Jean de Villiers
South Africa captain Jean de Villiers says the Wallabies might be feeling some “psychological pressure” going into Saturday’s clash after dropping their last three Tests by 20 points or more to the Springboks.
After years of Mandela Challenge Plate dominance, the Wallabies have gone missing in the two sides’ last three hit-outs, going down 28-8, 38-12 and 31-8.
smh
And the Springboks will be hoping their recent superiority over the Aussies will give them a distinct edge when they clash at Perth’s Patersons Stadium on Saturday.
“Maybe they might still feel the psychological pressure of what happened in the past,” de Villiers said.
“But we’re not banking on them holding the scars of last year. They’ve come a long way.
“We see it as a brand new challenge and a brand new game.”
Wallabies captain Michael Hooper was quick to play down the lopsided scorelines.
“It was a long time ago, teams have changed and we’ve got a completely different squad,” he said.
De Villiers added that while the Wallabies would be out to prove a point after their last-start 51-20 flogging from the All Blacks, his own side had encountered their own problems in their two narrow wins over Argentina – ranked 12th in the world.
“They’ll (Wallabies) definitely want to bounce back from that,” de Villiers said.
“But we’re not happy with where we’re at as a team. We want to perform better.
“Yes, we didn’t get a loss like they did, but we need to improve a lot.
“So they’ve got a lot to play for and improve and so do we – that makes for a great clash tomorrow night.”
And there the man from Flattopmountainville who seems incapable of passing a ball BEFORE going into contact opens his mouth nearly as wide as False Bay and spews forth enough k@k to motivate the Aussies.
FFS, when are us SAFFAS going to learn to STFU?
@ Scrumdown:
I have no idea what your talking about or what you suggest Jean should do, should we decline all press conferences and be complete douchebags?
He was also diplomatic in saying
“But we’re not banking on them holding the scars of last year. They’ve come a long way.”
Perth – The Wallabies have made one change to the bench for their Rugby Championship Test against South Africa later on Saturday with hooker Josh Mann-Rea replacing Saia Faingaa.
Faingaa has returned to Brisbane for the birth of his first child, a team spokesperson said.
Mann-Rea, 33, from the Brumbies, has been on standby throughout the week and is now in line to make his Test debut for Australia against the Springboks.
Now Bokke: just contain Hooper, Morne make dead certain of his kicks, especially those 3 pointers, and Habana should forget about the cameras and play his normal game
@ Pietman:
Serious problem at hooker in Australia
@ MacroBok:
Well, I reckon he could have said ” we”and “Springboks” every time he used “they”” and “Wallabies”.
As it reads in the header above it appears a bit condescend, not really Jean’s normal, humble style…
We all know the boykie from De Kelders is a down to earth bloke in real life.
nortierd wrote:
Their problem! Faarkim I say, today
But it was to good see the WP hooker getting it right for a change…it is such an easy job, throwing a ball into a line-out, just practice 6 hours a day, and you can earn mega bucks from it. But for some reason it is just beyond the likes of Tiaan and Deon, they are too lazy and lackadaisical about it.
@ Pietman:
Looking forward to seeing Bongi in Stormers/WP colors as well.
That kid has some serious gas, and if he does the basics well, then he can enjoy himself with the current game plan of WP
@ nortierd:
Tyson will be perfect in the current WP set-up, I am sure.
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