Meyer’s selection balancing act

Bok coach Heyneke Meyer says he has a massive selection headache ahead of Wednesday's clash against the US. �Christiaan Kotze/BackpagePix

Bok coach Heyneke Meyer says he has a massive selection headache ahead of Wednesday's clash against the US. �Christiaan Kotze/BackpagePix

Published Oct 5, 2015

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London – Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer reckons the selection of the team to play the US in London on Wednesday will give him more of a headache than any other team he has picked. To rest players or not to rest them, that is the question posed to Meyer.

“This is a really tough one because on the one hand the team is coming together really nicely and you want to keep the guys together and accelerate the momentum that we are increasingly getting, but then there is the niggles that quite a few are carrying while there are a lot of players that have had no game time.”

The temptation for Meyer is to play the bulk of the team again on Wednesday because the Boks then have a 10 day break before the quarter-finals.

“It is a balancing act,” he said. “I will pick the team tonight (Sunday night), and it is not going to be easy. I know there are guys in need of a break, and we have such a short turnaround of four days between matches, but they also know we need to dig deep if we want to win this World Cup.”

By the same token, Meyer says he will be in a pickle if he suffers more injuries to key players against the athletic and aggressive Americans, and then has to replace them with rusty players. “That was our problem in the Rugby Championship – we had too many players that had not played for a long time, and it hurt us, especially when they came off the bench and did not make the impact we needed to, which contributed to us losing games in the last quarter.”

Players champing at the bit to get game time include flank Willem Alberts, centre Jan Serfontein, scrumhalf Rudy Paige, flyhalf Morné Steyn, wing Lwazi Mvovo, fullback Zane Kirchner and hooker Schalk Brits. Steyn and Paige have not played a single minute of the three World Cup matches to date, while Alberts, Serfontein and Brits have had 10-minute stints off the bench.

The players carrying injuries are prop Jannie du Plessis, wing JP Pietersen, centres Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel, scrumhalf Fourie du Preez and flank Schalk Burger.

“We travel all day Sunday from Newcastle, it will mean one day off and then we are training again, so it is a hectic time for us,” Meyer said. “We first want to study the US again but it looks like we are going to have to freshen up the team without losing the spine of it.

“We’re caught in a catch 22 because on the one hand a lot of our guys haven’t played a lot, that was one of the reasons us not closing out games in the Rugby Championship and now suddenly those guys are on their third game and starting to build nice momentum.

“It will be a balanced approach, and we will have to make some wise calls,’ the coach said.

“We have to keep our feet on the ground and be humble because Wednesday will be another physical battle,” added Meyer.

On Saturday night, with the dust barely having settled on the impressive 34-16 victory over the Scots, Meyer said he had already started worrying about who to pick for what will be another abrasive encounter – the Americans might not overly skilful but they get stuck in, as the Scots will testify after they found themselves behind to the Americans at half-time before over coming them in the second half.

“We’ve already put this game (Scotland) behind us, we’ve learnt hard lessons and every game is tough. The US have had a good break and are waiting for us. They will throw the kitchen sink at us. They have had plenty of time to prepare while we have three days ... We’ve watched their game against Scotland and it will be an immense physical game.”

The Star

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