Lovely poem, Harry! That old saying “beware the wounded animal” sometimes proves true. I expect the Boks to be fired up in Buenos Aires, but it’s what we do next month will be what counts.

We have some really good players, as good as any other team, but we need a more intelligent approach by HM. With most of our best players fit for the WC, we still have a chance of glory. The big question is whether HM will load the team with experienced players or come up with a good mix of form and experience.

I include a piece from the NZ Herald of the peril of relying on ageing players:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11495973

If Meyer had started shaping a team in the early days and started bringing through talented young players, we would not be in the current mess. I still prefer Pollard over Lambie at pivot, but Pat could have developed over the years and become and even better player.

We now have a situation of younger players in great form competing with older experienced players, some of whom have been caught by Old Man Time. If HM had made the right moves, we would have a bigger pool of experienced players to choose from.

Because the younger stars have been given little game time in Tests, our pool of experienced players is small. The ABs and Aussies have done a far better of this.

HM has also stuck to a conservative game plan. When we play positive rugby, we look good. Confronted with reality, HM sticks his head in the sand.

I include a NZ Herald piece about the price paid of relying on ageing players.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11495973

cheers and here’s hoping for the best,
Andrew

Hi BBK, I have enjoyed your comments. I often discuss rugby with my brother Neil Jardine, who at one time captained Rhodesia and played internationals as a flyhallf against the Wallabies and Argentina, A mate of mine and former colleague on the Cape Times, when we were both sports writers, was Neville Leck. Neville wrote a book about H.O. de Villiers.

I ended up on the Sunday Times writing about golf, tennis and boxing. I now enjoy writing a bit about rugby. My brother’s rugby days were in the 1960s so they were probably well before your time! He is no HM fan and severely critical about the way the Boks play.

Don’t be surprised if Heyneke Meyer retreats into the laager. He doesn’t like to admit he’s made mistakes and always has excuses on hand. He doesn’t appear to know whether he’s Arthur or Martha when it comes to putting together a winning team for the World Cup.

I see that he even tried to get Juan Smith into the squad and was turned down. Smith is just another experienced player whose best days are behind him. I expect HM to fill the Bok team with experienced old-timers in the hope that they will deliver the goods next month. Fat chance.

He needs to show courage and take a chance with emerging young stars like Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel instead of Jean de Villiers at centre. Does he have the balls. I doubt it.

Although I am a fervent Bok fan, I can’t see how we can win the WC the way he’s been handling the coaching job.

I note that his tenure started before the pro era began so his record does not come into the analysis.

Anyone remember Kitch Chistie? The pro era started in 1995, the year he coached the Boks to WC victory. In my view, one of our best coaches. He knew how to get the best out of players. An intelligent man. HM does not come close. He is not a good listener and stubbornness is among his weaknesses.

I note that we have now dropped to fifth in the world rugby rankings. Ireland are second and South Africa no longer have bragging rights. What a mess.

MIndless.
The run-up to the World Cup has been a mess. Too many old players now injured and younger players being introduced too late.

Players as they get older are more susceptible to injuries, so it’s no surprise that Matfield, de Villers and Fourie du Preez have been injured. We should have been bringing in the younger players two years ago.

We will now face the Cup with too many older players and relative greenhorns. Experience is important, but don’t be surprised if older players suffer injuries during the World Cup. One knock on the knee and de Villiers will be out.

Although I am a fervent Springbok fan, I am appalled by our lack of depth and the lack of a Plan B when the going gets tough. Heyneke Meyer has been a flop and the World Cup will show that.

Shooting and killing defenceless animals is shameful no matter what McGrath did on the cricket field. The animals are caged and allowed out so visitors can shoot them for trophy pictures.

AB de Villiers, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson, Hashim Amla, David Warner, Chris Gayle … who knows?

I am so tired of Murray’s excuses and British reporters who insist Djoko’s victory was tainted by “play-acting”. He beat Murray fair and square. Murray melted down … again. His tennis is superb but his mental problems persist. He just loses it when the going gets tough. Lendl puts some steel in his backbone, while it’s now been replaced by jelly.

I can’t see De Villers being ready. Frans Steyn is a must. A match-winner especially with his big boot. Allende, Du Jongh strong contenders. Experience isn’t everything.

Sharma was speaking to his fellow batsman in Hindi, not Warner. We South Africans speak Afrikaans on both the cricket and rugby fields so the opposition don’t know what we are saying.

We are lucky to have Pollard and Lambie, there’s not much between them. Either would be a good first choice. I do not believe that Morne Steyn has the confidence anymore. but I believe that Meyer will use him as back-up. The kicking game will be vital, but so, too, will be the ability to make decisions during the game.

Australia should be favorites especially since the WC is to be played Down Under. The Proteas do have a problem with finding a good number seven batsman and the South African tail is long. Australia have a long and dangerous tail.

With Amla and De Villiers great players leading the way, the top six are impressive. There will be a lot of pressure on those two to perform. Expect hard pitches in Australia and small fields in New Zealand. The Kiwis are my dark horses and will be tough to beat if they reach the knockout stages.

England? They should bring back Pietersen (but they won’t). He is the one player who can win a match. Anderson formidable, Woakes in consistent, Broad mediocre, Finn sometimes good but leaks runs. Morgan a better skipper than Cook, but I can’t see England beating Oz or the Proteas.

Windies in a mess because of the pay issue and revolt and India haven’t shown any form. Sir Lanka tough to beat if Malinga plays. How they miss Murali.

