No revenge talk from Heyneke 30 September By Ashfak Mohamed Cape Town – It’s the showdown Springbok fans have all been waiting for following the controversial Eden Park Test, but coach Heyneke Meyer says it won’t be about revenge against the All Blacks at Ellis Park on Saturday. The Boks are just about still in the race for the Rugby Championship trophy, but they will need a bonus-point victory over the world champions to take the title after New Zealand scored their fourth try in the final seconds of a 33-15 win over Argentina in La Plata early on Sunday morning SA time. The All Blacks now have a five-point lead over the Boks on the log, although South Africa have an advantage of 21 on points difference. “For the players, it’s not a revenge game. I’ve got the utmost respect for the All Blacks and the coaching staff. There is a really big respect from both teams, so there’s no revenge in that. We weren’t good enough on the day and things happened that wasn’t under our control,” Meyer said at Newlands. “So we just want to go out there, and this is a great thing about this team – we don’t go out there and play on emotion. We’ve got very high standards, we want to be the best team in the world and we want to win the World Cup. “Obviously it would be great to win the game and the Championship, and we are in with a chance. But we don’t talk about revenge games – the fact that the All Blacks are coming here with all the support we’ve got, we just want to make our country proud.” And Meyer believes that his team have made great progress in their game this year. He stated that the Boks have scored the most tries in international rugby in 2013 (35), achieved the highest winning margin against Argentina (60) and won at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane for the first time, and that is what will give them confidence when they run out at Ellis Park on Saturday. The Boks definitely showed intent to play positive rugby from early in the game when captain Jean de Villiers opted for a penalty to be kicked to the touchline instead of the posts, while the backs carried the ball with purpose and tried hard to outfox the Wallabies defence where Man of the Match Fourie du Preez provided a quick service from the base. There was good width on the Bok attack, and that bodes well in trying to achieve the goal of a bonus-point win on Saturday. “We decided to move the ball if they moved four guys back, which worked for us. We really want to play a ball-in-hand game. It was a little bit wet at times, but I thought we played some great rugby. We’ve won nine out of the last 10 games, and I would’ve taken that at the beginning of the year,” the coach said. “I’m really happy with the way we are playing and the way we are maturing. The guys were really positive in this game and really wanted to go out there and score tries. It was a tough game, and the whole week was tough because you are almost in a lose-lose situation – a win was almost not good enough, only a bonus-point win was good enough.” After a great start, the Boks got bogged down in the middle period of the game and the two yellow cards conceded by Flip van der Merwe and Duane Vermeulen made life even more difficult. Van der Merwe will face a Sanzar disciplinary hearing on Monday morning after being cited for alleged foul play for leading with his elbow in a tackle on Wallabies wing Joe Tomane, for which French referee Jerome Garcés gave him a yellow card. If Van der Merwe is ruled out, Juandré Kruger is likely to be at No 5 at Ellis Park and boost a Bok lineout that didn’t please Meyer. “I wasn’t happy with the lineouts and there was a reason for that, but I’m not allowed to say that – we couldn’t get going from the lineouts,” he said. That was probably due to the referee allowing the Wallabies to “swim” around the side of the mauls, which halted the Bok momentum. It’s going to be a tough ask to beat the All Blacks with a bonus point, but Bok skipper De Villiers is still upbeat about his team’s chances. “We are still in this competition – we’ve got our opportunity now, and that’s the great thing,” he said. “And I think the team have progressed so much from where we were last year to where we are now. I think we are playing a good brand of rugby. We are making mistakes and created opportunities and we didn’t capitalise on that. “To play two of the top teams in the world in consecutive weeks is great for us and we can see where we are at. It is a sold-out Ellis Park and a lot has happened in the past at that stadium, and we are just hoping we are up for it and have a good week, and that we don’t come off the field having any regrets. Put up a good performance and leave everything out on the field.” Cape Times
Posted on: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 07:18:03 +0000
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