Heyneke Meyer – praag.org

Springboks en route to Paris after 28-0 victory over Scotland

The Springboks move on to Paris on a roll of two wins out of two from their November tour of Europe, and with their try-line yet to be breached.

Having succeeded in shutting out Wales on the try front in their 24-15 victory in Cardiff eight days previously, South Africa managed to prevent Scotland from scoring a single point in a clinically-executed 28-0 victory at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield on Sunday.

“You’ll always take four tries to nil in Test match rugby,” said South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer.

“The great thing for me is that we wanted to work harder on our defence. Last week was awesome; we didn’t give away any tries against Wales. And this week we didn’t give Scotland any points.

“I was very happy with that — especially at the end, when we were down to 14 men (replacement flanker Marcell Coetzee was in the sin-bin for the final 10 minutes).

“We had a back-line player on the scrum (centre Jaque Fourie).

“That’s what I like about this team. They don’t like giving points away. They put their bodies on the line. It was awesome defence.”

The Springboks effectively had victory in the bag at half-time. Tries from Willem Alberts, Willie le Roux and JP Pietersen, making his 50th Test appearance, plus three conversions from Patrick Lambie, put them 21-0 up at the interval.

A fourth try 13 minutes into the second half, scored by replacement prop Coenie Oosthuizen and converted by Lambie, completed the routine victory as Meyer’s charges looked ahead to their final tour match against France in Paris this Saturday.

There was, however, some collateral damage to the South African squad.

Tighthead prop Frans Malherbe limped off in the 33rd minute and is unlikely to feature against the French, whom the Springboks have not beaten away from home for 16 years.

“Frans has got a ripped cartilage,” Meyer reported. “We’re not sure if he’s going to be fine. The doctor will make a decision tomorrow (Monday) but at this stage we’re not very hopeful that he will be able to continue.”

Blindside flanker Francois Louw was stretchered from the field in a neck brace with four minutes remaining but Meyer said: “I’ve spoken to the doctor and it was precautionary. He’s injured his neck but he should be fine. We’re still monitoring him.”

On the subject of his squad’s form, having followed up their impressive second-place in the Rugby Championship with two clinical victories in Europe, Meyer commented: “I’m very proud of the guys and the way we’ve been playing. There are a lot of youngsters coming through and there’s a great blend. To have a 75 percent winning record this year is awesome. I’m very, very happy with our consistency.

“We’ve scored seven tries to nil on this tour so far. If we win next week, I think it will be an 80 percent win record for the year, which hasn’t happened a lot.

“But we have to keep our feet on ground and stay humble. I believe we’re on the right track but there’s still a long way for us to go.”

As for Scotland, they were left licking the wounds of their first blank on the scoreboard since a 40-0 Murrayfield defeat by New Zealand during the 2007 World Cup.

“We let ourselves down early on and put ourselves under a heap of pressure,” Scotland’s interim head coach, Scott Johnson, reflected.

“We were up against a clinical side who took all of their chances.”

Scotland finish their November home series against Johnson’s native Australia at Murrayfield this Saturday. – AFP

Rugby: All Blacks crush Springboks in controversial test

Brodie Retallick is congratulated on his try by All Blacks teammate Liam Messam. Picture: Phil Walter

The All Blacks took the outright lead in the Rugby Championship here Saturday when they comprehensively beat South Africa 29-15 in a bitter contest between the heavyweights of world rugby.

In a match marred by a red card for Springboks hooker Bismarck du Plessis, the All Blacks also picked up a bonus point with their overwhelming victory over the previously unbeaten South Africans.

The All Blacks finished with only 13-men with two yellow cards in the final 10 minutes when captain Kieran Read was dismissed for a lineout foul and Ma’a Nonu was sent from the field for a shoulder charge.

The Springboks came to New Zealand confident they could shatter their Eden Park hoodoo, where they have not won since 1937.

Instead they were outplayed by pace on attack and the staunch defence by the All Blacks who scored four tries to the visitors’ two.

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said du Plessis may have been “unlucky” with his first yellow card but overall he had no complaints about the refereeing.

“In an intense battle like that your going to get moments,” he said.

“You don’t like seeing it but it happens and you pay the price for being ill disciplined. We paid it twice.”

The Springboks coach Heyneke Meyer refused to blame the cards for the loss and said he had no excuses.

“The ref is always right,” he said.

“If you start making excuses for your team then they start to make excuses. There were a lot of things that weren’t good enough even when we had 15 men on the field.”

The intensely physical battle erupted into an all-in brawl in the 15th minute when All Blacks playmaker Dan Carter was bowled in a shoulder charge by du Plessis.

It took referee Romain Poite a full minute to restore order, and when the dust settled the injured Carter was out of the game and du Plessis received 10 minutes in the sin-bin.

Du Plessis received his second yellow, and subsequent red card, in the first minute of the second half when he elbowed Liam Messam in the throat.

In between the cards, the All Blacks lost fullback Israel Dagg with an ankle injury and Sam Cane spent 20 minutes receiving medical treatment for a head wound.

When Carter went down the All Blacks led 7-3 and by the time du Plessis returned to the field they were 14-3 ahead and on their way to extending their unbeaten run at Eden Park to 32 (31 wins, one draw) dating back to 1994.