I never had the pleasure of watching Kel Nagle, but I did as a kid watch Peter Thomson play Bobby Locke at my home club of East London in South Africa. It’s a pity that so many of the great players of old have been forgotten. Others I watched in those days were Dai Rees and John Panton but sadly missed Sam Snead when he drove our par-four eight-hole over the bushes.

I did, as a sports writer, have the pleasure of playing 18 holes with Locke, my boyhood hero, more than 40 years later before the Legends of Golf Classic at Sun City. Locke arrived at the first tee clad in a white shirt, Troon tie tucked into it and his pants tucked into his socks (he never wore plus fours).

Afterwards, I took Locke, his wife and daughter to dinner and Bobby and I played roulette later in the casino. Although I am sure Nagle was a great putter, both Snead and Byron Nelson, in a Golf Digest article, rated Locke the best putter ever, no question.

Greats such as Nagle, Thomson, Locke and others have been long forgotten. It’s a pity. Nelson in his heyday won 18 of 32 events on the US PGA Tour and 11 in a row. Tiger Woods’s best is six. His stroke average also compares well with Tiger’s. It was in the last year of the Second World War, but Nelson nonetheless in his prime beat the best players, including Ben Hogan. R.I.P. Kel, Bobby, Byron and the others who have passed on.

One of the major problems with South African rugby is the economic situation. A recent figure gave 48% as the number of people living below the poverty datum line, most of them black.

Because of this many black youngsters have to find a job to support their families when they leave school. White children who went to school at up-market ones can afford to focus on sports because their families are well off. There are some black schoolchildren, whose families are better off than under the apartheid regime, but overall, many black kids have to make a buck.

Money should have been ploughed into black sports at the grassroots. It has not been under both the NP and ANC governments. Politicians seek to score cheap points but insisting on quotas in sports so that they can polish their images. You don’t score any points by putting money in at the grassroots.

Warner says he doesn’t back down. However, he started the incident. I remember Warner punching Joe Root in a pub during the tour of England. Aggression is fine. Stupid, thuggish behavior is not. He’s just another silly guy who can bat.

Fine analysis. My bet is that Heyneke Meyer will retreat into the laager and opt for experience. Vikki as captain and the Old Guard all carry our hopes.

I recall what Naas Botha said in the last Super Rugby season: pick your best side and stop mucking about. Shape that side into a unit that play well together. What does it tell me when HM said that Jean de Villiers, before his injury, was the only “safe” player in the team for the World Cup? That he doesn’t know who he will play with only four tests left before the World Cup.

I realise that players such as Fourie du Preez, Willem Alberts, Schalk Burger, Ruan Pienaar, Francois Louw and others will be back, but HM should start forming a framework.

He should have started bringing through younger players in the 2012 tour. What sort of confidence do you instill in players when they are told their positions are not safe? It’s one thing to make players fight for their positions, but another to build a cohesive side. We simply do not play as one.

I would love to see Juan du Jong at centre. And who would not like to see a player like Danie Gerber in his heyday there?

Yes!

Critical area. If we can stay on the front foot, good. Other teams know how we play though and their counters are paying off. I would like the Boks to show more variation. That’s where Lambie, Pollard and players such as Jordaan are dangerous.

Our smash-and-grab tactics are great if we get away with the loot. If we have it turned over, we become vulnerable.

I can’t see Meyer having the balls or brain to drop De Villiers, but I would like to see Vermeulen as captain. We appear obsessed with our tough guy image. All teams have tough guys and the Springboks are no tougher than the All Blacks, who are a lot smarter. Meyer should remember that it’s the space between your ears that counts, too.

Excellent analysis. I like Jordan, too. The brawn combination of De Villiers and Serfontein doesn’t work and is easy to read. Rugby has changed and Meyer hasn’t changed with it.

Other teams have good counters to our play as we saw against Ireland in particular. Meyer does not appear to be someone who will admit he is wrong, so I don’t expect any change in tactics. We will get the same old, same old again and again.

And get the same disingenuous reasons why we lost to Ireland and failed to whack a poor on paper Italy team. To be satisfied with the win over Italy from both Meyer and De Villiers underlines the point.

HM could of course make up most of the team from the 2007 World Cup squad still in contention and need only six from the later additions.:

15: Pat Lambie
14: JP Pietersen
13: Jaque Fourie
12: Jean de Villiers
11: Bryan Habana
10: Morne Steyn
9: Fourie du Preez
8: Duane Vermeulen
7: Schalk Burger
6: Willem Alberts
5: Victor Matfield
4: Bakkies Botha
3: Jannie du Plessis
2: Bismarck du Plessis
1: Tendai Mtawarira

About the Boks, dead right. Selections are made with a game plan in mind. That is why in the past Morne Steyn, who stands deep, could be assured of his place. And why Pat Lambie has spent so much time warming his backside on the bench.

Now, with five changes for the Bok side to play England, we have Lambie, a player who can read a game and has flair, at flyhalf. In the Test against Ireland, Pollard stood deep, al la Morne Steyn, because our game plan called for it.

I don’t buy Heyneke Meyer’s explanation for the changes that he had planned this before the Ireland game. We desperately need to beat England to prevent our tour being a flop. You don’t just make rotational changes. You pick a team you hope will win the Test.

Meyer’s game plan against Ireland did not work out. He was out-thought and out-smarted by Joe Schmidt as Ireland beat the Boks as fast as an Irishmen down a glass of Guinness. He was forced to re-think.

As good as Matfield is in the lineouts, he is indeed a one-trick pony. However, we don’t really have other better options. I hope our selections see a more intelligent game plan. England will be a tough nut to crack. They have a far better scrum than Ireland. But here’s hoping …

We won the stats battle, but lost the match … and badly.