Springbok coach Jake White talked about some of the selections for Saturday’s test against the All Blacks.
On the appointment of Victor Matfield as Bok captain in place of the injured John Smit:
“Victor has 57 caps, has successfully captained the Bulls franchise in the Super 14, took over the reigns against the Wallabies when Smit was injured, and in my mind was the only logical choice.
“John has been a very successful captain and he’s an important part of how we play. But I’d much rather he sat out of a test match now going into the World Cup. It’s also a chance to see how the team reacts without him on the field.
“It’s a big challenge for Victor as well I am sure. It is his first run-on test cap as captain and it is against the All Blacks, so you don’t get much bigger than that on debut.
“But he has been very successful at the Bulls and there are a lot of Bulls players in this team as well, so I am sure they will help him make sure that he is assisted during the game.
“I read that Bob might even be captain, and I have no idea where that started. Pierre Spies played well last week, he was a man-of-the-match a few weeks ago, so he was an obvious choice.â€
On Juan Smith’s inclusion in the side:
“We have got to give him the benefit of the doubt because he is the first choice in that position and he is a lot better now than he was. Obviously if there is no problem he will take the field as planned on Saturday. Changes are not out of the question. There are a lot of things we could change but for the moment we have picked the form side.
“We have selected the team that we believe will be the best one for this weekend’s match. In any case, Pierre Spies has been playing very well. Much can change between now and Saturday.”
On the selection of Gary Botha:
“It’s funny how things work out. Gary will now scrum down with Os. You could not have asked for better.
“Having Os will help Gary. Os has 71 test caps – very important to us anyway, but Gary, with only 6, will surely be grateful to have someone like Os propping down next to him. It makes us more confident having a more seasoned campaigner next to Gary too.”
On the effect of injuries:
“I think with these little injuries we are seeing the cumulative effects of a long Super 14 campaign and two tough Tests against England. Physically this is hard. But mentally this game is as big as it gets. People are saying this is a rugby World Cup final rehearsal, which is a big boost to us. A couple of years ago people wouldn’t have said that.
“The positive is that we have played at that level of intensity (last week against Australia) and won. The negative is that we have yet another heavy encounter coming while the All Blacks have had a week off. So what we gain psychologically we might lose physically.”
On last week’s game against the Wallabies:
“It was an unbelievable test match, I don’t think people realise how tough it was, and it is incredible they are not more battered, I think they made 130-odd tackles compared to our 50-odd. You would think they (Australia) would be more battered and bruised.
“One interesting stat from the Test was the tackle count I mentioned before, which shows just how little ball we gave them, and backing that up was the fact there were only three scrums in the second half, all our own ball, which means we made no errors.Â
“So that was a big plus for us to take from the game, and means that our training and vision training with Sheryl Calder is working well, and credit to the guys for that.â€
On Saturday’s game against the All Blacks:
“The All Blacks are a great team and they have great players, and if you get it wrong they will punish you. I don’t know how much stock you can take from the games against a weak French team and Canada – no disrespect to Canada – but one thing we are lucky on is that they really have travelled.
“Hamilton-Auckland-Sydney-Joburg-Durban is a long trip, which we well know. That doesn’t mean it will be an easier game though, but if we had flown from here to Dunedin, we would be feeling it too.
“It is a setback if we lose any Test match, but the reality is that we are taking it seriously, it’s a big game, but if we win or lose we don’t suddenly become Rugby World Cup favourites or also-rans.
“It is not as obvious as that. The two teams appear born to play each other. Everyone is talking about the Boks, everyone is talking about the All Blacks, it is a huge Test.
“As a South African, to say you’ve beaten the All Blacks, you don’t get too many better feelings in sport than beating the big rival. Look at their record. They’ve lost three games against South Africa. If they hadn’t I think they’d be on about 50 wins in a row which would be a record you’d never catch up to.
“I feel very honoured and proud of that record, because there’s not too many coaches that can say the last three years they’ve had the opportunity to beat the All Blacks.
“I’ve made it quite clear, there’s a World Cup coming up, the All Blacks pulled 22 guys in the Super 14 which I wasn’t able to do because our franchises didn’t feel it was necessary. New Zealand, Ireland, England and France have done it, so we’ve got to make sure we do whatever’s best to give ourselves a chance to win the World Cup.”