SPRINGBOK coach Heyneke Meyer acknowledged winning the Rugby Championships in the decider against the All Blacks is a tall order, but then cheerily admits he believes in fairytales.
The Boks’ chances of scoring four tries and denying the All Blacks a bonus point may seem remote in their quest for Rugby Championships glory at Ellis Park, but Meyer is not prepared to yield to the odds just yet.
“You don’t just score four tries against the All Blacks. It will be very, very difficult,” said Meyer.
“That will be a fairytale ending and I believe in fairytale endings, given what happened previously in my career,” Meyer said, no doubt in reference to the Bulls’ after the siren win over the Sharks to clinch the Super rugby crown in 2007.
“Every game is a must-win game but this is the big one. If we win it, it will certainly be my biggest victory as a coach but I can’t say that ahead of time. If we score four tries against them, something we haven’t done for a while, it will be my biggest game ever.”
While winning the game will bring a certain amount of satisfaction, Meyer is desperate to avoid ‘what if’ scenarios by giving the assurance his team will not fall between two stools tactically in their bid for the title.
To win the Championship his team will have to commit to high risk, high reward rugby. “If you go for four tries you are going to concede tries. Hopefully the All Blacks will be positive. They can afford to be negative and make sure they finish within seven points.”
The Boks’ prospects got a bit more complicated yesterday when lock Flip van der Merwe was banned for a week for a dangerous tackle against the Wallabies at Newlands.
Although Sharks’ rookie Pieter-Steph du Toit is already part of the travelling group, Meyer has opted to call up Franco van der Merwe as cover. Juandre Kruger is expected to take his place in the starting line-up.
“We don’t have a lot of depth at No5 lock. Pieter- Steph probably hasn’t played 10 Super rugby matches. We will look at Franco now but Pieter-Steph is a more long-term prospect.”
The Boks may be forced into a second change with centre JJ Engelbrecht in a race against time to recover from a contusion on a quad muscle.
Dr Craig Roberts’ diagnosis of “this is quite a bad one” is hardly reassuring to Meyer, who said he was prepared to make a last-minute decision on Engelbrecht’s availability. If he is pressed into making a change, Juan de Jongh and Jan Serfontein are ready to step into the breach.
Although De Jongh has more experience, Serfontein is ahead in the pecking order.
Quest for glory to test Boks
The Boks’ chances of scoring four tries and denying the All Blacks a bonus point may seem remote in their quest for Rugby Championships glory at Ellis Park, but Meyer is not prepared to yield to the odds just yet.
“You don’t just score four tries against the All Blacks. It will be very, very difficult,” said Meyer.
“That will be a fairytale ending and I believe in fairytale endings, given what happened previously in my career,” Meyer said, no doubt in reference to the Bulls’ after the siren win over the Sharks to clinch the Super rugby crown in 2007.
“Every game is a must-win game but this is the big one. If we win it, it will certainly be my biggest victory as a coach but I can’t say that ahead of time. If we score four tries against them, something we haven’t done for a while, it will be my biggest game ever.”
While winning the game will bring a certain amount of satisfaction, Meyer is desperate to avoid ‘what if’ scenarios by giving the assurance his team will not fall between two stools tactically in their bid for the title.
To win the Championship his team will have to commit to high risk, high reward rugby. “If you go for four tries you are going to concede tries. Hopefully the All Blacks will be positive. They can afford to be negative and make sure they finish within seven points.”
The Boks’ prospects got a bit more complicated yesterday when lock Flip van der Merwe was banned for a week for a dangerous tackle against the Wallabies at Newlands.
Although Sharks’ rookie Pieter-Steph du Toit is already part of the travelling group, Meyer has opted to call up Franco van der Merwe as cover. Juandre Kruger is expected to take his place in the starting line-up.
“We don’t have a lot of depth at No5 lock. Pieter- Steph probably hasn’t played 10 Super rugby matches. We will look at Franco now but Pieter-Steph is a more long-term prospect.”
The Boks may be forced into a second change with centre JJ Engelbrecht in a race against time to recover from a contusion on a quad muscle.
Dr Craig Roberts’ diagnosis of “this is quite a bad one” is hardly reassuring to Meyer, who said he was prepared to make a last-minute decision on Engelbrecht’s availability. If he is pressed into making a change, Juan de Jongh and Jan Serfontein are ready to step into the breach.
Although De Jongh has more experience, Serfontein is ahead in the pecking order.
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