Loose Pass

This week we will be concerning ourselves with Heyneke Meyer, Mourad Boudjellal, new training methodology, reports and England…

This week we'll mostly be concerning ourselves with Heyneke Meyer, Mourad Boudjellal, new training methodology, reports and England…

So the die is cast: Heyneke Meyer is the new Bok coach. For most, the appointment is about four years late. For some of those, it's also too late; as one colleague in South Africa remarked to me over the weekend: “well, at least we've solved our centre problem: now we don't need any anyway…”

Meyer was visibly emotional during the press conference to mark his appointment, clearly seeing this is some sort of redemption to the farcical process that saw PDV appointed ahead of him in 2007.

Perhaps he was also distraught at the size of the task that SARU's dithering has now left him – he's got about four weeks before the Super 15 starts to try and impress upon South Africa's franchise coaches how he wants his players managed, never mind a few squad meets here and there to get to know his playing staff.

But there's a lurking suspicion outside of Pretoria that 'too late' might be a phrase that haunts Meyer down the stretch. He may yet tempt Victor Matfield out of retirement, but Matfield is undeniably past his best. He may have sent a heartfelt text message to all at the Bulls, but it seems the franchise also feel that the decision was left far too long and look a way away from giving their unrestrained blessing to it all.

He still does not have a support staff – something else he'll have to deal with in the next four weeks, but with the Super 15 looming large that's going to take an extraordinary amount of negotiation if he is to look local. If he is to look abroad he may find himself having to beat down some well-constructed walls.

But has he come to the role too late as well? He's been back involved in coaching since quitting the game in disgust at PDV's appointment in 2008, apparently making a fine impression at Leicester before his family brought him home to South Africa and the Bulls once more, and he's revered in Pretoria. But the team has not been the success story it was under Meyer's stewardship in 2007 and 2008, often looking stale and as though it has failed to adapt to new rule interpretations and expansive play.

He is rated highly by many respected peers, including Nick Mallett, under whom he served as a Bok advisor way back in 1999 and 2000, and I am yet to find anybody who will say a bad word about him personally. But whether he can weather the shambles that is SARU, catch up on the delay of his appointment and immediately satisfy a demanding public thirsty for instant success with a new team, is a moot question.

Is there no way Mourad Boudjellal can be brought up to a higher disciplinary body than the French League or FFR?

Having gone way past the line in criticism of referees (Toulon's defeat to Clermont was a 'refereeing sodomy') he has:

– snidely bragged about his monetary power by reacting to a possible defamation lawsuit as a result of his refereeing remarks with the words: “I am not surprised that they are attacking me. With what they are paid, they need the money.

– Flaunted a ban on his presence in official match (including before and after the matches) venues, to the changing rooms (teams and referees) as well as the corridors leading to these zones, by watching Toulon's thrashing of Bayonne from the roof of the players' tunnel – very similar to Jose Mourinho's stunt at Real Madrid not so long ago.

– Described French rugby as: “racist. It reflects a France which is very inward-looking and conservative.”

Really? Should the IRB or some such higher body perhaps not look to shut Boudjellal up. Good though his money may be for Toulon, for the game in general he has just become plain bad. And it's not as if Toulon are that good either.

Saracens have been pioneering some new training this week, bringing in Mixed Martial Arts champion Khalid Ismail to give their academy players a little pep talk on aggression, control and discipline.

Ismail stayed the day at Sarries, watching the first team prepare for their trip to Treviso and getting an idea of the conditioning involved, before giving a little impromptu class on hand-offs, other aspects of self-defence and wrestling.

How effective it all was is not yet clear – after all, Sarries only barely escaped from Treviso. But what has been observed is that doors around Vicarage Road now open with a little more force than they used to…

David Pocock may be unpopular elsewhere, but in Australia he's become enough of a hero to be included on a new Aussie post office stamp!

Pocock has joined current legends from several other sports, including rugby league's Billy Slater, while David Campese also got himself on another stamp range as a legend past.

It's rumoured Bryce Lawrence, on a recent holiday to Australia, took to using the Pocock stamps to reply to all the hate mail letters he received from South Africans…

And finally, new year, new management, same old England. Danny Care ousted for drink-related offences, Delon Armitage now apparently spending a night in chokey in Devon after a night out went wrong.

With only one English club in the last eight of the Heineken Cup and the international players behaving more and more like bratty soccer players, the trip to Scotland on Saturday is taking on more and more significance for Stuart Lancaster to make a statement, to assure the English public that the national team is moving in the right direction.

But in the meantime… plus ça change…

Loose pass compiled by Richard Anderson