Jean De Villiers
Springbok captain Jean de Villiers is clear that his team need to take a massive step up before they face the Wallabies in Perth in their next Castle Lager Rugby Championship game on 6 September.
The Bok captain arrived home from the great Salta escape – where the Boks needed a penalty four minutes from time to beat a plucky, aggressive Argentinean team – knowing that the weight of public outrage at the result would be waiting for his team.
But De Villiers is a pragmatist, and, as he points out: it wasn’t the greatest of performances, but a win is a win.
SuperSport
While there is a lot for the Bok management to work on before they take on the Wallabies, and even more before they head to Wellington to face the All Blacks a week later, it isn’t all doom and gloom in the Bok camp, even though it may seem so for their fans.
“We’re not happy with our performance but definitely happy with the two wins,” De Villiers said on arriving back in Johannesburg.
“I think we all know that this is a very tough competition and if you keep on winning – if you are not firing on all cylinders, that is a positive result. We’ll take the two wins but there’s still a lot of hard work that needs to be done before the next game.”
While De Villiers is still adamant that the Argentineans are a lot better side than their 12th place on the IRB rankings portrays, he accepts that the pressure is on the team to show they can do better when they head to Perth. Argentina’s lowly log position comes mainly from the fact they play a B-team in the June internationals and only have their European based stars for the Rugby Championship, meaning their ranking has been in freefall for the last two years.
The ranking clearly isn’t something Los Pumas care too much for, and most rugby fans will agree that on the evidence of the last two weeks they would give most teams ahead of them on the rankings a massive fright, if not condemn them to defeat.
Still, for a team that constantly talks about concentrating on their own game, the Boks have a lot of work to do. They aren’t satisfied with how they played, something that De Villiers took every opportunity to underline.
“I think that’s a good thing (that the public expect more from us),” De Villiers admitted. “If the supporters and public can put as much pressure on us as possible to achieve better and perform better, then I see that as a positive sign. I think once we are happy with mediocrity and just putting up an average performance then I think we are in trouble. We see it as a good thing and we know we didn’t play well. We need to up our game and we need to improve.”
The Bok captain said he did take note of the impressive All Black performance on Saturday in putting up a half century against the Wallabies in their demolition at Eden Park, but that for now, they are in the distance. First priority is the Perth game, and that is where the Boks need to focus their attention right now.
“They were impressive but we are only seeing them in three weeks’ time,” De Villiers said on the All Blacks.
“The focus for us right now is Australia and putting up a good performance against them, after that we’ll take on the next one.”
“At the end of the day we’re happy that we won two out of two and we’re top of the log at the moment in the Rugby Championship.
“But we are very realistic in the way we played and what lies ahead for us.
“There needs to be improvement and if we want to walk away with the trophy at the end of the tournament we need to put up better performances.”
Rugby – Funny old game!
@ grootblousmile:
Ons weet dat die Bokke sal terugkom. ‘n Bokspan met sy rug teen die muur is altyd ‘n gevaarlike span. Ek glo ons het ‘n kans om die Aussies weg van die huis af te klop. ‘n Baie klein kans, maar nog steeds ‘n kans. Die enigste rede waarom ek ons ‘n kans gee is omdat die Wallabies nie so erg besorg is oor voorspelerspel soos Arg en die AB nie. Ons voorspelers sal dus baie beter doen en ons sal ‘n kans staan om te wen.
Teen die AB sal dit egter ‘n heel ander storie wees. As ons voorspelers nie die opponente kan oorheers nie, het ons niks anders om te bied nie en teen die AB sal ons nie oorheers nie.
@ nortierd:
Is that you leading the Currie Cup bru? If so, I have got some catching up to do!! 😉
@ nortierd:
The point is – we played badly but still won.
You are carrying on as if either:
1) That we had lost
or
2) that we should have klapped them by 30 points or more.
That doesn’t always happen in sport. Sport doesn’t go according to a pre-determined script. Underdogs will always overachieve at times – it doesn’t help if you are supporting the favourites like we were the last 2 weekends. My nerves were also shattered.
But we have to move on and put these games behind us. Believe me, there will have to be one massive improvement. I just think it’s too early to panic.
@ 175 Nama:
Nope, I had a debate with Nortie about ARG, not the Bokke
It does not follow from the fact that I rate ARG higher than you & Nortie do, that I cannot be equally (or more) dismayed about Saturday’s Bok performance & the Coach & Captain’s response in relation thereto. The previous Saturday at Loftus I can understand & accept, given the weather, but never, ever that scrum, mon.
**
@ 169 Nama:
Short form cricket is not cricket proper, (i.e. Test cricket)
Similarly, short form rugby is not rugby proper, (i.e. Test rugby)
Your analogy is thus more apparent than real since we are talking about Test rugby, not sevens rugby (where an ODI World Cup may be analogous). The day Kenya reaches number 4 ranking in TEST cricket (which is likely never), I’ll accept your (now spurious 🙂 ) argument.
