Why Meyer's success should not suprise

Let me get this out of the way from the outset - while the Blue Bulls grew on me once I saw just how effective there rugby was, it was not always so.

Indeed, word has it that a scurrilous magazine editor who listened to me commentating on one of the Western Province games for a Cape radio station is going to expose me in the most horrible fashion next month.

For those who don't listen to Cape Talk, these were the words I uttered when asked by my co-commentator about the Bulls' chances of advancing in the Currie Cup: "If you ask me, the Bulls are not only the stupidest team in the country, they are also the stupidest team in the world. By extension then, they are the stupidest team in the entire universe."

Ouch! When it comes to having to eat your words, that just about rivals the final paragraph of my tournament preview just before the kick-off of the 1995 World Cup: "If the Boks lift the Webb Ellis trophy a month from now, I will quite happily eat all the buck manure that falls out of the Ellis Park sky."

Fact is, I still consider the Bok victory in 1995 to be far less believable than the Blue Bull triumph in the 2002 Currie Cup. Few deny that New Zealand were the best team in 1995, but after the past few weeks you won't get many who would claim that there is a better team in South Africa than Joost van der Westhuizen's outfit.

The facts speak for themselves. Pretend for a moment that this year's tournament was a strength versus strength competition and consisted of the Bulls, Lions, WP, Sharks, Cheetahs and Pumas. If you constructed a league out of the games played between these teams, the Bulls would have won by a country mile.

For the record, the only team they lost to was the Cheetahs (away). They drew with the Sharks once and beat them once (in Durban, nogal!), beat the Lions twice, WP and the Pumas once each. None of the other sides has a record against the other Top Six teams that comes even close.

When I spun the offending line, it was in the week after their horrible performance against the Eagles, when they made such heavy weather of a game they should have won easily.

But if the truth were to be told, the Bulls have grown on me since then. This Bulls outfit is a very good team and thoroughly deserves all the praise that has been heaped on it since the final whistle ended their fairy-tale season on Saturday. Apart from the power of the pack and the superb ball control, there were little things about the win over the Lions which showed just how much thought had gone into the planning and organisation. For instance, the way youthful match-winner Derick Hougaard was protected by using the inside centre or a loose-forward as first receiver in certain situations, and the way the fullback slotted in at flyhalf at times on the attacking moves.

And because they are a well-coached team, no-one deserves the praise more than Heyneke Meyer, who humbly fielded the brickbats during the Super 12 and then set about proving his detractors wrong. Meyer was the butt of many jokes earlier in the year (thankfully I was never one of those) but it was most undeserved if you look at his pedigree.

For Meyer is no Johnny-come-lately when it comes to top coaching. It was Meyer who, with the help of current Lions coach Frans Ludeke, coached the unfashionable SWD Eagles into the Currie Cup semi-finals in 1999. They did not go all the way, but the Eagles of the Meyer years did produce several players who have gone on to shine in other provinces.

A forgotten aspect of Meyer's early apprenticeship was his role in that same year (1999) of helping the Stormers become the first South African team to host a Super 12 semi-final. Meyer's focus that season was the forwards and it may say something for his ability that the Stormers that year possessed easily the most impressive pack boasted by a Western Cape team in the past decade.

The then Springbok coach Nick Mallett certainly took notice because he wasted little time in seconding Meyer into his management team as forward coach. And while the Boks never won the World Cup, no-one could blame the forwards.

It was while Meyer was forward coach that the Springboks last stood up to and eclipsed the England eight (in the World Cup quarterfinal in Paris) and he helped Cobus Visagie become the best tighthead at that tournament.

Meyer has had a galvanising effect on the Blue Bull forwards and the turn-around was already evident last year, which was the first year in Meyer's three year plan. He was not popular when he first arrived in Pretoria and swept out some of the bigger names and went instead for young players who he felt had potential. He even had a much publicised fall-out with Joost in those early days and the long-serving scrumhalf battled to retain his contract.

But there was method in the Meyer madness and this season, one year ahead of schedule, his union bore the fruits of his rebuilding process. The young players he gave a chance to, such as Wessel Roux and Bakkies Botha, have repaid his faith in them by joining Victor Matfield, who was recruited from Griquas, in spearheading the Bulls' victory drive. They both won deserved places in the Springbok touring squad, so it could be said that while Meyer is no longer the Bok assistant coach, his influence is still felt within the national team.

So what did go wrong in the Super 12, or for that matter in the previous Super 12 where he was involved? In a nutshell, it may all come down to the politicking and mismanagement within the Northern Bulls region that Meyer alluded to after the final Super 12 game against the Stormers.

Facts are facts, and as I wrote some months ago, the fact that the Northern Bulls have a different coach every single year has to say rather more about the people who run the region than it does about the ability of the respective coaches. Yes, he was maybe guilty of pushing too many Blue Bulls players at times, and I do recall criticising him for his view that you could turn any flyhalf into a fullback.

But then the Bulls proved their dominance in the region by winning the Currie Cup, and Jaco van der Westhuyzen's positional play has become so good that there are no longer any question marks over his suitability for the No15 jersey. The Super 12 is a tough breeding ground for both players and coaches, and maybe Meyer just got the Super 12 job too soon. Or maybe he should have been given the freedom to have a three year plan. Just as a Northern Bulls coach starts to learn the Super 12 ropes, he is out again.

After the Meyer success at Currie Cup level, the man who might be resting uneasily at the moment is new Super 12 coach Rudy Joubert. If he loses a couple of early games next year, I can just see the fickle Pretoria public making a meal out of the absence of their Currie Cup winning coach from the regional management team.

Of course, they would be wrong, but that is the way of South Africans. Meyer proved in the past few months that you cannot judge a man's coaching ability on just the 11 matches that are played in the space of three hectic months of Super 12.