Boks loving the pressure
DE ALLENDE: LUCKILY WE HAVE MET OUR EXPECTATIONS
Understanding between the players is getting better.
The pressure the Springboks have faced in qualifying for the play-offs will stand them in good stead for this week’s Rugby World Cup quarterfinals, Bok centre Damian de Allende believes.
The Boks are set to face Japan in their last-eight fixture on Sunday after the hosts earned an historic first World Cup play-off spot by knocking out Scotland with a 28-21 victory in their last pool clash yesterday.
De Allende felt their opening defeat against New Zealand had tightened the screws in the early stages of the tournament and it would be crucial to handle the pressure again this weekend, with the Boks having lost to Japan in the opening round of the 2015 World Cup.
“We knew we had to win three more games with a bonus point (after losing to the All Blacks) and I think that’s where the pressure came,” said De Allende, who scored his fifth try in his 44th Test in their final pool match against Canada last week.
“Luckily we met those expectations.”
De Allende is expected to be named alongside Lukhanyo Am in the Bok team on Wednesday.
The pair have started as a combination in eight of the 17 Tests since coach Rassie Erasmus took over the side, and they had lost only one of those eight matches.
“The partnership has been going nicely,” De Allende said.
“We played together a bit last year but we’re starting to get a real feel for each other and a better understanding of each other, and it obviously doesn’t happen overnight.”
With Japan bracing itself for the potentially devastating Typhoon Hagibis, the Boks trained in windy and rainy conditions in Kobe yesterday, though they were 450km to the south west of the point of impact.
“It reminds me of Cape Town a bit, but it’s always nice to get in the rain and test your skills and intensity in conditions like this because, who knows, we might play a match in the play-offs in these conditions, so it was very good,” De Allende said.
“We prepared to train in an indoor facility on Saturday but we couldn’t get in there so it was a bit unexpected.”
While the Boks were not being given the best of odds by pundits, De Allende admitted the game had improved immensely around the world in recent years.
“Sometimes me and Handre (Pollard) watch old World Cup games from 2015 and back then there was absolutely no line speed on defence. There was no pressure on the skill-set or anything like that,” he said.
They had been forced to accept, De Allende added, that they are not going to get a lot of turnovers and they had to deal with a lot more kicks and more structured attacks.
“I think that’s where we’ve developed in terms of South Africa going forward.”