Ken Borland

South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer on Saturday included three flyhalves and a trio of fullbacks in an expanded 30-man squad for the Springboks’ two home Rugby Championship tests against Australia and New Zealand.

South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer believes the current Springbok team will become stars of the future despite a lean recent run that has seen them lose to New Zealand and Australia and be held to a draw by Argentina.

“I have a special feeling about this team going forward. We’re on the right track and the results will come,” Meyer told journalists at the O.R. Tambo International Airport on Monday after the team’s return from New Zealand, where they were beaten 21-11 by the All Blacks in Dunedin.

“I thought we scrummed well and I’m very happy with our front row. The combination we used in the loose forwards was superb against the best loose trio in the world and we have four great locks going forward.

“There were lots of positives from Dunedin, especially from the forwards, and I believe we did enough to win that game. I think it instilled that self-belief in the team that they can beat anyone anywhere,” Meyer said.

South Africa dominated the first 50 minutes of the Rugby Championship test, but missed kicks at goal cost them 20 points.

Flyhalf Morne Steyn, the hero of their 2009 and 2010 campaigns, was responsible for 11 of those missed points and the waning influence of the Springbok backline has also been blamed on the 28-year-old pivot. But Meyer believes Steyn, who has started all seven matches this year under the new coach, still has a future at international level, pointing to the resurgence in form shown by wing Bryan Habana, South Africa’s all-time leading try-scorer who struggled with his form last year and played just six of the Springboks’ nine tests.

“I don’t want to knock individuals but the missed kicks were crucial. Morne is mentally tough though and if you look at what happened to Bryan Habana, with the right guidance he is now playing phenomenal rugby again. I don’t want to boost myself, but I’ve always been great at getting the best out of players and the mental break will do Morne well. We’ll look at the situation after this weekend’s Currie Cup matches and then decide who will play,” Meyer said.

Meyer said the way the Springboks dominated the All Blacks in Dunedin showed that the controversial game plan they were using was the right one.

“The guys were very unhappy not to win, but sometimes we’ve played worse rugby in New Zealand and won, it was just the goalkicking that let us down. Otherwise we did enough to win, it was the right game plan and we kept them under pressure, we just couldn’t convert that into points.

“It was 3-5 at half-time, but it could have been 15-5 if we’d made our kicks, that would have built pressure and they would have had to chase the game. There’s always criticism about the game plan, but I believe we got it 100% right, we just didn’t put the kicks over. We had them under pressure,” Meyer said.

The Springbok squad for their last two Rugby Championship matches, both at home against Australia in Pretoria on September 29 and New Zealand in Soweto on October 6, will be named on Saturday night after the Currie Cup games have been completed.

South Africa have an outside chance of still claiming the title if they register bonus-point wins in both those home fixtures and the All Blacks lose in Argentina without getting a bonus point.

The Highveld Lions have always said all they needed to challenge for the four-day domestic title was a more penetrative bowling attack and new coach Geoffrey Toyana is confident that his team now have the weaponry to win the Sunfoil Series this season.

“In the past our strength has been our batting and our problem was the bowling. But that’s now been solved because we’ve signed Hardus Viljoen and Imran Tahir, and there’s Chris Morris coming through as well,” Toyana said at the Wanderers on Monday.

“Hopefully they will all bowl well for us, plus there’s Garnett Kruger back with us as well. But the biggest thing is for us to play good, consistent cricket in all formats. In the past, we’ve been good in one format but poor in the others.”

Alviro Petersen, the Lions captain, shared his coach’s enthusiasm, saying the Gauteng/North-West franchise would go into the competition with a new-look attack.

“The whole format of our attack has changed, we now have three strike bowlers and one holding bowler, plus Zander de Bruyn can do a holding job for us as well. The bowling was our problem area, you have to take wickets to win four-day matches. We’ve done well with our batting, but now the bowling has to improve,” Petersen said.

The Lions team is likely to be a blend of experienced senior players such as De Bruyn, Neil McKenzie, Petersen and Thami Tsolekile and exciting new prospects like Chris Morris, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock and Pumelela Matshikwe. The mix excites Toyana.

“It’s a good thing to have that mix and I’ve appointed Neil to work with Temba Bavuma this season, while Alviro will mentor Quinton de Kock. Plus there’s Stephen Cook around too so there’s experience and youth, and it’s a good mix,” Toyana said.

The Lions begin their Sunfoil Series campaign against the Cobras in Potchefstroom on Thursday, before playing the Dolphins in Johannesburg from September 27. But then, in a quirk of scheduling, they will change to T20 action with the Champions League taking precedence.

