Boks focus on Pumas
WHILE the rest of the rugby world is at pains to find ways of bridging the gap between them and the world champion All Blacks, the Springboks are losing no sleep over their rivals and instead are eyeing silverware before the Rugby Championship.
It might come across as just mind games and trying to divert attention from the glaringly obvious elephant in the room of the growing divide between the world-leading New Zealanders and themselves.
But Springbok lock and reigning South African Player of the Year, Lood de Jager, says the team’s aim is to start the competition well against Argentina next week in Nelspruit, and finish off with the trophy in hand.
The Springboks last won the southern hemisphere’s multination showpiece in 2009 with victory over the All Blacks in Hamilton. They have, however, since struggled to beat their arch-rivals, winning only one of their last eight Tests in the past four years.
The last convincing victory the Springboks enjoyed over the All Blacks came on the eve of the 2011 Rugby World Cup, when the men in green and gold beat the men in black 18-5 at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
Contrary to popular belief, De Jager doesn’t think that the Springboks, under the mentorship of Allister Coetzee, will need to change how they play and follow the All Blacks’ brand of rugby. They should stick to what has worked for them in the past, he says.
“I think we will always want to win, and first prize will be winning the trophy. We don’t care about the All Blacks now, that is coming later on.
“We don’t have to change our whole game to be like them. We don’t want to be like the All Blacks. We want to play our brand. We want to play a Springbok brand of rugby, and maybe tweak it a little bit here and there but still stick to the fundamentals of our game and what made the Springboks a great team over the years.
“We are not going to change too much, we are just working hard on the small things and details and getting that right,” said De Jager.
Much of the detail the Springboks will be working on in the build-up to next week’s Test at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit will be in drawing lessons from the Lions’ Super Rugby campaign, and how to get the team cohesion and combinations going.
“The Lions did really well and I’m happy for them, it was good having a South African team in the final. They’ve been together longer than most South African teams in Super Rugby, and they had quality in many areas that a team like the Cheetahs didn’t have.
“I think Test match rugby is really different to Super Rugby, it’s much tighter, more physical, it’s just a step up. You get tested in every aspect of your game, where in Super Rugby some teams don’t test all areas.”
The Springboks will face up to a feisty Los Pumas side who engraved their names in history by winning their last outing in South Africa with a shock victory in Durban last year.
Having started in that game and scored a try, De Jager still carries the pain of being part of the first Springbok team to concede victory to Argentina on home soil.
And as much as next week’s Test will have a touch of revenge, he says it will also be important for the Boks to kickstart their campaign with a win.
“We want to take it game for game, and the first game is Argentina, so we are working hard for that one,” De Jager said.