Jamie Roberts
Wales centre Jamie Roberts insisted he was ready for more of the same against South Africa on Saturday, despite being unable to run for four days after his exploits against the New Zealand last week.
Roberts, a qualified doctor currently taking a medical sabbatical playing for Racing-Metro in the French Top 14 league, admitted that he did not dwell too long on the pain and suffering he caused his own body.
“It’s taken me about four or five days to recover from last weekend,” Roberts said of the battering he took in the 34-16 loss to New Zealand.
“It was car-crash stuff last weekend.
“I take anti-inflammatory medication before most games now just to reduce swelling in knees and ankles and so forth.
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“It numbs most things during the game, but when the affect of that wears off.
“Usually the day after a game you feel alright, it’s the day after that, Monday or Tuesday, it’s pretty horrific!”
Asked whether he worried about his body, the 28-year-old said: “Yes, sometimes, but I have to enjoy the present, that’s what it’s about, I’ll worry about that when my career finishes.
“Certainly for the big games now I load up on a few drugs and that allows me to play on the weekends, so I’m pretty happy with that. Yeah, it’s tough but I’ll be 100 percent on Saturday.”
Roberts said he didn’t put too much stock in the naysayers after the defeat by New Zealand, following a narrow 17-13 win over Fiji and a 28-33 loss to Australia, with one eye fixed on next year’s World Cup in England.
“People are always very quick to look at results,” he said.
“Yes, we would have loved to have beaten Australia or New Zealand, or both.
“But when you look at the process of building towards the World Cup, to test ourselves against the best three teams in the world 10 months away from the World Cup is a huge learning value to us.
“As a player, even though you lose a few of those games, you learn and gain far more than if you’d won 40 or 50-0 against a second-tier nation.”
Turning to Saturday’s match against South Africa, Roberts said: “This weekend’s all about the mindset, the hard work’s done.
“I think the boys are used to playing with that intensity now and our structures are in place, it’s all about turning up. You have to front up against these guys, they’re coming direct, on good lines.
“Up with the All Blacks, they’re also one of the best attacking kicking sides in the world and they would have seen last week certainly the problems the All Blacks caused us in the last 10 minutes.
“We’re bracing for a big aerial battle and certainly a physical encounter.”
Roberts said Wales were determined to make up for the All Blacks defeat by holding on for the full 80 minutes.
“Mental fatigue in the last 10 minutes meant we made some poor decisions,” he said.
“Rugby’s a simpler game than we try and make it sometimes and that’s the beauty of the All Blacks, they play the game so well and so simply.
“This weekend now is the last chance we play against a southern hemisphere team before the World Cup and we really have to put in a solid performance on Saturday.”