SA’s weekend warriors prepare to go for broke
Meyer lays it on the line for his charges on eve of big clash: ‘There is no next week if we lose to Australia’
THE Springbok pack has been charged with laying the platform for the team to achieve its first objective — beating Australia in the Rugby Championship encounter at Newlands tomorrow.
SA’s second goal is to score a four-try bonus point to keep their hopes of winning the Championship alive going into their final match against the New Zealanders next week at Ellis Park.
The Boks are currently four points adrift of the All Blacks on the standings and cannot lose even the slightest bit of ground.
The Kiwis play Argentina in La Plata in the early hours of Sunday morning and should secure at least four points from that match.
But as Bok coach Heyneke Meyer said: “There is no next week if we lose to Australia.”
The Springboks simply cannot lose sight of their first objective in pursuit of the second.
Although the Boks have won five of six post-isolation meetings against Australia at Newlands, they are always close contests with the home team enjoying an average winning score of 20-19.
And even though the Springboks dominated their first meeting of the year in Brisbane three weeks ago, this should be a tighter contest.
Australia are still smarting from that 38-12 home loss, but are quietly confident of causing what would be a supreme upset.
“All we’ve read and heard about this week is how much the Boks are going to beat us by,” Wallaby coach Ewen McKenzie said. “We’re looking forward to the opportunity to challenge that.”
The return of lock James Horwill and tighthead prop Ben Alexander who missed the first game will add some necessary power for Australia, but the Boks’ pack hardly has a weakness and the home team’s bench is loaded with heavy artillery.
With rain expected to fall until lunch time tomorrow the chances of open, running rugby are slim. Even in the dry, the Boks would still spend up to an hour using their pack to wear the Aussies down before opening up in the last quarter.
Meyer has made only one change to the pack that won in Brisbane. Adriaan Strauss comes in for Bismarck du Plessis. They hardly lose anything with that rotation.
The recall of veteran scrumhalf Fourie du Preez to start will improve the Boks’ tactical kicking game and also their option taking. In potentially tricky conditions those two skills will be vital to success.
But the game will be won and lost up front and despite Australia’s moderate improvement their pack does not have the firepower to go 80 minutes with the Boks.