Coetzee plays down pressure

The Springboks have enough depth among their loose forwards that they don’t need to call-up a replacement for the injured eighthman Uzair Cassiem.

Bok coach Allister Coetzee said Cassiem, who has been ruled out with a rib injury for this weekend’s All Black Test in Cape Town, will be replaced out of the current crop of loose forwards in the squad.

The Bok coach also said No 8 Dan du Preez (below), wing S’bu Nkosi and wing Raymond Rhule have joined the side again after they were released for Currie Cup duty last weekend.

Coetzee said he was happy at how flankers Siya Kolisi and Francois Louw combined with JeanLuc du Preez after he replaced the injured Cassiem in the 19th minute of the 27-27 drawn Test with Australia in Bloemfontein.

“I think they combined very well as a combination. We will continue with the ball-in-hand approach and there were the few passes in the off-load which didn’t stick otherwise we could’ve scored a few more tries,” said Coetzee.

The Bok coach, however, played down the pressure issue of the 57-0 defeat to the All Blacks in Albany which was followed by yet another drawn result against the Wallabies.

“That Albany result was buried a while ago,” he said. “I believe we have moved on from that and have addressed what happened on that day and have made great improvements since then.”

Coetzee also came out in support of his defence coach Brendan Venter who has come under fire for his Twitter comment that people should stop supporting the side if they are only concerned about winning.

“I’m not on Twitter, but I believed Brendan was misunderstood and his comment was taken out of context,” said Coetzee.

The Bok coach also came out in support of the tighthead Ruan Dreyer who has struggled in the last two Test matches he started since Coenie Oosthuizen broke his arm.