Time is right for Bok coach Heyneke

If the South African Rugby Union is serious about the Springboks getting to the top of world rugby again, then they need to make Heyneke Meyer the next Bok coach.

Let’s be honest, he should have been given the job four years ago. Now, with the spectre of a World Champion All Black team ruling World rugby for the foreseeable future, there are few coaches who have both the tactical nuance and the motivational abilities to get players to play above themselves.

Eight years ago, Meyer was asked to recuse himself from the shortlist and he did, on the basis that he wasn’t ready for the job despite success with the Bulls at Currie Cup level.

Jake White got the job and it was ironic that four years later Meyer became the first South African to win the Super 12 and a few months later the majority of the same team won the World Cup under White.

But if there ever were acts of betrayal, it was in 2008, where Meyer was the favourite ahead of Peter de Villiers to get the position. Not only did Meyer score better in the psychometric tests, but his presentation was way better than Divvy, his CV spoke for itself and he was even told that he had the job.

Meyer even received a call from a delegate in the Saru Presidents Council at the time assuring him that he would be called as the new coach shortly. But then thanks to backhanded deals and political interference, a group led by Cheeky Watson and Prof Jannie Ferreira managed to persuade the presidents to vote for an agenda rather than a coach.

It was a move that devastated Meyer, and with good reason. Deeply ambitious he coaches with a passion, and there is no bigger challenge than the challenge of international rugby.

While other coaches merely looked for survival in the Super Rugby series, Meyer set his sights higher. He would often tell us he didn’t want the Bulls to be compared to South African teams; he wanted them to be compared to the Crusaders.

Now four years later there is no better candidate for the position. Meyer has overcome his personal problems that haunted him so badly after the failed appointment. He is back at the Bulls with purpose.

At a lunch with him late last year he spoke with passion again and it was clear to see the hunger is back. The same man who built the Bulls dynasty was clearly focused again, making adjustments to the Bulls systems that he built out of the ashes, and ensuring that in a few years' time a new young Bulls side can rule South African rugby.

I have no problem with Gert Smal, who is astute and experienced, and who has done wonders with the Irish pack. Ditto for Allister Coetzee, who has proved himself as a top-notch coach in international rugby.

But South African rugby is crying out for a master tactician, a rugby brain who will galvanise the team under national glory and pick a team and a game plan to match any team worldwide.

There are those who have told me in the past few weeks that Meyer’s lack of coaching in the past few years will count against him. Those people forget his input in Tuks’ Varsity Cup challenge that saw them get to their first final in the competition.

There are those who believe Meyer can only play a 10-man rugby game. Those critics also forget the Bulls teams that won the Super Rugby competition scored more tries than any other team in the competition. They forget how in 2007 he enticed Australian Todd Lauden to become backline coach and how he was the first South African coach to employ a defence coach in John McFarland.

Victor Matfield often tells the story of the week that the Bulls beat Eddie Jones’s Reds 92-3 at Loftus. Meyer told the team in no uncertain terms that they could achieve the 76 points needed for a home semi and Matfield believed him.

But when he told his wife and parents, doubt crept in. By the time he arrived at Loftus that Saturday, he didn’t believe it anymore. It took one motivational speech by Meyer and the entire squad believed again, going far beyond the points differential on their way to the title.

This time around Meyer is older and wiser, more mature in his outlook and hungry again for success.

It would be a travesty for Saru to waste that opportunity once again for whatever reason.

It would just be plain wrong.