France hell-bent on revenge
Almighty battle looms but improved Boks are well-prepared – Coetzee
HAVING not won a game in Durban in six attempts, albeit three of those counters were draws, France are ready to throw everything into the siege of Kings Park today (5pm) while the Boks are looking for further improvements from last week’s positive showing.
It is perhaps apt that the French Barbarians are in town at the same time as the national team for the feeling around Durban is that Les Bleus are here for an almighty battle. This horde of proud Frenchmen are preparing themselves for a huge second wave attack after the embarrassment of Loftus. And for the Boks? It is simply about improving their game.
For the first time in a long time coach Allister Coetzee was last Saturday able to smile at the end of a Springbok performance. It was not the complete performance, and there was plenty to work on, but it was good enough to beat an undercooked French side and set a stake in the ground.
This week the threat will be bigger, and the game tougher, so Coetzee has called for more of the same, with improvements all round. With the French rallying their cavalry – the reinforcements from Clermont and Toulon shaking off the last bit of rust, and licking their wounds, Coetzee has turned a blind eye to the snarling Tricolor beast at the gates, looking towards his own camp instead.
“The French would not have been happy with their performance,” Coetzee commented. “But to be honest, the focus is on what we want to do and our process. We are off to a good start and we want to continue, irrespective of who comes in and who is not playing for them.
“We know we need to improve, and we want to get it right. In Test match rugby, you will always be tested and it won’t get easier.”
France have made eight changes, which is being viewed as a massive strengthening of many areas of their game.
The Springboks, meanwhile, have made just the one injury enforced change that Coetzee believes will make little difference to their starting line-up’s ability.
Lionel Mapoe comes in for the concussed Jesse Kriel to partner Jan Serfontein with Coetzee happy for it to be a like-for-like swop rather than a shuffling of the midfield to accommodate someone like Frans Steyn.
“It was an easy selection for me this week,” Coetzee explained. “The team performed well and we were happy with combinations, so with the injury, it was a no-brainer to bring Lionel Mapoe in as the only enforced change at 13. The hope is that they too will combine well in the end.”
With the French bolstered by some pretty hefty forwards, as well as a new and exciting halfback pairing, the aim for the Boks will be to try to nullify the momentum of the enraged Les Bleus.
Should the Boks have the physical ascendency, the expectation is that the tries will flow.
“We want to stop the momentum of the French with our defence,” Coetzee explained. “We know they have a big physical team, and if they are not picking and going through Louis Picamole they will be charging off No 9 with their big wing Vermi Vakatawa, and their centres.
“If you get on the front foot it becomes easy to play the game, you get to have width, and get the space.”
So, other than trying to silence the French, Coetzee has also pointed out a few key areas that will be work-ons in only this second game of the year.
“We will also hope to maintain the good things from Loftus’ like the set piece.
“We can be sure that France will come out and improve their scrum, so we have to be neat and tidy there. Our lineout could be better, so we have done a lot of work on it this week.
“We also made a few other errors and we want to cut those down too; and we can improve in all departments in the game.
“And I don’t want to see any less intensity and any less effort,” he concluded.
THERE was a time when a nine-year-old Teboho Mohoje ducked his head into the rucks and mauls as a fledgling rugby loose forward, and his coach in Bloemfontein said that he hovered around like an Oupa, not Teboho.
And so the nickname was born.
As it turns out, the 26-yearold “Oupa” is still obviously anything but a veteran in the Springbok team and today he says he will give everything to prove that he is Oupa in name only against the French in the second Test of the series against the visitors in Durban.
“I was Free State born and bred, in the town of Qua Qua, and I spent seven years there completely unaware of the game of rugby, before my family moved to Bloemfontein,” the genial flank said.
“I am not going to bluff you and say I grew up wanting to be a Springbok,” he says. “It was only when I went to Bloemfontein and learned the game of rugby that I first had a dream of becoming a Springbok. I watched those players on TV and I knew that I wanted to be one of them.”
It is curious that such a shy young man should have the nickname Oupa (grandfather), but he thinks it funny.
“Ah well, that is how these things happen, but the truth is I am the youngest and hungriest to learn about Springbok loose forward play, and the more I learn, the more I understand the role of a Springbok loose forward in the physical confrontation that inevitably awaits us.
“All of us have role to play in shutting down the French attack,” Oupa says. “We know that they are going to come at us physically much more than last week in Pretoria.
“Myself, Warren Whiteley and Siya Kolisi are a new loose trio in world rugby, and obviously the French have done their homework on us.
“But at the same time we are doing our homework on our performance last week,” Oupa continued.
“As we play more together, we will gel better, and we will be better as a unit against the French today. They are trying to work us out, and we are trying to get better, so it will be an interesting contest.”
Mohoje said that coach Allister Coetzee had encouraged him to carry the ball more today.
“Your confidence grows the more you play, and so does your understanding with your fellow forwards and the outside backs that must have an idea of when they are going to get the ball,” the 26-year-old said.
“The coach has told me to attack more with the ball in hand. He wants me to be a carrier, especially with (injured) Duane Vermeulen out of the series,” Mohoje said. “He wants me and Warren Whiteley to combine together more than we have in the past.”
Mohoje said that the instruction from the coaching staff was to play the game on Springbok terms, and for the team to be proactive and not responsive.
“Allister has told us to go out here and play,” he said. “The team culture is different to last year in that this year we have started from afresh and shut the door on last season.
“Then it was about everybody having their own say. Now we are all contributing to establishing our own team culture. Warren Whiteley brings a calmness to the team and we have all bought into playing for each other to get the result the group so much wants.”