Heat is on Meyer over selections

Like those before him, Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer will be under pressure to meet the South African Rugby Union’s (Saru’s) transformation targets when he names his final World Cup squad on August 31.

Saru deputy president Mark Alexander said Meyer would have to be cognisant of the organisation’s Strategic Transformation Plan released earlier this year when naming his final 31-man squad.

Meyer named a 49-man squad last week for this year’s shortened Rugby Championship plus two international friendlies, of which 14 are players of colour – less than 30%.

For the World Cup, Saru’s Strategic Transformation Plan wants the coach to have seven black players in a match-day squad of 23.

“Of course the coach will have to be cognisant of that plan when announcing his World Cup squad,” said Alexander. “Everybody has bought into the plan. We signed an agreement with government the plan. It is a structured plan that has goals from now until 2019 and we try our best to meet our plans .”

At this time of the Springbok coach’s four-year cycle, his squad selections for the World Cup are put under the public microscope and provide a barometer that measures how much progress has been made in developing internationally capable black players.

Depending on injuries – there are no less than 13 players on the injured and conditioning list training in Joburg – Meyer should not struggle to pick nine players of colour on merit in his final World Cup squad.

But that won’t be without its complications. Meyer can pick a maximum of six loose forwards if he is willing to sacrifice one of six front rowers to travel to the UK. If Duane Vermeulen, Willem Alberts and Francois Louw make up the starting back row, and Schalk Burger and Marcell Coetzee are the next best deputies, Meyer might be forced to choose one of Siya Kolisi, Teboho Mohoje and Warren Whiteley.

Whiteley’s selection ahead of Mohoje in a Rugby Championship match against Australia last year caused a public outcry.

Outside centre Jaque Fourie’s rescinding of his retirement might also compromise Lionel Mapoe’s chances, even though the versatile Lions outside back had an outstanding Super Rugby season.

Saru also want the Boks to be half-black by the 2019 edition in Japan – a pipe dream if the current slow rate of development and transformation persists.

“We need a bigger pool of black players; you need to fill the funnel because only a few will trickle out,” Alexander said.

“We need to get the public school sports system back. We can’t talk about development and not mention the school sports system, and it is dysfunctional at the moment.

“We need to get that funnel filled and we can do that only by getting more kids playing. Currently, it is just a handful of Model C schools that play the sport regularly and that is our challenge.

“We have also identified that a lot of boys play rugby up until Craven Week but they don’t make the team. There’s a study done by the Sport Science Institute that shows the difference between the players who have and the have-nots.

“The have-nots are physically weaker than their counterparts. As thus we’ve established four academies – in Port Elizabeth, East London, the South Western Districts and Boland – purely to target nutrition and access to gyms. Sergeal Petersen came through that programme.”