Meyer to lean on Bulls brains
25 Jan 2012
Heyneke Meyer is expected to name John McFarland and Bazil Carzis as part of his management team when he is announced as Springbok coach on Friday.
Meyer has enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with the duo at the Bulls. McFarland has served as a defence coach at the Pretoria franchise, while Carzis focused on the players’ conditioning. It’s believed that Saru chief Jurie Roux was at the Loftus Versfeld offices yesterday to discuss Meyer’s management team, and that these two are strong candidates to join Meyer in the Bok set-up.
McFarland may not, however, occupy the same position at the Boks that he does at the Bulls. It’s been rumoured in some circles that he could even take on the role of kicking coach. This all depends whether Saru is able to secure the release of defensive guru Jacques Nienaber from the Stormers.
Nienaber has worked wonders with the Cape franchise, who boast the best defensive record in Super Rugby over the past two seasons. Stormers head coach Allister Coetzee told this website two weeks ago that he was adamant his management team would remain intact, so it may take a great deal of persuasion on Saru’s part to ensure Nienaber’s services are secured for the Boks.
Coetzee denied Nienaber would leave after it came to light that Rassie Erasmus would be leaving the Stormers. Erasmus and Nienaber have formed a strong partnership at the Cheetahs and later at the Stormers, and it’s not crazy to suggest that Nienaber will follow Erasmus to wherever the latter chooses to settle in the near future. Erasmus denied that he had been offered a technical advisor post a couple of weeks back but there are fresh reports that Saru wants Erasmus on the management panel.
There have been several names thrown about as possible backline coach options. Paul Treu has enjoyed mixed success with the Bok sevens side, but his lack of coaching experience in 15s may count against him. Former Bok winger Pieter Rossouw is another candidate having worked with the Bulls in recent times.
What nobody seems to know is who will take control of the forwards. A source told this website that Victor Matfield may be brought in as a lineout consultant, but otherwise there has been speculation that Meyer himself may focus on the forwards as a whole, or that Erasmus could take charge in this department.
What is more than likely is that Meyer will choose to work with the people he knows and trusts. The Bulls management members are tight and have enjoyed a lot of success over the years, and Meyer may look to bring that through to the next level.
77 Comments
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25 Jan 2012, 08:11 am
AC sounds like he is kukking himself.
eish da stormers are in trouble.
25 Jan 2012, 08:19 am
Take away Nienaber and Proudfoot and oucccccchhhhhhhhh!
One things for sure with HM though… he always surrounds himself with the best available…
Wonder who will be forced upon him?
25 Jan 2012, 08:21 am
Pieter Rossuow as backline coach – LOL – well intercepts will be covered …. Boks need an Aussie backline coach
25 Jan 2012, 08:23 am
some concern for the bulls too.
the men they are losing need replacing and hopefully they make good decisions on the replacements.
25 Jan 2012, 08:27 am
Divvy for Bulls defensive coach.
BTW what is a Bulls article doing on Keo?
Ridiculous.
25 Jan 2012, 08:28 am
how much more they need to focus on defence is questionable. surely they have learnt enough from Nienaber over the last few seasons and realise it’s time to start focusing on attack.
25 Jan 2012, 08:30 am
Victor is the greatest.
25 Jan 2012, 08:32 am
Interesting how rugby coaches have become team managers more than hands on coaches. Pick the right support team and you get all the praise. Wrong picks and you suck as a coach.
Meyer’s first step should be to convince John Mitchell to be part of his team. He probably won’t but with all the Lion drama he may just consider.
25 Jan 2012, 08:35 am
@stew-3:
Actually pal when he was last in charge of the Bulls in 2007 when they scored the most tries in the competition (again)… it was the ‘outside of the box’ Aussie Todd Louden in charge of the backs…
25 Jan 2012, 08:38 am
@BuckT-6: That was clearly evident in the game against Aus in the WC – agree completely
25 Jan 2012, 08:39 am
Wonder how many would complain if the brought Ricardo Loubscher back as his back-line coach?
25 Jan 2012, 08:41 am
There are going to be no coaches left in South Africa if if all these journos are to be believed
25 Jan 2012, 08:47 am
@bryce_in_oz-9:
has louden kicked on since ‘he showed the bulls how to score’ in 2007?
