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November 2013 was a bittersweet end to the season for many Springbok fans.
South Africa ended their season with a second consecutive unbeaten tour, but no less than 10 overseas players accompanied the Springbok squad on their tour of Europe.
Zane Kirchner, JP Pietersen, Bryan Habana, Jaque Fourie, Morne Steyn, Ruan Pienaar and Fourie du Preez were backline players, effectively only the captain Jean de Villiers and Willie le Roux had a regular starting spot during the tour.
That should be of great concern to any South African supporter. There is no other international coach who has an entire backline playing overseas that he calls upon.
In the forward pack, the situation is a bit more positive, only Francois Louw has been a regular in the forward pack and to an extent that can be tolerated at this point.
Perhaps it would be worth noting that a number of these Test players only left South Africa after the Super Rugby season.
JP Pietersen, Bryan Habana and Morne Steyn fall under that category, and you could argue that the transition of replacing all three those players all at once could have a significant impact on the continuity of the backline.
However, that argument fails when you consider Jaque Fourie, Ruan Pienaar, Fourie du Preez and Francois Louw has left South African rugby in previous seasons.
Add to that the press release this past weekend that Victor Matfield is coming out of retirement to play for the Bulls in this year’s Super Rugby tournament in the hope to qualify for Heyneke Meyer’s squad.
Anyone who has read Matfield’s book My Journey and followed the news in regards to Meyer’s wish list since 2012 would know that both Fourie du Preez and Victor Matfield has been part of that list.
We won’t know what has been discussed between them and the coach behind closed doors, but one thing I am quite certain of is that Matfield’s impending return has been driven by that wish list.
Pieter de Villiers were criticised throughout his tenure for holding onto players like John Smit, Victor Matfield and even Jean de Villiers for too long and failing to bring new talent through.
As much as John Smit was a revered player in South Africa, the calls for Bismarck du Plessis to be the first choice hooker, was deafening.
A coach has a fiduciary responsibility to his nation, he has to relinquish his team in a better state than what he received it in, going by that measurement, Pieter de Villiers Failed, Heyneke Meyer has made a promising start to tenure, and the results have spoken for themselves.
Losing to only Australia and twice to New Zealand in 2012, he followed that up with only two losses to New Zealand in 2013.
However, rugby is not only about short term results, it is also about development, and in my view the jury is out on whether Meyer is developing the team in the correct manner by recalling retired players and overseas players.
To be fair there can be two schools of thought here.
It could be that the injuries to players like Schalk Burger, Johan Goosen, Jaco Taute, Juan Smit and Piere Spies have influenced Meyer’s decisions on the basis of experience to continue selecting overseas players.
The return of Schalk Burger and Johan Goosen in particular might mean Francois Louw and Morne Steyn might not be the first choice players in their positions.
However the evidence suggests that the more likely theory is somewhat different.
Why is Heyneke Meyer so adamant to continue with Fourie du Preez and Ruan Pienaar?
Will he argue that he likes decision making to come from his nine and therefor his game plan evolve around the nine?
Or is it that he has no confidence in the decision making ability of Morne Steyn and therefor requires his experienced nines to be the decision makers?
If that is the case it would suggest that Meyer requires his Ten to be a kicking machine and unless his kicking form goes, he is prepared to suffer the consequences, as what happened in 2012.
It seems Heyneke Meyer has one goal in sight. Win the world cup, until then win as many games as you can.
I suppose you could argue there is nothing wrong with that thinking, most coaches work on that premise. However gaining ascendancy in world rugby is not a four year project, you cannot look at the world cup cycle in isolation.
Building a team and ensuring that it remains at the top of the pile needs a succession plan not only in coaches, but also in players. That goes irrespective of when the world cup is.
Meyer has debuted 12 players under the age of 22 in the past two seasons, but most of them has been set aside now for overseas retired players.
In what state is Meyer going to leave the Springbok team at the end of his tenure?
Will the next coach have to start all over again?
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.