Coetzee looking ahead
COACH: THE PLEASING THING IS THAT WE ARE CREATING GOOD CHANCES
Hansen expects the Boks to be much more physical at Newlands.
In the white-hot intensity of a Test against the All Blacks, all Springbok coach Allister Coetzee wants his team to do at Newlands today is hang on to the ball far better than they did in the hammering they received in Albany in their last meeting.
South Africa were thrashed 57-0 that day despite playing a fair amount of rugby, their every error ruthlessly punished by New Zealand.
“The players need to learn how to operate under pressure, some of them were playing their first game against the All Blacks, they were facing the haka for the first time and maybe it was all blown up too much.
“But everyone has seen and done it now, and we have to respect the ball, you will hang yourself against the All Blacks if you don't do that,” Coetzee said.
“The pleasing thing is that we are creating chances, but it’s important that the players understand the next action is not necessarily to score a try. There should be good decision-making around the ball-carrier so that we don’t give away the ball, make sure we don’t lose that opportunity.”
Opportunities against New Zealand are generally few and far between though, because the world champions have tremendous set-piece prowess, their skills are such they make few basic errors, and they are the ultimate game managers in terms of striking the perfect balance between an astute kicking game and keeping ball in hand.
All Black coach Steve Hansen said this week that his most important job has been in managing the mental state of his team, who have already won the Rugby Championship as they head towards the end of a daunting year in terms of workload and have barely been challenged by the Springboks in their last three outings, which have a combined score of 148-28.
“In our planning this week we’ve worked hard on the mental side of the game.
“We can’t control what the Springboks will do, but the mental side is massive. At the highest level, most players have the same talent so it’s about how you control the big moments.
“There’s no advantage for us from the Albany result, that game is over and each match is a separate entity with different challenges, which you can be good at handling one day, but not the next. I think the Springboks will be a lot more physical and accurate, and that was the issue in the last game, how they executed and not what they were trying to do,” Hansen said.
Kick-off: 5.05pm.