25 Jan 2012, 08:49 am
@the artist formerly known as gunther-7:
With John Eales and then Martin Johnson very close behind.
25 Jan 2012, 09:11 am
@BuckT-6:
Morning Gentlemen and Gunther
Nice to see you are still alive Buck…
25 Jan 2012, 09:25 am
Meyer to lean on Bulls brains? I hope the guy can levitate.
25 Jan 2012, 09:52 am
I would like to see Heyneke Meyer as head and forwards coach, with a decent backline assistant coach in the mould of Eddie Jones. Then we can get Nienaber as the 2nd assistant to work on our defensive (F uck the Stormers, they’re already going downhill). That would be more than adequate. All these specialists coaches in different aspects of the game just confuses things.
25 Jan 2012, 09:59 am
News | Profile | Anthem | Fixtures | Results |
Big Vic to join Bok Dream Team?
Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:36
Is Victor Matfield eyeing a Bok job? (c) Gallo
Retired Springbok lock Victor Matfield may be the next big name to be added to Heyneke Meyer’s coaching Dream Team.
This website has reliably learnt that intense behind-the-scenes negotiations are underway to add the name of Matfield to an already impressive list of backroom staff that could also feature John McFarland, Jacques Nienaber, Rassie Erasmus, Paul Treu and Basil Carzis.
While the announcement of the new Bok coach, to replace Peter de Villiers, won’t be made till Friday, it is the country’s worst kept secret that Meyer has raced so far clear it has become a no-contest.
And with the South African Rugby Union’s brainstrust set to rubberstamp his appointment at a series of meetings on Thursday and Friday, the debate has now shifted to who will join Meyer’s backroom staff.
Matfield has made no secret of the fact that he did not want a foreign coach to take charge of the Boks, and late last year told this website that Meyer taught him everything about rugby.
“He installed everything [I know] and the way I look at rugby. It is difficult to compare other coaches to him because Heyneke got me as a youngster and made me,” he told this website in an interview to mark the Cape Town launch of his book, Victor: My Journey.
“I worked very well with Frans [Ludeke, the current Bulls coach], whereas Heyneke ‘formed’ me as a rugby player. I enjoyed both coaches.”
With Meyer set to be the Boks’ head coach, Matfield could easily be fast-tracked from a part-time Bulls advisory position to a full-time post on Meyer’s team.
The outcome of some boardroom battles in the next few days will determine if Meyer gets his Dream Team – with the Bulls and Stormers administrators becoming very wary over the expected exodus of coaching intellect from their franchises.
The intense behind the scenes negotiations will also determine if respected coaching gurus like Nienaber and McFarland will be released by their unions.
It is understandable that the Stormers would not be happy to lose the expertise of a Nienaber just a couple of weeks after Erasmus walked out on them.
The loss for the Bulls camp could be much more devastating – McFarland, Carzis and Matfield.
The other coaches on SARU’s list of “preferred candidates” – which at the outset contained the names of Meyer, De Villiers, Allister Coetzee and Gert Smal – may wonder why they have not been afforded the opportunity to assemble such a prestigious squad and simply had to accept SARU’s terms?
However, there is a train of thought that SARU are merely repaying Meyer for the great injustice he was done four years ago, when De Villiers was appointed ahead of him in controversial fashion.
Dispatches from Newlands now suggest that Coetzee was dropped from that SARU ‘shortlist’ without anybody actually speaking to him.
At least De Villiers was afforded the courtesy of an informal chat with SARU CEO Jurie Roux, when the message was loud and clear: “There will be no extension for Divvy.”
By Jan de Koning
25 Jan 2012, 10:15 am
@the artist formerly known as gunther-7:
I believe that was R.Kelly. He even sang a song about it.
25 Jan 2012, 10:20 am
@Bod-15: been enjoying your stories from up north, although at some point i thought you may have consumed a near fatal dose of spanish wine and thought we might lose you to the spanish el interior, never to be heard or seen of again… did you visit costa del golf or were you trying to avoid the Andalucian tourist traps? when are you returning home?
25 Jan 2012, 10:20 am
maak al die bulle bok afrigters
Mcfarland, Carzis, Matfield, Erasmus, Nienaber, Treu
Wtf will Meyer actually be called to do?
