Battered Boks back themselves
Our destiny is in our hands, says Louw as focus shifts to Samoa
THE Springboks are still thinking the final is in reach, even if most of the world has written them off. “We can’t slip up now, we have to win every game,” said flank Francois Louw.
THE Springboks enjoyed their first training session yesterday since losing to Japan in their World Cup opener at the weekend, and it was an intense workout.
The team arrived 45 minutes later than scheduled after the review of that 34-32 loss took longer than scheduled. There were many bones to pick over.
But after 48 hours of soul searching, attention is turning towards their next challenge, against Samoa at Villa Park on Saturday — and after the shock of the Japan loss, emotions appear to be turning to anger.
“The reality is we lost our opening game at RWC and our backs are against the wall,” flank Francois Louw said.
“We’re down but not out and we have three tough games ahead of us to make it right. Our destiny is still in our hands to go through to the play-offs though.”
Louw inadvertently revealed that there is still a positive mind-set in the group when he said, “there are six games left and we will take each one as it comes”.
Clearly, the Boks are still thinking the final is in reach, even if most of the world has written them off.
“A defeat like we had can make a side vulnerable,” Louw said.
“We need to pull together because we are a tight unit and tight group and deflect any negativity that comes our away.
“There is a lot of expectation in South Africa and often even a close win is not enough. Momentum is important and we need to somehow build that momentum.
“We’ve hit a stumbling block and now it’s up to us to regroup.
“We are in a position where we have to feel confident. We know that we can produce good rugby and that we can beat any side in the world, which we’ve done over the past four years. But recently we have lacked consistency and that is key in the World Cup.
“We can’t slip up now, we have to win every game. We will take confidence from past games and the level of rugby we can play.”
All Blacks coach Steven Hansen was one man not writing the Boks off yet either. He has crossed swords with them enough times to know better.
“It doesn't matter what other teams think,” he said. “It would be very foolish for anyone to think they could rock up and take South Africa lightly now because Japan's beaten them.
“It’s irrelevant what happens game to game.
“It's what's happening in the game you're playing, in at that moment. If you've got talent and ability to improve then it’s a different beast you're going to get the next time you play.”
Adriaan Strauss sat out training with a cold, while flank Willem Alberts is not over his calf muscle injury and also missed training at the University of Birmingham.
In further chastening news for the Springboks, they dropped from third to sixth in the latest world rankings released yesterday.