COHESION CRUCIAL BUT COETZEE SCOPING OUT SOME YOUNG GUNS

FOLLOWING their 24-25 defeat to the All Blacks, Springbok coach Allister Coetzee says he’s pleased with how their Rugby Championship campaign went.

The Boks produced a fine performance against the All Blacks in a clash that could have gone either way, and their confidence should definitely have been boosted by running the mighty All Blacks so close.

The Springboks – who finished third on the Championship log again, with New Zealand of course in the top spot and Australia in second – won just two of their Championship games and drew with the Wallabies twice, while their only victories came against Argentina early in the competition.

And while Coetzee said he’s disappointed with the result, he explained that he is “unbelievably pleased” with how the Springboks played.

“Obviously we’re disappointed with the result, we needed two points. But it showed again that if you turn the ball over against the All Blacks, they’ll punish you,” he said.

“I feel very sorry for the players, the way they trained this week was prevalent. It’s sad when players do everything they can, but they just don’t get the win.

The right direction

“It showed that our processes are on track. I’m unbelievably pleased with how we played. We feel that we’re heading in the right direction.”

“I’m really pleased … we lost two games and three could have gone the other way (their draws against Australia and the narrow loss to the All Blacks).”

The Springboks will have about a week off before they shift their focus to their preparations for the End of Year Tour, and while Coetzee said continuity and team cohesion is going to be crucial, he added that he’s been scoping out a few younger players for their game against Wales.

“The next step is to make sure we don’t get together one week before the tour. I’d like to keep team cohesion and continuity. The Wales Test is outside the international window, so I’ve been looking at a few young players that will join us.”

“We want to get back to our DNA, we want to get back to working hard for each other. We can only go from strength to strength, the year is not over, we’ve got four games left to go.”

All Black coach Steve Hansen was also impressed by the Boks’ efforts, and at the post-match press conference, he said the South Africans gave them a real Test-match contest.

“You want a contest, tonight we know we won a Test match, both teams played really well. The game could have gone either way. So winning these kind of games is probably more satisfying,” Hansen said.

“South Africa will be very proud of their performance, and their fans will be too. They never disappoint us, they always turn up when up when we play them here.”

Hansen also said that the fight the Boks put up at Newlands again proved that the 57-0 drubbing they suffered to his team wasn’t true reflection of a Springbok team that “grew in self-belief ”.

“We told everybody that wanted to listen that the score in Albany – although it was ridiculous – wasn’t a true reflection of how the game went. In that game we took every opportunity, and tonight we didn’t. The Boks grew in self-belief.”

“Belief is such a big thing in sport – if youbelieve in yourself, you build confidence, and confidence gives you about another 10 percent.”

And when asked which win felt better – the Albany slaughter or the narrow win in Cape Town – Hansen said: “I just get pleasure out of every win – it doesn’t matter how we do it, as long as we do it.

“We saw that we have to be in the right mindset when we play them, otherwise we’re vulnerable. And it’s the same with any team.”