Way too top heavy collection of top brass groot kanonkop big chief bottle washers all for a g’dam rugby team. Who in heavens name gonna pay all the salaries?
Meyer’s so kak bang he may not be all that he’s been touted to be that he’s now surrounding himself with a bevy of behemoth bulletjie brains to do all the butt kicking and coaching
This business is outa sync with reality, this is a pastime sporting enterprise for leisure time weekend participation not an all out assault on the Pentagon.
25 Jan 2012, 10:26 am
F’ing great.
First he brings his entire coaching team from the Bulls with him…
Next he’ll bring all the Bulls players in as well…
Get used to seeing Dean Greyling, Deon Stegmann, Dewald Potgieter, Jacques Potgieter, Pierre Spies, Morne Steyn, Wynand Olivier, Bjorn Basson & Zane Kirchner as Springbok regulars.
Werner Kruger might even be in with a good shot at making it.
25 Jan 2012, 10:26 am
And so the Bullification of the Boks begins…
25 Jan 2012, 10:29 am
@Bod-15:
come now.
those oranges won’t pick themselves.
25 Jan 2012, 10:30 am
Jean de Villiers may have his critics…. but he’s still a better test 12 then Wynand Olivier, by far.
Now we’re going to have Wynand as a probably sure-thing… Heyneke will not have learnt from other coaches mistakes – will be too arrogant thinking he knows better.
And we’ll have Frans at fullback being asked to launch up-and-unders.
Why oh why could it not have been Gert Smal.
25 Jan 2012, 10:31 am
@>^..^< katman-16: expect a few brain teazers
25 Jan 2012, 10:33 am
Always thought the Bulls were all brawn…. Hope he knows that as Springbok coach he is allowed to pick players from outside the Pretoria region….
25 Jan 2012, 10:36 am
@BuckT-20:
At 1 Euro for a bottle of the really good stuff, there is always a danger that I will overdose on some of the region of La Rioga’s finest.
No golf yet, just a hell of a lot of mountain biking and exploring. I am delaying the return as long as I can go without the need to rejoin the corporate world…
25 Jan 2012, 10:36 am
The provincial xenophobes out in full.
Meyer is doing a kuk job before he has even been announced.
PissAnt was right, he was mad to take the job.
25 Jan 2012, 10:40 am
@hendrikp-22: @the artist formerly known as gunther-24:
I am all orange picked out….
And I have huge festering calluses on my knuckles….
25 Jan 2012, 10:40 am
@ashampoopaloo-21: @hendrikp-22: @line break-27: So you guys are complaining about a team that will only be picked in 6 months time by a coach that has not been appointed yet?
25 Jan 2012, 10:41 am
1 Euro a bottle “for the really goods stuff”……
everything is relative I suppose.
I’m sure it beats Tassies.
25 Jan 2012, 10:43 am
@Bod-30:
Sorry Hendrikp…. I was about to comment on your comment when Gunther sidetracked me.
As bad as it is, I have broad shoulders and I can take most of those selections on the chin, except for that of ol Zane, as whenever I see his same anywhere near the Bok set up, I truly want to give up the will to live
25 Jan 2012, 10:44 am
@RedMan-29:
If he doesn’t select any more then say… 6 or 7 Bulls… rather then 14 or 15 (which I’m predicting), then I’ll change my tune.
Until then he’s a well known provincial xenophobe himself.
25 Jan 2012, 10:45 am
de Villiers made two fundamental lousy mistakes as he set out, one was listening to the likes of Oberholzer and Keohane to go fetch a has been glory boy John Smit and then subsequently make every excuse under the sun thereafter to accommodate him somewhere in the front row which ultimately is the very core of the reason for De Villiers failure, and second he had a useless pair of assistants like Muir and Gold thrust on him.
Added to this his ultimate reliance on the Einstein Rassie at the eleventh hour to steer him out the ditch didn’t bring much relief to his shaky foundation either, they still started Smit, (and FdP and Spies) in spite of recent history proving that this recipe was a collapse in the offing, and Rassie was the architect of the Burger to first receiver and midfield ball carrying specialist role which bombed badly.
25 Jan 2012, 10:48 am
@the artist formerly known as gunther-32:
Looking at your grammar, it appears that you have already swallowed two litres of Tassies this morning
25 Jan 2012, 10:52 am
The Bulls already have too much of a strange-hold on Springbok rugby.
