With Habana, Boks look to rebound
FLORENCE: South Africa coach Allister Coetzee has embraced the return of wizard wing Bryan Habana as the wounded Springboks look to rebound from defeats to New Zealand and England by beating Italy today.
The pressure on Coetzee to revive an already ailing ‘Boks has intensified since a 37-21 defeat to England at Twickenham last week, their first in a decade, followed hot on the heels of a record 57-15 home mauling by the All Blacks in Durban.
Anything less than a convincing win against a new-look Azzurri in Florence could spell disaster for Coetzee in his first year as head coach.
Yet the 53-year-old insists “continuity” is crucial as they look to build for the future. As a result, Toulon’s Habana and Stormers loose forward Nizaam Carr are the only two changes to the team that started against England at Twickenham.
Habana will earn his 124th cap and is only three tries short of retired Japan wing Daisuke Ohata’s all-time Test try tally of 69.
With captain and hooker Adriaan Strauss 59 appearances short of Habana’s 123-cap tally, Coetzee is counting on the 33-year-old Habana’s “management” skills in a “tough” game against a side still ailing from a 68-10 rout by the All Blacks in Rome a week ago.
“He understands what it takes, he’s a true professional and hopefully he can aid with the game management this week,” Coetzee said of Habana.
“This is not a Test where you will see festival rugby, or think you’re just going to open up and score tries. It’s going to be a proper Test match.
“With his experience, we’re will have to build an innings this weekend. There will be a lot of kicking from the Italians, but we can’t just start running from far out.
“No, we treat this game as one massive test.”
Although Italy will look to amend a largely under-par display against a New Zealand B side, Coetzee believes breaching their back line won’t be so easy.
“Don’t look at the score against New Zealand. They’ve kept their shape really well in defence in spite of being breached 10 times,” he added.