Meyer and Co’s real test begins
Bok coach Heyneke Meyer believes that this World Cup will be won in three key areas: the scrum, the maul and breakdown.
|||Eastbourne – After the mayhem of the frenetic farewells in Joburg and the impassioned well-wishes of the country, yesterday’s arrival for the Springboks in the quaint seaside resort of Eastbourne must have been like Alice’s descent into Wonderland.
The Boks, replete in their blazers and ties , plonked themselves down on the verandah of their beach front hotel, looking out on to the English Channel (their rooms were two hours from being ready), soaked up the sun and the blue sky, and welcomed the World Cup, with an oompah band striking up a tune on the beach and ice cream vendors doing a roaring trade.
Many of the Boks soaked up the time tucking in at a string of fish and chips shops on the promenade. But for their coach and captain, it was business as usual as they did duty at their first of many Rugby World Cup press conferences.
“Well I hope I will be doing this for at least seven weeks,” Heyneke Meyer smiled. “That is the plan. We see winning the World Cup as producing seven successful finals in seven weeks. It is not the expectation of the rugby world that we will do this, and we come here feeling no spotlight on us, but we put our own pressure on ourselves and that is to do our country proud.”
By contrast, New Zealand is the talk of the town.
The Kiwis had their official welcoming ceremony yesterday and England’s newspapers were awash with talk of the All Blacks becoming the first country to defend a World Cup crown and win it for the third time.
“The All Blacks are deserved favourites. Usually, a country has a dip after winning a World Cup but they have just kept on winning (since their 2011 triumph), but I am convinced that this is going to be the toughest World Cup ever,’ Meyer said. “I would say up to 10 teams can win it. I am convinced that even the most fancied team can come a cropper.”
Meyer said that World Cups take on a life of their own and evolve over the seven weeks.
“Look at England and how the Boks thumped them in the pool game in 2007 and then they pulled themselves together and had their chance to win the final,” Meyer said. “Or how France lost to Tonga in a pool game in 2011 and then counted themselves unlucky not to win the final against the All Blacks.”
The coach said that consistency over the campaign was the key to success, be it being able to field the same (uninjured) team week in week out, the bounce of the ball going your way or enjoying the rub of the green from the referee.
“Every World Cup final there has been has 50-50 calls for or against a team, and every campaign a team has suffered injuries,” Meyer said. “For me, having my captain stay fighting fit for seven games, along with a number of other senior players, is vital.”
Meyer, when pressed on technical issues, said he was most concerned about three key areas that could significantly influence the outcome of World Cup games.
“I think the World Cup will be won or lost in three areas,” he said. “Firstly the scrum, which is always a 50-50 call. Secondly, how they will police the lineout drives? Southern Hemisphere refs are a lot stricter on the mauls than Northern Hemisphere refs. We will want to use mauls a lot more.
“The biggest factor will be the breakdown. What is difficult for coaches in all three situations is that it isn’t as if you get a 50-50 decision for you or against you, it is always a 50-50 on who will get the penalty. If you look at all the previous World Cup (playoffs), there weren’t many tries and most of the points came from penalties. Two wrong decisions could be six points and that will be the difference between winning and losing, and often you have no control, no matter how much you train for the situations. - Sunday Independent