The Citizen (Gauteng)

Despite winning trophy, ‘hype is still there’

-

Ken Borland

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen (right) said yesterday that one does not need the Rugby Championsh­ip title nor the two teams’ meeting in the World Cup next year to engineer any extra hype for their clash with the Springboks at Loftus Versfeld this weekend, and the fact that the pianist in their Sandton hotel was playing Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika to greet them upon their arrival rather rammed home the point.

The All Blacks arrived in Johannesbu­rg yesterday morning with the Rugby Championsh­ip trophy secured via their 35-17 win over Argentina in Buenos Aires, but there is no doubt they won’t be satisfied unless they beat South Africa this weekend and avenge their shock defeat in Wellington. Pianist Michael du Preez’s cheeky welcome would have only made them more determined.

“Playing against the Springboks is important at any time, it’s not about losing two-in-a-row and it has nothing to do with the World Cup. It’s about the rivalry, which is one we enjoy and I’m sure South Africa do too. We want to make sure we put in a performanc­e we can be proud of. The life of the All Blacks is about nothing else but winning.

“We are expected to win and to win well, we live in constant pressure to win. Like any hurt, the Wellington loss is still there, but time does make it go away bit by bit. The Springboks were written off before that game, although we never did that, and now we are being written off, which is quite good,” Hansen said in Sandton yesterday.

Veteran prop Owen Franks is one of the senior players who was rested for the match against Argentina, and he’s raring to go against the old foe at one of their most famous grounds.

“There are some weeks when you don’t really have to think too much about the game, the hype is just there, and this is one of them. You can’t beat a Test in Pretoria and I hope it is a sellout because I haven’t experience­d that there since 2009/10 playing for the Crusaders against the Bulls.

“In the last week we’ve just been focusing on our improvemen­ts. South Africa have scrummed very well through the Rugby Championsh­ip and it’s going to be a different challenge to Argentina. I wouldn’t say we had them in Wellington, it was a very good contest, they have a big pack, big guys that are hard to move,” Franks said. –

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from South Africa