Springbok coach Peter de Villiers gives his thoughts on what went right and wrong against the All Blacks last week.
SA Rugby Coach’s Corner
http://www.sarugby.co.za/default.asp?des=column&id=6301
By Peter de Villiers
Hi all. The match against the All Blacks at Newlands was disappointing in many respects. We had a really good build-up to the match and the players wanted the occasion to be something special for Percy Montgomery, who played his 100th Test match.
It was fitting that Monty played his 100th international match in front of his home fans, on his home ground where it all started for him in the provincial colours of Western Province. Monty is a model professional and his contribution to the Springboks and South African rugby has been immense and I want to thank him on behalf of the team for his brilliant example throughout the many years he has represented his country.
I thought that although we made many unforced errors, the scoreboard was not a true reflection of the match. We created many chances but were unfortunately led down by our finishing. I would rather want to refer to two aspects of our game which I thought went extremely well.
Andries Bekker had a good match and he is a big lad with a big heart and a good future ahead of him if he continues with the sort of improvement he has been showing since June. It is never easy to lose a player of Bakkies Botha’s caliber, but we are very fortunate to be able to call on a player like Andries.
I also thought that our scrums went particularly well and it is one of the areas that we will look at to keep on improving.. The tight five really played their part and we are looking forward to another good performance in this department against the Wallabies.
Victor Matfield and I attended a media conference this week and we were asked whether we are now more under pressure to win against the Wallabies in the wake of the loss against New Zealand. We responded by saying that every Test match is a serious affair and that we are used to the pressures of each test, especially when we play home in South Africa.
The players and management had a hard and honest discussion after the New Zealand match and we know how much a victory would mean for the supporters. We are determined to build on the good we achieved this year and eager to eliminate the mistakes we made.
I want to assure all the supporters that we value all their encouragements and messages of support. Our players are all passionate and proud of their responsibilities as Springboks and I hope that the Test in Durban will deliver another good contest and also a much better performance than last week.
Keep supporting the Springboks!
Peter de Villiers
mr de villiers – you are making it very difficult to keep supporting the springboks with your naive selections, tactics and substitutions. Feels like the doom and gloom of the straueli era descending once more…
Jake White:
I was disappointed that the Springboks didn’t beat New Zealand in their Tri-Nations encounter at Newlands last Saturday. Everything was set up for the win with Dan Carter missing 4 kickable penalties to leave us only trailing 0-5 at the break.
That is not a bad position to be in with twenty minutes to go, the pressure on the All Blacks and only 5 points in it. Unfortunately for us there were two turning points. Firstly Bryan Habana’s foot finding the touchline and then Percy Montgomery missing two vital kicks during his 100th Test match which he would normally have slotted on any other day. Either of the two would have had us ahead or level at worst.
It was not to be.
In terms of our defence I believe that Schalk Burger proved how valuable he is to the Springboks in covering the inside. As soon as he was replaced Dan Carter got through and scored right under the poles.
Despite everything that Test was within our grasp and in the last quarter things could have turned out so differently.
That is all in the past and the guys must now focus on the Test against Australia on Saturday.
The Springboks need to get back to their strengths – their physicality and their powerful set of forwards. The danger in terms of the Wallabies will come from their backline and it is vital to the cause that we keep clean possession to them down to a minimum.
Once again Schalk will be essential to ensuring that we defend well on the inside. The Aussie backs are highly innovative while the team as a whole plays the multiple-phase game exceedingly well. The breakdowns will be vital and Schalk will help to slow the game down.
If the Springboks want to score tries this weekend then they are going to have to play the game in the Wallabies half of the field as much as possible. Field position could well be a major factor in this one.
In terms of defence the Wallabies are exceptional, owing much to the fact that they don’t commit numbers to the breakdowns. This makes it harder to break their defence down.
In terms of lineouts we are going to have to improve on last Saturday’s performance where we let ourselves down a bit.
Here’s hoping we can bounce back this week.
This guy won’t last long – he’s already slagging off the players in public:
“The guys who have played well so far are mainly the younger players and not the old hands,†De Villiers told a Cape Town radio station earlier this week.
“I’m trying to get into the heads of the more experienced players. I’m going to make it clear that if I can’t win matches with the experienced players in the team, I’d rather lose with inexperienced guys.
“If their sell-by dates have come and gone I’ll have to act accordingly. We’ve had hard words and now we need to see if we can turn it around.â€