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It has been a few days since the announcement of the Springbok squad for the June internationals and it gave me some time to mull over the selections.
In the forwards there were no real surprises and the welcoming inclusion of some young potential stars such as Siya Kolisi, Arno Botha, Pieter Steph du Toit, Trevor Nyakane, Lappies Labuschagne and Lourens Adriaanse.
The truth is nobody can complain about the depth in the forwards, bar perhaps a concern at tight head, Heyneke Meyer might still have an inclination to convert Coenie Oosthuizen into a tight head prop.
That in my opinion would be a wrong move. The fact is tight head prop is most certainly a specialist position and I can’t think of any South African prop over the last 20 years that has successfully converted from loose head.
Hopefully Lourens Adriaanse would be able to make a success at tight head as South Africa is in short supply at international level.
Further than that I believe that Meyer has selected his forwards very well, and could depending on combinations create whatever balance he feels is required considering the opposition at the time.
Schalk Burger and Duane Vermeulen is of course still missing due to injury and would have added a significant physicality to the mix.
It is however the backline selections that make for very interesting reading, and this is where the intentions of Heyneke Meyer will soon be revealed.
Let me say up front that I don’t want us to play in the manner of New Zealand, the simple truth is it takes time to adapt that we don’t have and possibly would never have the inclination to do.
What South Africa need to do is stick to their strengths, we know our set phases are among the best in the world, our scrum at times has struggled, but that was mainly due to trying to convert hookers and loose heads to tight head.
It is something that has proven to be a huge failure and not to be repeated, other than that, our scrum has been solid enough, our line outs have been world leading for some time now and few countries have the mauling ability of South Africa.
The rush defence has been found out during the Super Rugby where a sweeper was not employed and the Sharks, Stormers and Cheetahs especially were on the receiving end of some very soft tries with little kicks into space.
Looking at the backline selections I am very excited to see players such as JJ Engelbrecht, Willie le Roux and Jan Serfontein in the mix.
I have a bit of a concern about Raymond Rhule, although he has electric pace his defensive frailties have been badly exposed during the Super Rugby and his positional play at the back is also not up to standard.
Earlier this year Heyneke Meyer commented that he was unhappy about the manner in which the South African franchises executed at the breakdown, and in specific about the fact that they weren’t being ‘smart’ at the rucks.
This has been a frustration of mine for some time as I find it unbelievable how we struggle to adapt to the situations at the breakdowns.
Meyer’s mantra since he took over the reign has been one of getting the basics executed perfectly first, then he would move on to adapting game plans and being more expansive.
That does make sense, however a balance must be struck between waiting for the players to execute the breakdown satisfactory and looking at ways to improve the attack.
For the last decade South Africa have employed their forwards as ball carriers 60 percent of the time in comparison to New Zealand who would use their backs around 60 percent of the time as ball carriers.
The problem that was evident last year was that the forwards couldn’t sustain their ‘blitz’ for 80 minutes.
After a burst of 20 minutes, they would need 40 minutes recovery to once again hit full throttle, it did show however that even the All Blacks were pushed to match the forward ‘blitz’.
The importance of Meyer having his backs more involved in attack is there for vital.
The Bulls have shown this year that when they decide to use their backs at pace and go wide they would find holes in just about any defence, and it is from that, I hope Meyer would have learnt.
The reality is what the Bulls did is not outside of South Africa’s strengths, it is also not all that risky either.
It may be direct, but it is much more effective having 15 ball carriers at pace, rather than just eight and it is ultimately better use of the 68 meters width of the pitch.
When you look at the Cheetahs, their success has come from individual bits of magic, a player like Willie le Roux has been a stand out player for them, and has shown even when you play with less than 40 percent possession it is possible to score if you have a skilled and creative back somewhere in the back line.
I there for believe Heyneke Meyer with the right selections can put out a backline that will provide us the ability to play it wide, as long as somewhere he finds a spot for Willie le Roux.
He is the one guy that can make something out of nothing when the chips are down.
The midfield selection are strong, whether a combination of de Villiers (who is having his best Super Rugby season for some time) and Engelbrecht, or Serfontein and de Villiers, either will be effective at pace.
This all of course depends on the speed at which ruck ball is cleared, the whole game plan hinges around one crucial factor quick ball, and if Ruan Pienaar, Francois Hougaard or Jano Vermaak do not provide the backline with quick ball, all the execution at the breakdown would make no difference.
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