Call for Boks to be ruthless

Match about meeting standards, says Strauss, not revenge against Irish

SPRINGBOK captain Adriaan Strauss has called on his teammates to be more ruthless when they face up to Ireland in the second Test at Ellis Park this evening.

The Boks go into the game on the back of a disappointing first match under new coach Allister Coetzee at Newlands a week ago. The defeat to the Irish was the first time that the Boks had lost to the tourists on South African soil. They will be desperate to level matters before next week’s final showdown in Port Elizabeth.

Strauss pointed to two areas specifically where the Boks must lift their standards if they are to right the wrongs of a week ago.

“We need to step it up at the breakdowns and we need to finish off the chances we create,” said the hooker yesterday.

The Boks lost plenty of ball in the collisions and breakdowns at Newlands, and although they created a number of good try-scoring opportunities they managed to take just two of them, one of which being an intercept.

“Before the first game we talked about the high standards we have for ourselves, how we want to follow the vision the coach has set out for us, but we let ourselves down. We let the supporters down and we let the country and coach down.

“We want to make a big step up this week. There were positives (at Newlands), like our set pieces and the number of opportunities we created, but we could have finished off a lot better.

“The ruthlessness of getting over the line was just not there. I believe it’ll be there this week.”

To achieve those goals, much will depend on the pack getting the Boks on to the front foot, winning the collisions and hanging on to the ball in the tackle. However, the halfbacks, Faf de Klerk and Elton Jantjies, will also have a huge role to play.

Strauss said he was confident that the Lions pair would take charge of the contest.

“It all comes down to decision-making. We need to be better in a lot of areas, but I’m confident the key guys – the nine, 10 and 15 – will make the right decisions.

“They’ve shown in Super Rugby that they’re great players and can make the right decisions. They’re players who have a natural feel for the game, and that’s important, so I back them fully.

“They know when to have a go and when we need to play the territory game.”

Strauss added that as the captain of the team it was particularly tough for him to accept last weekend’s defeat but that he and his players would not necessarily be looking for revenge today.

“With the responsibility of the captaincy comes accountability,” he said.

“Being the captain makes it (the loss) more personal, and then losing on home soil is always tough. Put the two together and it’s not the ideal start that I had in mind.

“This is a great group of players… and we owed ourselves a better performance than that.

“We need to right the wrongs… this is not about vengeance, but about performing to our own standards.

“The fans have a certain expectation of us, but we have an expectation, too.

“It’s now time we lived up to what’s expected of us.”