Wounded Boks expect immense battle
If players attempt to take the law into their own hands and shout at referees when things are not going their way they run the risk of things going pear-shaped, Springbok prop Trevor Nyakane has warned.
After losing 28-26 to the Wallabies in the first Test of a double-header last week, the Boks are facing a do-or-die clash at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on Saturday (kickoff 9.05am SA time.)
Nyakane expects the Wallabies to come out even harder at the Springboks than they did when they beat them last week.
The burly prop has been chosen to start in one of three changes to the Springboks’ match-day 23 as they look to get their faltering Rugby Championship campaign back on track.
Nyakane said the Bok pack did not train to do anything weird such as walking around or scrumming to a specific side.
“We focus specifically on how we do things and if a ref does not handle certain things it is not our place to speak and shout and say whatever he needs to do,” he said.
“I think he has been given the job because that is what he is good at and I’m there just to play rugby and stay within the laws.
“It is tough when you feel as a pack certain things are happening and you want to take matters into your own hands.
“But if you try to do that you are actually running away from your system and that is where things can go pear-shaped.
“We want to make sure we give the ref the right pictures when we are talking about set-up, balance and keeping your own weight.
“We try as best we can to keep it straight and give the right pictures.
“After that the referee will make whatever decision they have to make and you can’t try to take the law into your hands.
“Then you will get punished badly.”
“The set piece is always something we are trying to improve on,” Nyakane said.
“Obviously, there were a few technical things that happened.
“It is a tough situation with two nations against one another and we go at each other.
“There were a few things that we wanted to work on during this week and I think we have managed to tick those boxes.
“With the things that did not go our way, we will never be happy with that, but they were small things that we needed to fix.
“We can’t really point out any single person and say that person did this wrong.
“It’s the whole group, it’s the whole pack that’s on the field.
“On those things we have worked really hard this week, so we are looking forward to this challenge.
“It will not be easy and it’s going to be a battle, but we like it tough.
“We will go hard at them but we know they will also do the same.”
Nyakane said the Bok pack was hurting from the penalties they conceded at scrums.
“We always scrum to be dominant,” he said.
“Whether it is a scrum on the halfway line or our own five-metre line, we always [strive] to be dominant and to try and get 100% scrums.
“It was tough to see that. “We as a team know we have to come back and look at those pictures and try to understand what happened.
“The team have looked at those images and it’s deep in our hearts.
“It is sore, it’s buried in the back of our minds.
“We know what they are capable of.
“We know that they will come at us much harder than they did last week, so we are prepared for that.
“We know it’s not just going to be a walkover.
“We always say we need to start with momentum. That applies to the set piece.
“We will be doing all we can to be as dominant as we can.
“Now we are looking at improving our performance and taking it step by step for now.”