Heyneke Meyer wants more out of the Boks.

“It was good to start with a win and I thought we played well but I am a difficult guy to please and there were things I wasn’t happy with,” said Meyer afterwards.

“Obviously we would like to have got the bonus point as it was there for us to take. I would have loved to pick up four tries, but this is test match rugby. We played the right rugby, and in the first half we did what we set out to do by scoring points when we went into their half. It’s all about building an innings. But towards the end our finishing wasn’t good and we are going to need to work on that.”

Yep, you ain't going to finish moves when Jean de Villiers doesn't pass to the player in the open.

As already mentioned, however, the Pumas did seem to be putting a big effort into their defensive game at the expense of any attempt to be innovative on attack – apart from a good maul and an accurate field kicking game they don’t have much else that looks likely to trouble the big southern hemisphere teams – and without saying it directly, Meyer did appear to concede that.

“We don’t want to be seen to be making excuses, but the Pumas were very good on defence. It’s something they clearly have worked hard at. I was particularly pleased with our own defence though. The Pumas were unable to score a try in the match, and that was good, for defence was something we were concerned about after the England series.

“I thought there were one or two tries we should have scored and gone for the four try bonus point, but in the end this team is still improving and that is what most pleases me.”

Yeah well, You don't have the players to do it.

An area that Meyer can definitely pinpoint for improvement is the accuracy at the breakdowns, and one of the main reasons his team wasn’t able to score four tries was because for much of that second half the ball they got was static because of the Pumas’ success at spoiling.

“They did succeed in slowing our ball down and that is definitely something we are going to need to work on going forward. We just never got enough quick ball to really put an effective attacking game together.”

But it was a problem against england as well. when will you learn?

That is disturbing if you consider how dominant the Boks were in the tight forwards. Andries Bekker lived up to the hype of his return to test match rugby by commanding the lineout battle, and the scrumming was one of the things that Meyer was particularly chuffed about as the Pumas have a big reputation as a scrumming nation.

“Our lineouts were good but I would like to see us contesting more consistently. We didn’t start off contesting that well, but then later in the game it came together. Hopefully the next time we play we will see that for the full 80 minutes,” said the coach.


We've been waiting for 80 inute performances for 4 matches now.

Meyer wants more out of the Boks. Join the queue Meyer! Throw him a PM Biltong and rark that laddy up into some fresh ideas!

Wish I could mate.

Biltong - would you say Meyer has a mindset where he is focusing on not losing games, rather than focusing on actually winning them? Therefore focusing on complete stability rather than flair. If you get where I am coming from.

Rory at this point I think the former.

He cannot pick his best team, so he has to make do with what is available, I also think he realises the plan is limited, but he doesn't have the necessary players to step it up, in the meantime he will work on the basics.

Yes that's about all he can do.

The argie defence may have some henry behind it because that's probably where he could make the biggest difference to them in such a short time and that's the one thing they must have to have any chance of winning tests.

At least Meyer is saying the right things. His selection is off and its when he has his first loss that he'll really learn to earn hs bucks. He'll be expecting to win when he probably hasn't the side to expect to. That's when we'll see the true Meyer. How he recovers from a loss, adapts and evolves.

With the current mix I reckon all he needs to do is bring lambie into 10, put steyn back to 15 to retain his kicking and play no further out than 12. Lambie and F Steyn can produce some creative yards through the inside channels and they'll have the likes of Alberts and co on their backs.

At least they'll be playing back to their strengths and have a variation and on the odd occasion they get it wide they might have defences stretched more.

Still predictable but playing to their strengths.