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Mongolian warlord Genghis Khan captured more than 12 million miles of territory back in the 11th century, more than any other person in history.
He did this while giving orders to his generals high on a hill overlooking the battlefield. In those days, he didn’t have a walkie-talkie, so his generals used riders on horseback to convey his instructions to the troops.
It’s far easier for Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer, of course, who has a walkie-talkie and can bark orders to the bench from high in the stand. TV viewers have become accustomed to seeing him in frenzied action. I don’t doubt Meyer’s commitment to the cause, but he is becoming to look like a control-freak.
Both Genghis and Heyneke had a game plan of winning territory and of controlling the battle. In Khan’s case, he had great success. However Meyer’s warriors failed miserably in the battle, they lost 14-10 on the field in Wellington.
In the first 20 minutes of last Saturday’s Rugby Championship match, the All Blacks spent all of eight minutes in the Springbok half of the field, while we spent 50 seconds in theirs. It came down to tactics. We used the boot. They kept the ball in hand.
Both moves are intended to win territory. Kick-and-chase tactics can work but only if the kicks are accurate. When they weren’t, the All Blacks kept hold of the ball, ran at us and made inroads into our territory. By the end of the game, the New Zealanders had enjoyed more than 60 percent of territory and possession.
The All Blacks, too, use the up-and-under but vary their strategy. Meyer’s game plan appears set in a Stone Age and is easily read. His mantra has always been that it is a question of execution. But you can’t hang anyone if you don’t have control of the rope.
Richie McCaw’s men were allowed to launch far more attacks on the Springbok tryline. However, credit must be given to a magnificent South African defence, where number 8 Duane Vermeulen, meaner than a junkyard dog, showed his bite was as good as his bark. He was every bit as good as opposite number Kieran Read.
It is all very well to concoct a game plan in your tent before the match, but when it does not work, it has to change, and surely the best person to decide on this is the man in the thick of battle, your captain.
Jean de Villiers appears allowed to decide only on whether to try for the posts from a penalty or opt for a lineout and the subsequent driving maul. Why the man up high in the box believes that he should decide on any change of tactics is beyond me. The problem is that Meyer does not have a Plan B, so too often it’s kick and chase.
When we did give our potent backline a go, Cornal Hendricks scored a beaut of a try after a slick inside pass from Handre Pollard. In Bryan Habana, who has flair to his fingertips, de Villiers, Hendricks and Willie le Roux, we have game-breakers as good as the All Blacks.
Twenty-year-old Pollard, playing in only his fourth Test, gave an impressive performance in the white-hot cockpit of tension of the Cake Tin. He played flat at outside half and attacked the gain line. He didn’t sit back safe in the pocket like Morne Steyn used to do. Pollard showed skill, too, with the boot and popped over a drop-goal to increase South Africa’s tally. I can’t see Meyer dropping Steyn from the squad as the World Cup looms but the 29-year-old isn’t that far from Boot Hill.
Meyer still believes we are “on track” for the World Cup next year, but I wonder what he bases this view on. We have so far lost two key older, experienced players to injury for the rest of the Championship, both scrum halves in Fourie du Preez and Ruan Pienaar. Lineout guru Victor Matfield, too, couldn’t play in the first two games because of injury. However, he had a superb day in the lineouts in Wellington and I hope the 37-year-old remains a potent force in a year’s time.
I don’t believe we have the depth of the All Blacks. Look at their options at flyhalf: Dan Carter, Aaron Cruden and Beauden Barrett. And then you have a dangerous and inventive backline, which includes Conrad Smith, as slippery an eel as they come, the Smith brothers Aaron and Ben, Ma’a Nonu, Julian Savea and Israel Dagg. Nonu, out injured, should be there for the World Cup as will Sonny Bill Williams, returning from a spell in rugby league.
We do have the players, but we don’t have the tactics to win a World Cup. We did have them in 1995 and 2007, but the game has changed and Meyer won’t change with it.
He should stop behaving like Genghis Khan. It’s tough to win territory that way on a rugby pitch. Barking orders from a box isn’t the way to do it. By all means have a battle plan, but it should be flexible. The man who’s in the best position to decide how to play is his captain, Jean de Villiers, who, with 100 Test caps, should know enough about rugby by now to cope.
Andy Jardine is a former chief sub-editor for the Sunday Times in South Africa.
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