Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer
The Springboks will need a monumental effort to down the All Blacks, but coach Heyneke Meyer believes South Africa can win for the first time in New Zealand in five years.
South Africa face to the world champions in Wellington next Saturday trailing by three points on the Rugby Championship standings after a last-gasp 24-23 loss to the Wallabies in Perth on Saturday.
It was the Springboks’ first defeat in this year’s four-nation tournament after winning back-to-back against Argentina, but they face their supreme test away to the All Blacks.
Sapa AFP
South Africa’s last success in New Zealand was a 32-29 win in Hamilton in 2009 and they have lost all five of their matches against the All Blacks at Wellington’s Westpac Trust Stadium.
“While it’s very disappointing to lose to the Wallabies we now need to set our sights on our next match, which is our third away from home on the trot, and rectify matters against New Zealand in Wellington,” Meyer told reporters on Sunday.
“It will take a monumental effort and we’ve got a lot of respect for New Zealand, but I believe we can beat them there.”
New Zealand are unchallenged as the top-ranked side in world rugby ahead of the Wallabies and South Africa, and an upset win for the Springboks would throw the Rugby Championship wide open ahead of their return match in Johannesburg on October 4.
Meyer and skipper Jean de Villiers refused to be drawn on the issue of Bryan Habana’s yellow card for a controversial high tackle on Wallaby Adam Ashley-Cooper that swung the match 15 minutes from time with the Springboks leading 23-14.
“What happened is done and it can’t be changed,” Meyer told reporters.
“I think you know the answer and I know the answer, so I’m not going to answer. The ref is always right.
“I’m not going into it, we don’t want to use it as an excuse.”
It was particularly upsetting for Habana as he was playing in his 100th test for South Africa, but he was magnanimous in defeat.
“Definitely not the result we were looking for and certainly that yellow card probably cost the team a little, so I have to look at myself and see where I went wrong,” Habana said.
“You have to give credit to them, they didn’t stop believing, they didn’t stop attacking, I think they tried to keep ball in hand as much as possible tonight.
“I think that shows character after the loss against the All Blacks a couple of weeks ago.”
South Africa had looked in control of the test match up until Habana’s yellow card, which left his teammates to play with 14 men for most of the final stages.
“We’re very disappointed with the defeat because we played very well,” Meyer said.
“I thought we controlled the second half very well, playing against the wind, and the yellow card disrupted our plans on how we wanted to use the bench.
“No excuses though, it’s a defeat and it really hurts.”
De Villiers, who was playing in his 99th test, said: “We played great rugby at stages, but they stuck to their guns until the end and scored the try that mattered.
“We probably made a few mistakes, which cost us, and defending with 14 men at the end was tough, but credit to the Wallabies for coming back.
“We lost this one and we’ve got to bounce back next weekend in Wellington.”
Another meaningless press conference.
What else can he say?… he is certainly not going to admit that the boks have only a very outside chance to win in Wellington even if he knows it.
And with regards to other issues… HM is a fairly dull person who always toes the line and is certainly not going to rock the boat and say anything even remotely “controversial” ( even if it will be closer to the truth).
So… nothing new here as expected.
Watched the game last night and my summation is this.
Wallabies played and will get better RSA has their best team in years with heaps of talent but will not get better.
It is criminal that the boks are limited to the bok game! They have a side to blow away the ABs and wallabies but they just kick the ball away.
Never have i seen a bok team that has immense talent in the forwards and backline! But the bok game plan will always make south africa predicatble!
I use to loath P Divvy…but at least he spoke what he was truly feeling…
Hah Hak Heyneke is kak!
Keep believing mate. We’ll see saturday how that works out for you. Neither the current team nor the current game plan will produce a win in NZ. If you got weeds in your garden believing that they will dissapear will not produce results. You’ve got to go in there and pull the suckers out. Believing that you can produce results with a game plan that clearly does not work is like believing the weeds will kill themselves just because you believe they will. You need to come up with a different strategy, play smart rugby, be awake and counter any obvious attempt by the opposition to counter whatever you are doing. Just because what you have been doing have been working for 70 minutes of the match does not mean it will keep on working for the last 10 minutes. If some other weeds that are resistent against the poisen you’ve been using starts to flourish then you need to start using something else.
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