Now Giteau pipes up

We’ve had Connolly, Gregan, Larkham, Tiquiri talking a big game. Now Australia backline star Matt Giteau pipes up, believing the Boks may be vulnerable to some early pressure from the Wallabies on Saturday.

“You definitely need a fast start. If you give them a sniff and obviously let them have a lead, then it’s going to be a lot tougher to chase them down. You’ve got to have a fast start and try and silence the crowd as much as you can.”

He said that the seven straight Test losses by the Wallabies in South Africa only increased the team’s determination to succeed.

“I’ve never won over here playing for the Wallabies, so every time you come over here you’ve just got that desire to win. You want it more. So I don’t feel under any more pressure. If anything, it feels like the South Africans are putting themselves under a fair bit of pressure.
 
“They’re obviously playing really good rugby, but I think they are talking it up a fair bit. So we’ve kind of got the underdog tag and that suits us pretty well. We obviously haven’t had the best preparation. We haven’t played that well. But we’re looking forward to a big game this week.”

“With the Force, I’m two from two. One hundred per cent. So I’m looking for 100 per cent this year – in 2007.

He believes that the key to defeating the Boks is patience.

“You need to be patient. Obviously we’ve got to match them physically, and that’s not just through the forward pack but throughout the whole side. Once we do that, we’ve got to look to outsmart them. There’s different areas where we want to attack, but I think patience is the key.

“We’ve really got to build throughout the game. We showed in the first three Tests (of the year) that we didn’t have too much patience when we got close to the line. We tried to score off every phase, so that’s something we need to work on.”

“Going on the first two Tests, whenever I moved back to inside centre, I felt completely comfortable. I felt like I knew my role really well and I felt at ease. I could just go out there and play my normal rugby. So I don’t think it will be too much of a challenge.

“The guys that I’ve got around me, I’ve obviously played a fair bit of football with. So it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”