Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer has made it abundantly clear that he wishes to continue at the helm of the South African rugby team in an effort to take the third ranked side in world rugby into the future.
South Africa ended their 2015 Rugby World Cup campaign on Friday night with a 24-13 win over Argentina in the third/fourth playoff game, earning them the bronze medal as the third best team at the tournament, with the All Blacks defeating the Wallabies in the final.
Following a competition of this nature, talk always shifts to the retirement of certain players and the suitability of the coach to remain in power, or the need to replace him with fresh blood.
In this regard, there will be a review for Meyer in December, at which point it will be decided whether or not he will continue with the Springboks or be replaced.
For Meyer’s part in the discussion, he is keen to move forward and sees a bright future.
“We Meyers never give up. We never give up on people, we never give up on others or ourselves,” the coach told the media, according to SuperSport.
“At the Bulls I lost 11 game in a row, I was sworn at, spat at, people threw things at me, I’ve been fired three times and I came back and I won the Super Rugby trophy. Giving up is not part of my vocabulary. Leadership is about walking up front when it isn’t going well and leading the team. I will never walk away from something I believe in, it isn’t part of my vocabulary,” he added.
“It’s easy to throw insults at me, but that is just when you need to be strong. We have had some very bad times, but I am excited about this team. If we could get the country to work together there is no team that can stop this team,” Meyer stated.
Shifting focus on the World Cup campaign, Meyer believes that his side did well, though it was not a success due to the fact that his goal was to return home to South Africa with the title.
“It depends what you define as a success, at the end of the day only one team can win the World Cup and 19 others can’t. We have high standards and only winning is good enough, but you must see it in context as well, there are bigger things such as did you make a difference in people’s lives? We didn’t do well in Super Rugby and had no preparation time before the Rugby Championship,” he admitted.
“What is tough about the Rugby Championship, we played the three best teams in the world then and again now. Just a win would be good enough in my books, but there are very good things happening with this team,” Meyer said.
The coach will know his fate next month, but rumours in the media already suggest that he may have signed an extension to his contract pending the review, which would take him into the next World Cup cycle where he would be expected to prepare the team for Japan 2019.