Nite
178 @ superBul:
During Saturday’s WP / Golden Lions game I was nowhere near a PC or even near a TV, I was out in the bush… on the back of a landrover.
Go read your comments!
You’ve been having a go at everything I say for a while now, having a great go at me from the side and with a number of snide remarks.
@ Blue Bird:
So far so good, difficult weekend coming up though
185 @ Angostura:
I have not heard the word “spurious” in a very long time, I in fact don’t think I have heard it since I left the Legal Profession in 1996.
Such a wonderful word, and descriptive though… a “spurious argument”… brings back many memories…
184 @ IAAS:
“That doesn’t always happen in sport. Sport doesn’t go according to a pre-determined script”
Actually, it does, we always beat Argentina, predetermined script.
Why are we playing badly? Why have we struggled to win 3/4 of our last tests, and not against Aus, NZ or Eng mind you?
Why are countries that should not be labeled in our class dominating us and making us look silly?
We can’t overlook these questions by saying, we won.
Sometimes just winning doesn’t cut it, did we deserve to win? If Argentina played their best side every test, they might learn a culture of winning, and they could, and should have beat us on Saturday.
This comes back to my earlier post that they have lost 15/17 test since last year. Yes, they don’t play their best side, but that is their stupidity, if they did, they might learn a culture of winning instead of knowing they are losers, because the stats back it up.
They are not the brightest bunch if they continue breeding a losing culture.
@ nortierd:
Sometimes the picks just jump out. I always struggle with Currie Cup selections. I just don’t have a feel for your local derby’s.
Spurious indeed!
😆
@ Angostura:
Nite Ango
@ Blue Bird:
The margins are tough to get, Bulls missing a sitter of a penalty, then opting not to take a kick at goal smack bang in front, cost me a margin as well.
Lots still to happen, one poor round and it’s free fall time
gunther wrote:
What is spurious?
An angry bloke who has a speech impediment?
@ grootblousmile:
186
Het post 83 jou stilswye teenoor my verbreek. currie-cup-dhl-western-province-vs-xerox-golden-lions-live-game-article
Het dit jou reaksie ontlok ??
Wat is nog gese , mis ek iets?
gunther wrote:
I like ‘Ersatz’ …. Far more cutting edge!! 😉
@ Blue Bird:
Hi there , if you want to see the Big 5 in SA you better make a plan, we are fast losing our Rhinos. Unbelievable slaughtering of them
194 @ nortierd:
spurious
adjective: spurious
not being what it purports to be; false or fake.
“separating authentic and spurious claims”
synonyms: bogus, fake, not genuine, specious, false, factitious, counterfeit, fraudulent, trumped-up, sham, mock, feigned, pretended, contrived, fabricated, manufactured, fictitious, make-believe, invalid, fallacious, meretricious; More
artificial, imitation, simulated, ersatz;
informalphoney, pseudo, pretend;
informalcod;
rareadulterine
“it was possible to arrange retirements on spurious medical grounds”
antonyms: authentic, genuine, real
•(of a line of reasoning) apparently but not actually valid.
“this spurious reasoning results in nonsense”
•archaic
(of offspring) illegitimate.
Ek dink die maklikste verduideliking in Afrikaans is “Kwaadwillige argument”.
superBul wrote:
Hi superBul…. The slaughter of rhinos and elephants seems to continue unabated in Africa.
I cannot say on a public forum like this what I would like to do to the poachers, the dealers and the end users. They are all scum.
@ grootblousmile:
Thought it was a bloke so angry he was a mixture of SPitting mad and fURIOUS
Springbok touring squad announced, thread is up
nortierd wrote:
lol
You are on the ball today Norts!!
@ gunther:
Well, well, well…look who’s back.
😉
@ nortierd:
Now now angrystormer!
Actually talking about big 5’s..
My favourites were
1 .Percy Montgomery
2. Jean de Villiers
3. Juan Smith
4. Bakkies Botha
5. Victor Matfield
Sadly No1. Is nearly extinct, sightings of Percy are few and far between!
No2. Jean is thriving and there has been many sightings
No3. Is occasionally seen breaking cover, following a serious injury
No4. Bakkies migrated however he has been sighted back on home ground
No 5. Victor, lost a lot of bulk and took to a bike!!
200 @ nortierd:
Hahahaha
Nama wrote:
No one had denied this.
MacroBok wrote:
Then why have you been acting all spurious these last two weeks?
@ MacroBok:
So, we agree then. The Boks were utter kak on Saturday.
208 @ nortierd:
Nee hel Norts, nou verkrag jy darem die Ingelse taal sommer so met beide hande, arms en alles.
Jy maak sommer van Spurious ‘n werkwoord…. hehehe
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