“I can live with it, there are no issues, it’s easier to go from four-day cricket to T20 than the other way round,” Toyana said.

Petersen reckoned that the two four-day games would be a good build-up for the Lions as they look to celebrate a lucrative payday in the Champions League.

“It will be good for us, those two four-day games will give us a good base. Hopefully we’ll spend a lot of time batting and bowling and we’ll be at 100% going into the Champions League,” Petersen said.

“The last couple of years, we’ve been building a team to win the four-day competition and now we’ve got the squad, there’s a good vibe around the team.

“Geoff’s style is different, as with every coach. He’s more relaxed. The Lions have matured as a side, Dave Nosworthy did a great job steadying the ship, and now Geoff allows the guys just to express themselves. He also communicates well with both the young and senior players,” the national team opener said.

“The players must relax, I want them to start enjoying playing cricket again, that has been missing. But we want to hit the season running. We tend to only wake up after two or three games, so I’ve emphasised that we need a good start,” Toyana said.

http://www.supersport.com/cricket/domestic-four-day/news/120917/Toyana_confident_Lions_have_the_weaponry

Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer has a degree in psychology and he will surely need to have sessions with Morne Steyn on the couch – and bring Dean Greyling along for good measure – after South Africa’s infuriating 21-11 loss to the All Blacks in Dunedin on Saturday.

Meyer has persevered with Steyn at flyhalf for all seven Tests this year, but surely a man of his intellectual capacity and people skills must now realise that the hero of 2009 and 2010 is mentally shattered and devoid of all confidence.

The Springboks wasted 20 points with kicks at goal, with Steyn missing three penalties along with a conversion, while Francois Steyn (2) and Johan Goosen also missed three long-range penalties between them.

It is hard to remember a substitute having a more disastrous impact than Greyling did. The front-ranker clearly needs his head read after conceding some of the stupidest penalties possible on a rugby field, including a shocking assault on the face of Richie McCaw that is bound to have some more serious consequences than the yellow card he was issued with.

The inexperienced Springbok pack was magnificent in a come-of-age performance that saw them match if not edge the All Blacks up front, laying a platform that was ultimately wasted by Morne Steyn and some laborious backline play.

There were some promising signs from the backline, but great try-scoring opportunities were butchered in the fifth minute, on the half-hour and on the hour mark.

With three minutes remaining and the All Blacks 18-11 up, the Springboks were then gifted another golden opportunity when Keven Mealamu threw a lineout ball five metres from his own line straight to Greyling, who promptly dropped the ball.

The Blue Bulls prop should have had the good grace to want to be swallowed whole by the Forsyth Barr Stadium turf, but instead he then cost South Africa even a bonus point for their efforts when he stupidly handled the ball in a ruck, allowing All Blacks flyhalf Aaron Cruden to kick a penalty after the final hooter.

Greyling’s first act after coming on to the field in the 50^th minute was also a blatant hands in the ruck, Cruden’s penalty allowing New Zealand to draw level just two minutes after Bryan Habana’s brilliant individual try.

There were times in the first half when the All Blacks were floundering against the Springboks’ suffocating defence, physicality in the collisions and pressure game. But the goalkicking woes drowned out all conversation about those major positives.

Fullback Israel Dagg’s wonderful attacking instincts saw him feature prominently in the move he finished for the All Blacks’ opening try in the 20^th minute and the hosts led 5-3 at half-time. At that stage, South Africa had already missed 15 points via missed kicks at goal.

But the Springboks regained the lead in the 50^th minute through Habana’s brilliant try. Flip van der Merwe won the lineout throw and, even though Francois Louw stumbled in receiving the pop off the top, he found Habana roaring through on the angle. South Africa’s all-time leading try-scorer burst through the first line of defence before he chipped over the fullback and regathered the ball to score in the right corner.

The next half-hour was dominated by Greyling, although Morne Steyn also kicked away some good attacking ball with aimless kicks. If it were the navy, they would be consigned to port immediately by the good ship South Africa, because their heads are clearly not in the right place.

But there are huge positives to be drawn from the game for the Springboks, even if the result was a major disappointment.

The ferocious performance of the pack, led by flank Willem Alberts and lock Juandre Kruger, is at the head of the list, while the defence was also much improved as the Springboks warded off several dangerous attacking forays by the New Zealand backs.

Springbok rugby may well have moved out of the ICU ward on Saturday and, if Meyer can correctly diagnose where the mental deficiencies are, he may well be able to produce pleasing results in Pretoria and Soweto in coming weeks.

http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-09-15-crushed-by-the-all-blacks-south-africas-national-facepalm-moment