The All Blacks also overtook France for the most Test wins, moving to 383, and also extended their records for the most test points (13,242) and most Test tries (1,726).

The All Blacks kicked off with the breeze behind them and punished South Africa early when Nonu latched on to a misdirected Bryan Habana clearing kick.

The All Blacks centre’s return kick forced a lineout in the corner from where Read drove over for his first try.

Morne Steyn landed a penalty for the Springboks before the punch up, then when the All Blacks had a one-man advantage they struck again with their second try.

Replacement fly-half Beauden Barrett carved through the Springboks backline on a 55-metre run and lock Brodie Retallick finished off the move when he crashed over by the posts.

Du Plessis returned to the field to briefly restore his place in the South African good books when he scored from a lineout drive.

Steyn kicked the conversion and Barrett landed a penalty for the All Blacks who took a 17-10 lead into the break.

The second half had barely started when du Plessis was sent from the field and when the All Blacks went a player up they immediately struck again.

Read crossed for his second try when he stormed through an attempted tackle by Janie du Plessis, Bismarck’s brother, and Barrett’s conversion lifted the All Blacks to 24-10.

Cane scored the bonus point try in the 67th minute before South Africa came back with a late try to replacement back Pat Lambie. – AFP

Boks gather ahead of Argentina clash

The Springboks gathered on Monday for a training camp ahead of the Rugby Championship.

Coach Heyneke Meyer’s squad of 30 players are preparing for their opening game against Argentina at FNB Stadium next Saturday.

The squad includes a number of overseas-based players with Fourie du Preez the surprise selection.

Meyer explained that he has no hard and fast policy on selecting overseas-based players.

SARU has given the Bok coach the go-ahead to pick them, and so this group of 30 includes players from France, Japan as well as Great Britain and Ireland.

Besides for the surprise inclusion of Du Preez and perhaps Gurthro Steenkamp, the bulk of the squad has remained unchanged from the June internationals.

Meyer is looking to build on the small gains made during the June Tests.

The Boks were far from convincing against Italy, Scotland and Samoa so there is plenty to work on during this training camp.

New Zealand, Australia and their first opponents in the Rugby Championship, Argentina, will be far tougher opponents. – eNCA

After win over Australia, Heyneke Meyer still cautious

mike-harris-try — Australia's Mike Harris, left, scores a try as Springbok Andries Bekker, center, attempts a tackle

Coach Heyneke Meyer says South Africa must become more clinical finishers if they hope to beat New Zealand in Soweto next weekend.

The Springboks and the All Blacks square up at the 90,000-capacity Soccer City stadium where late tries by flanker Richie McCaw and full-back Israel Dagg saw the visitors snatch a 29-22 victory two years ago.

South Africa will enter the final-round Rugby Championship clash with their confidence boosted by a five-try 31-8 victory over Australia at Loftus Versfeld stadium in Pretoria Saturday.

Right wing Bryan Habana scored three tries and full-back Zane Kirchner and flanker Francois Louw one each as a fired-up Springbok pack set the platform for a convincing first success against the Wallabies in six attempts.

But Meyer was not getting carried away after the Springboks ended a dismal run in which a lucky draw away to Argentina was followed by losses in Australia and New Zealand.

“We have high standards and should have scored three more tries against the Wallabies,” said the coach who transformed the Northern Bulls into southern hemisphere provincial juggernauts and also worked with the Leicester Tigers.

“It is great to come home and win and we have not beaten Australia for some time, but we have to start taking those opportunities,” he told a Loftus media conference.

“While we want to score tries again next week, we are aware of the challenge of playing the world champions. New Zealand are a very settled side and a number of players have been part of their defensive system for ages.

“They are the world champions and one of the reasons for that is their defence. It is going to be really difficult to create and score against them,” stressed Meyer.

“We will need to be more patient with ball in hand and more tactically astute. If we get scoring chances, we will need to make them count. We are hoping that all South Africans get behind us.”

There is cause for Springbok optimism as they could have beaten New Zealand in Dunedin this month instead of losing 21-11 had seven kicks at goals not been fluffed, and endless possession squandered through mindless field kicking.

That defeat led Meyer to drop long-time fly-half Morne Steyn and 20-year-old replacement Johan Goosen recovered from a couple of early missed penalty attempts in his first Test start to regularly bring the backline into play.

Centre Jaco Taute also did well on debut after Francois Steyn withdrew with an ankle injury and flank Francois Louw from English club Bath was the pick of a Springbok pack that impressed in the set piece and loose exchanges.

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Australia lost so many players to injury — centre Adam Ashley-Cooper was the most serious with concussion — that they ran out of replacements and played the last eight minutes a man short.

Full-back Berrick Barnes, centre Pat McCabe and prop Benn Robinson were other first half casualties and No 8 Radike Samo quit during the second half with wrist and shoulder problems.

“We are going to have to bring some players across from Australia which will be challenging because we have already delved so deep into our resources and there are a couple who will not have visas organised,” said coach Robbie Deans.

Australia face Argentina at the Estadio Gigante de Arroyito in Rosario eight hours after the Springboks and All Blacks come face to face in a potential Championship highlight. – AFP