INLSA
Heyneke Meyer
Mike Greenaway
The irony of the expected appointment of Heyneke Meyer as Springbok coach this afternoon is that it is an indirect admission of guilt by the SA Rugby Union that they chose the wrong man in 2008 to succeed Jake White.
Meyer was the hot favourite back then because of the dynasty he had built at the Bulls, only for the unheralded Peter de Villiers to pop up from obscurity to trump him – with the help of an administration that admitted the decision was about “more than rugby”.
Four years later, the tables have turned.
De Villiers re-applied for the job but it is understood he was never in the picture after a sometimes bizarre reign that saw the Boks reach rare heights of success in one season only to hit rock bottom the next. A jaded team then suffered a humiliating quarter-final exit at last year’s World Cup.
De Villiers promised so much when he was appointed, notably that he would inject imagination and exhilaration into the “boring Boks”, but he found himself out of his depth.
He struck up an alliance with the senior players, which proved to be a double-edged sword because although he was able to exploit the knowledge and experience of some of the world’s best players for thrilling success in 2009, he found himself in too deep to free himself of them in 2010 and last year.
So De Villiers has been shown the door, and in comes Meyer, which raises the question: if Meyer had been appointed in the first place in 2008, would the Boks still be world champions?
Quite possibly, because one of Meyer’s great strengths is his succession planning.
Had he taken over from White, it is likely that a revitalised and evolved Springbok team would have done duty in New Zealand last September/October. There would have been no flogging of a horse on the point of expiration.
So Meyer finally gets his chance, but even now he has come in through the back door.
Gert Smal was Saru’s first choice but the former Springbok flank chose Dublin over Cape Town and will continue as forwards coach of Ireland.
Smal is primed to take over the head coach role of an international team after having served as an assistant to three Springbok and two Ireland coaches.
But he ultimately chose family harmony over coaching in the bubbling cauldron that is Springbok rugby. Smal’s wife and children are happily ensconced in Ireland’s capital and had no desire to swop tranquillity for the Springbok spotlight.
The other reported contender was Stormers coach Allister Coetzee, White’s assistant from 2004 to 2007, but it has transpired that he was more of a media favourite than a genuine Saru prospect.
It is worth noting that late last year Kiwi John Mitchell was sounded out for the job, but the Lions coach was not interested in SA rugby politics.
When Smal cried off, Meyer stepped out of the shadows to be offered the position many believe was rightfully his four years ago.
A hiccup has been that he is only a year into a four-year plan of rebuilding the Bulls, and his employers have been playing hardball with Saru over compensation for a man regarded in Pretoria as something approaching a messiah.
But money talks. The Boks will get their man, and the Bulls will get a truckload of money to buy the players that Meyer had on his wish list.
It has even had Fourie du Preez, Bakkies Botha and Victor Matfield reconsidering their international retirement, and that cannot be a bad thing.
