Heyneke Meyer is not a very good poker player. Having hastily returned Jean de Villiers to the starting line-up, he has shown his hand and created a selection criteria which seems somewhat hierarchical. De Villiers should have been managed to and through the World Cup by coming off the bench. It was a mistake by Meyer and it felt wrong to break up the centre pairing of Jesse Kriel and Damian de Allende, who had a blinder against New Zealand.
It sent out all the wrong messages and tellingly De Villiers was even uncomfortable about the backline reshuffle.