Buzzing Boks delight coach
Rudolph Jacobs
The Springboks have “big” plans on their agenda, according to coach Allister Coetzee, starting with their tough Rugby Championship journey Down Under.
Coetzee (below) will hold his first media conference in Australia this morning ahead of their clash against the Wallabies in Perth this weekend.
“We have our goals honestly set on bigger things going forward – long, short and immediate terms,” he said ahead of the team’s departure at the weekend.
“But short-term is Australia. That’s our immediate goal now.
“Normally when you go to Australasia you think the big game is the All Blacks, but Australia is the big game for us. The mentality has changed, and only then you look at the next one.”
While the Boks have gone unbeaten in five Tests this year, Coetzee admitted the real challenge would start with this away trip, with the national team having failed to secure the required results over there in recent years.
“We haven’t achieved anything yet,” he said.
“The team is still growing and when we get over there we want to be as fresh as possible, come this weekend, and perform to the best of our ability.”
In a boost for the side, the pain in prop Coenie Oosthuizen’s rib had subsided considerably, while fellow prop Ruan Dreyer was due to fly out yesterday after turning out for the Lions in the Currie Cup on Saturday.
“The players and the team environment are in a good space,” Coetzee said.
“We had a three-day break but I could see on Friday with our first team meeting, the buzz around, the energy around and also the happiness.
“So it’s really a happy group who are all just loving what we do at the moment.
“There’s a plan on the table and there’s excitement about the plan, excitement about the challenge.”
Stuart Baxter has hinted that he will make several changes to his Bafana Bafana side for tomorrow night’s 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifier against Cape Verde at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban.
Bafana gave a tepid display as they lost 2-1 to Cape Verde in Praia on Friday night, though they were give some hope on the road to Russia as Senegal and Burkina Faso played out a goalless draw in Dakar the following day. That means Bafana are just a point behind Burkina Faso at the top of Group D at the halfway stage of their qualifying campaign.
Baxter has one change he is forced into tomorrow, with Erick Mathoho suspended after his red card in Praia. The Bafana coach also confirmed he has midfielder Thulani Serero ready again after injury.
“Serero is available, he came to the camp with a proposed hamstring strain … within 48 hours the doctor told me he was available, but I didn’t think it was fair on the rest of the players to bring him onto the bench for the first game – they had been working, he hadn’t.”
It remains to be seen if Serero does start in Durban, but Baxter did indicate he would be setting up his side in a more attacking manner. He also made a frank admission that midfielder Bongani Zungu and forward Lebogang Manyama were not at their best on Friday, perhaps distracted by their deadline day transfers.
Baxter believes Cape Verde will also come here and play in a more boisterous way after their win at home.
“They will be more confident now than they would have been if we had knocked them over at their place,” said Baxter.
“I think you will see a very different Cape Verde now, they will come buoyed by their win, and I think you will see a much more competitive game now. Certainly from our side there is a bit of revenge to reap, on ourselves as well as our opponents … we will certainly be going for it, and so we will probably field a slightly more mobile, offensive team.
“I didn’t think Bongani (Zungu) had his best game (on Friday). You could speculate that both him and Manyama, who completed deals so close to deadline, maybe they weren’t completely in their best mental shape,” added the Bafana coach.
“I thought Bongani (Zungu) and Dean (Furman) did very well together against Nigeria (in an Afcon qualifier in June) so they were 100 percent right to start (against Cape Verde).
“Everyone has got their favourites, someone might like Andile Jali, someone might like (Kamohelo) Mokotjo ... but we may see changes, now we know what we are facing and know what we want to do. Maybe there are other players who are a bit better suited to this game.”