... he's a decent enough player but he doesn't have the x factor, doesn't have great pace and isn't of bok calibre now or in the future.

It was a bad trade taking van den heever and losing Engelbrecht (from and to the bulls).

I think he could make the Ireland team but there are probably better wingers in Ireland and certainly in SA.
For the stormers he was a good impact sub come 65 mins. I imagine Coetzee let him go because there was someone on half the salary who was just as good.

He doesn't have great pace? Really?  All the stuff I've read on him says he's the fastest wing in SA.

Maybe only fast in a straight line over a long distance (50m+ , which is long in rugby terms)???

maybe he's deceptively quick but I don't see it myself. He has pace don't get me wrong but no more then your average club wing. He certainly doesn't sprint past rival wingers come match day.

He's a big chap, 100kg+ more around the size of Ben Cohen/Sterling Mortlock so it would be surprising if he was near the fastest... although perhaps you were reading 100m stats as some big chaps build momentum and overtake guys like Aplon who have amazing acceleration 0-30 but drop back over longer distances.

No way the fastest in SA though... Peterson at the kings runs 10.5 and thats accredited by the IAAF as he has participated in actual 100m events... unlike most players who are hand timed during training sprint sessions.

I'd say Rhule, Habana, Basson, Aplon, De Jongh & Peterson are quicker.

v d Heever is no slouch, but nowhere near the fastest wing in SA.

I should probably listen to wikipedia a bit less, where it says hes supposed to be faster than Habana.

I watch the Stormers/WP play most of the time if not all games.... I can't remember seeing him ever burning any opposition wing for pace like Habana, Basson, Aplon, Rhule & Peterson does on occasion.

Artful_Dodger wrote:I should probably listen to wikipedia a bit less, where it says hes supposed to be faster than Habana.

maybe the Wiki page was updated by a Van den Heever fan.  

Faster then Habana... jokes. Faster to the dinner table perhaps.

Apparently his nickname in the Bulls was 'shadow' because of his pace. Good summary of his career to date by Murray Kinsella (former Munster rugby academy player, now rugby journalist living in France).

http://touchlinerugby.com/

The problem for him is that moving to the Stormers really showed his deficiencies. The article attached has some good points.

At the bulls wings always get chances. They smash the door down then spread it wide for their backs to finish. The same cannot be said for the stormers. Kicking is more important and wings are used sparingly. Guys like Aplon, De Jongh & Habana stand out because they can score tries from nothing... because we're a one dimensional side thats what it takes to get noticed or rake up the try count.

Wynand Olivier looks impressive with the bulls... that says a lot.

No he doesn't