Daily Dispatch

EC IS THE HOME OF WOMEN’S SOCCER

Cosafa rewards Port Elizabeth crowd for their love of Banyana

- GEORGE BYRON

Maintainin­g the furious intensity they showed against the All Blacks is vital if the resurgent Springboks want to beat a difficult Australian team in Port Elizabeth on Saturday, Bok coach Rassie Erasmus said.

The Boks are leaving nothing to chance for their Rugby Championsh­ip clash against the Wallabies which is expected to draw a sellout 46,000 crowd to Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.

Following their heroic win over the All Blacks in their previous game, Erasmus says his players must remain grounded and focused.

“We do not want the guys to fly too high and think they are this world team that can beat anyone because we beat the All Blacks in our last game,” Erasmus said.

“The players must be right on Saturday because we are playing a difficult Australian team.

“Keeping up that intensity is always a challenge. You know one can get overexcite­d not looking at the facts of why we won, what we did well and not so well.

“That is why we have come in early to Port Elizabeth on Friday to make sure we start our preparatio­ns and are focused like we were for the All Blacks game.”

The Bok coach is eager to get one over Australia after they went down to the Wallabies in Brisbane earlier this season.

“We are playing an Australian team that we lost to last time. The Boks want to rectify that first of all. I do not think we can read too much into Australia’s loss to Argentina last week.

“We have lost to both those teams this year. A year out from the World Cup teams are trying and testing a few things at the cost of a loss sometimes.

“Australia are a team on the up even if they were not so sharp the previous week.”

Erasmus said the win over the All Blacks had provided his team with a massive boost.

“The players know we had to go through some growing pains before the World Cup if we want to be competitor­s.

“We did experiment a little bit against Australia and Argentina and it cost us.

“The pressure was on the Bok coaching staff for the players to believe in our long-term vision.

“We talk about the World Cup, but there are two big Test matches coming up for us over the next two weeks against Australia and New Zealand. Now that the belief is there, it will be easy to get the players up for these games.

“I do not think we are in with a chance to win the Rugby Championsh­ip. I am pretty sure New Zealand will beat Argentina away from home.

“For us to keep growing and improving is the big thing for us in the next two weeks.”

He added he was relieved and proud his team had beaten New Zealand in New Zealand.

The players must be right on Saturday because we are playing a difficult Australian team

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