Despite not making the CC semi-finals, and having a poor SR season, they were sending out teams that were made up of mostly Springboks… players like Basson, Stegmann, Potgieter, Greyling, Kruger, Spies & Side-show Bob Kirchner who just don’t cut it.
That will be even worse under Heyneke. Forget about the best being selected… it’ll be the best, from Pretoria.
25 Jan 2012, 10:55 am
Actually, owe HM a bit of gratitude. Think he was in charge of the Stormer s forwards during their infamous 1999 Men in Black campaign as assistant to Alan Solomons… Those were the days before the light five…. Quite interested to see who the assistants will be and also their roles…. Best coaching staff of recent years probably Henry,Hansen and Smith( although a few B&I Lions management teams may have something to say about that), Think Hansen saw to forwards , Smith to backs and Henry to the defence……So should be interesting….
25 Jan 2012, 10:57 am
@ashampoopaloo-35: ag shampies.
so none of it was his doing eh?
how convenient
let me guess, the hutus massacred the tutsis because of the french colonial era too?
divvy himself would probably tell you to stop embarrassing him you freakshow
25 Jan 2012, 11:00 am
@hendrikp-37: when the sharks and the bulls dominated the boks, we brought home a world cup.
remember?
25 Jan 2012, 11:00 am
@hendrikp-37:
dry your eyes there’s a good girl.
why don’t you wait and see before deciding that the sky is going to fall on your head?
25 Jan 2012, 11:01 am
The Bulls directors are not happy letting Heyneke go as is.
I can’t see a way in hell they will release anyone else. In fact, I only expect Heyneke’s name to be confirmed on Friday.
25 Jan 2012, 11:03 am
@Bod-30:
festering knuckles?
stop dragging them along the ground then.
25 Jan 2012, 11:04 am
@PissAnt-42: they seemed all too happy to let him go overseas though?
so what do your sauces tell you?
heyneke, rassie and naainoober and……..?
25 Jan 2012, 11:06 am
@rangerman-44:
The overseas stint was not as simple. Heyneke was ‘assured’ the Bok job at the time – we all know what happened.
Things between him and the Bulls at the time also weren’t rosy.
Bulls have invested quite a bit in him in the last year – he was suppose to be the architect of their return to dominance following the loss of a host of seniors.
25 Jan 2012, 11:07 am
I voted yes on the little opinion poll up above that Meyer was the right man for the job. As things stand he is by far the best candidate we got, way better than Rassie or Smal or Coetsee
However I suspect Meyer is a bit of a shaky lone cowboy, when chips are down like when he couldn’t cut it at Leicester he needs a lot of bolstering support surrounding him, much like White needed Jones ultimately to prop him up.
Meyer will approach this thing from a directors armchair position and give certain autonomy to those he’s surrounding himself with, which at least is a more professional attitude and approach to the task, but my idea of a head coach is still in the hands on buck stops at the HC model and the specialist assistants should be there to fine tune the specific areas entrusted to them. Meyer might be more of a DOR and less of a coach, so it remains to be seen how his collection of specialist wingmen put this new idealism together.
Woe betide they don’t whack everything in sight out the park from first innings because expectations are rife for a top of the world ranking result
25 Jan 2012, 11:07 am
@rangerman-44:
It’s only Wednesday, and this is SA Rugby – but it seems like Heyneke will only draw on specialist consultants when needed.
25 Jan 2012, 11:09 am
@ashampoopaloo-46:
there was a specific reason for him leaving leicester that had nothing to do with rugby.
25 Jan 2012, 11:10 am
@PissAnt-45: oh well, my heart bleeds for them.
personally i am not on the “heyneke is our saviour” bandwagon.
he was one frans steyn coversion away from losing the s14 in 2007 and his sides have started to look decidedly average as the new rules have become more pervasive.
we heard he was wanting running rugby this year but under ludeke the bulls were a far more attacking side imo and they won TWO superrugby titles with ludeke as coach.
lets see what happens but i do think there will be an improvement from the current situation, i am simply not convinced that it will be as dramatic as many think.
25 Jan 2012, 11:13 am
@rangerman-49:
I said it before, I think he is stupid to take this job.
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