Meyer linked to Western Force job
Discarded former Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer has reportedly set his sights on the Western Force head coach role left vacant after Michael Foley’s sacking. Meyer had previously been touted as the front runner for the director of rugby position at England rugby club Bath.
Meyer has now been linked to the head coach vacancy at the Western Force, according to Perth daily newspaper The West Australian.
Head coach Foley was unceremoniously dumped following the Perth-based Super Rugby side’s poor showing in the tournament that currently sees them propping up the Australian Conference and Australasian Group standings from the bottom.
In the Super Rugby season leading up to the tournament break for the mid-year Test window, the Force have only managed to secure 12 log points from as many games, with 10 losses and only two wins.
Meyer will face some tough challenges ahead, should he take over the reins left flapping in the wind by Foley, but the former Bulls and Springbok mentor will at least have the remainder of the Super Rugby season to assess his prospects.
“I’ll definitely look at the (Western Force) opportunity if there’s something in the pipeline,” said Meyer. “I think there’s a great opportunity there.”
Most coaches would shy away from the potential disaster that could ensue from filling a role that was left vacant in such an abrupt manner, but Meyer instead views it as a challenge.
“The Force have got a lot of good things going for them,” he said. “Since the Force started I always thought it was a great, great, great place to build a team.
“I’ve always liked the underdog. The big challenge is where you take a team. The challenge is to build a team, to take it and mould it the way you want.
Foley, a former hooker for the Wallabies who featured in the 1995 and 1999 Rugby World Cups, spent some time at Bath as forwards coach before joining the Wallabies as an assistant coach and then taking over as head coach at the Waratahs for the 2012 season, before moving to the Force.
Meyer, in his trajectory to the top Bok job in 2012, enjoyed coaching stints with the SWD Eagles, Emerging Springboks, Leicester Tigers and most notably the Bulls, who he helped guide to a Super 14 title in 2007. He is no stranger to the demands and rigours of Super Rugby.
“They’ve got good youngsters and I’ve watched Super Rugby quite intensively. A lot of the games they lost were quite close. They lacked a bit of experience,” Meyer said of the Force.
“It’s a building process and while you would need to give it some time you still have to win. If they can keep the core of players together, success will come.
“You need a culture, like-minded people who want to be world class, who are willing to work hard, whose work ethic is really high and want to build something.”
While Meyer faced immense pressure toward the end of his tenure as Springbok coach, which eventually saw him step down, there are those who believe he might still have something to offer the rugby world.
More recently, Meyer featured at the 2016 World Club 10s tournament in Mauritius as a technical adviser to the Africa Pacific Dragons team, alongside guest-coach Will Genia and head coach Steve Jackson.
“I never thought I would think like this a month or two ago but I’m well rested,” he said in Mauritius. “I just love to be involved in coaching. At one point I thought it would be the end for me but this tournament is good for me.”