Bluster won't save Boks

05 November 2015 - 02:03 By Archie Henderson

What to make of Heyneke Meyer's invocation of the ANC in his re-election campaign? Perhaps Gwede Mantashe will enlighten us when he delivers his next instruction to the nation. The uncle's message after that defeat by Japan was that the Boks could still win the World Cup and that the ANC Women's League should stop campaigning for a female president. He was wrong on the first count and we're not yet sure about the second, although ANC women can be relied on to toe the party line, just like SA Rugby's general council, which will reappoint Meyer as Bok coach next month.We know Meyer shouldn't be there, but we will have to live with him and see if he can really be part of the solution. At least he has the backing of Sean Fitzpatrick. The former All Blacks captain suggested that like New Zealand had done after their 2007 World Cup debacle in reappointing Graham Henry, so SA Rugby should do with Meyer. He just neglected to tell us that Heyneke Meyer is no Graham Henry.At least HM knows where the bar is set: to be the best in the world you have to beat the All Blacks. But does he know he won't do it with the voorlaaierfootball he has insisted on since the defeat by Japan? And it's no good bleating about South African rugby not having the skills. What are coaches for?The first thing the coach needs to do is admit that a 20-18 defeat by the All Blacks in the World Cup semifinal was not as close as that scoreline suggests. It was not even as close as the final on Saturday, which was wider than the Tasman Strait. Dan Carter's drop-goal made it seem a desperate scramble by the ABs, but it wasn't.So Meyer must get it into his head that everything needs to focus on how to beat the All Blacks in 2019. Michael Cheika will already be planning how to do it, so will Daniel Hourcade and all those clever clogs in the Six Nations.Oregan Hoskins, president of SA Rugby and patron of the Bok coach, also senses it. He has suggested that the people around the coach need to be chosen with greater care. Jake White was big enough to ask Eddie Jones and Meyer has a variety of smart coaches out there to tap (not one of them a local). Just look what Joe Schmidt did with Ireland and Milton Haig with Georgia. And, dare we say it, Jones with Japan. Just don't ask Stuart Lancaster, who will be looking for a job. A last word on that final: If Nigel Owens is such a good ref and had the help of Professor Wayne Barnes on the touchline, how did they both miss rugby's Mr Goody-Twoshoes, David Pocock, deliberate stamp on the head of rugby's revered recidivist, Richie McCaw? Just asking.I am indebted to Gerard Robinson and Peter During for pointing out my schoolboy howler in last week's No Boundaries. It was, of course, Phillip Nel who captained the history-making 1937 Springboks to New Zealand who won the series against the All Blacks, then tossed his boots off the stern of the boat bringing the team home. Not Phil Mostert, who retired in 1932. For penance, as my old rugby coach would have said: "Twee keer om die veld (Twice round the field)."..

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