Bok Matfield on new Bok Coach Meyer

Victor Matfield’s dealings with the media have often been drenched in irony given his intrinsic intelligence and a world-weariness that will inevitably develop when a player has amasssed 110 caps for his country and an untold multitude for club, province and invitation team.

Earlier this week, he told reporters, tongue-in-cheek, that he would dust off his boots to make a comeback for the Boks now that his mentor, Heyneke Meyer, is coaching the Boks.

“Nah. It is not going to happen. It would not be the right call for me, even if it is Heyneke, and yes he is the best coach I have ever played under,” the 34-year-old said yesterday. “But I would not be surprised if he brings back some of the other Bulls guys that have ‘retired’”.

Matfield is talking about 30-year-old Fourie du Preez and 32-year-old Bakkies Botha, and maybe relative youngster Gurthro Steenkamp, all of whom are playing overseas.

“All I will say is that if Heyneke wants them, they will come back. I can assure you of that. He always gets his man,” said Matfield, who could well find himself employed as lineout consultant to the national team along with a bunch of the currrent Bulls management, namely forwards coach Johann van Graan, defence coach John McFarlane (the Englishman) and fitness coach Basil Carzis.

So what is it about Meyer as a coach that Matfield regards so highly.

“He can sell a dream to anybody. He really gets guys to believe in where he wants to take them and how he is going to get them there,” Matfield reflects. “He gets the best guys around him to assist and then expects nothing less that total committment from the players.

“How best could I put it … ? Okay, Heyneke knows that the recipe for failure is to try and keep everybody happy. He embraces the responsibility of making tough decisions. He won’t take crap from anybody. If you don’t buy into his vision, you are history. He drives the culture of the team incessantly, and if you waver from that, you are gone.”

Is he too conservative, too unflinching?

“No, because he thinks out of the box with the structures he puts in place at the start of each season. Players respect that the coach has done his homework on how the game will change from one season to the next,” Matfield says.