Springboks at training this week
South Africa will be going all out to ensure they end their Rugby World Cup campaign on a high note when they face Argentina in their 3rd-place play-off on Friday.
That was the message from Springbok flyhalf Handré Pollard who scored 15 points from 5 penalties in his team’s 18 / 20 semifinal loss to New Zealand last Saturday.
“We still got 1 more game to go and it is another opportunity to represent the Springboks – it is still an amazing honour,” said Pollard.
“We can still go away with the 3rd place but it is not what we came here for.
“Its still not bad so we going to go out on Friday and just give everything we have. It’s the last Test match and we just have to get result.
Flank Willem Alberts, who struggled with injury this year, echoed Pollard’s sentiments.
“It’s obviously disappointing not going all the way in this World Cup,” said Alberts.
“I think that was everybody’s dream. We wanted to do well and we wanted to win it and we wanted to make the nation proud.
“We got 1 more chance this year to pull the Springbok jersey over our heads and all we can do is to go out there and do our best and do it for ourselves and show in the game that we still champions even though we did not win the World Cup.
“It’s important to finish strong, but I do think that if you look at our last game we did not play that bad. It was quite a rugby spectacle and if you can take the good things out of that game and continue into the next one, then we will be ready for another great rugby match.”
The Springboks put in a gutsy performance against the defending champions in torrid conditions at Twickenham Stadium and Pollard believes the All Blacks beat them at their own game.
“We did not have the possession or territory that we would have liked. Hats off to New Zealand, I think they played that game very smartly with those little kicks in behind.
“We struggled to get the ball in our hands. They just played a suffocating and strangling game and that’s probably the game that we tried to play most of the time – and being the quality side that they are, they adapted to the conditions very well and kept us under pressure.
“We still could have won that game if we had just taken all our opportunities. It’s not nice looking back at it now,’ Pollard added.
Pollard also believes the experience of playing in the Rugby World Cup will put some of the youngsters in good stead for the future, including himself.
“The whole thing we’ve gone through after losing to Japan and the pressure we have been under – some of the senior players said it a few times that it’s something they never experienced in their whole career and they finishing up now and we are just at the beginning of ours.
“We going to take what we can out of this and hopefully it can help us with our careers going forward.
rugby365
Just the normal empty rhetoric.
Springboks – 15 Willie le Roux, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Schalk Burger, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Victor Matfield (c), 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Beast Mtawarira.
Subs: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Jannie du Plessis, 19 Lood de Jager, 20 Willem Alberts, 21 Rudy Paige, 22 Pat Lambie, 23 Jan Serfontein.
Argentina without Creevy, Hernandez and Imhoff.
Especially with Creevy out, huge advantage Boks.
nortie wrote:
Yes, but we’re handicapped with Victor “I can’t even catch my own lineout ball” Matfield, Ruan “two steps before I pass” Pienaar and Dik Willem Alberts, our first prototype prop-flank
nortie wrote:
How would your team for next your look like?
Which players are all retiring?
@ Victoriabok:
Alberts brings no impact for either side in the short period he is on the field.
Even with Pienaar the Boks should win, losing Creevy is a huge blow to Argentina, and Imhoff has been one of their stand out players this year.
Victoriabok wrote:
I guess we won’t be seeing FdP, Matfield (except if HM stays on) hopefully we have seen the last of Jannie and Bissie and Pienaar. Schalk and Alberts can also hit the road together with JPP and Habana.
The problem is JPP and Habana are the fall back POC for the coach, so I guess they will still be hanging around for a couple more seasons.
If we get a coach who won’t pick overseas based players we could be in for an exciting new period
nortie wrote:
Willie can go as well, he’s a temperamental little a-hole
I didn’t follow the CC much except a few of the Bulls games
I like the Bulls back three, especially the fullback Gelant
Orie isn’t bad either as is Hanro
From the Lions I really like Kriel, Whitely and Akkers
Faf de Klerk should also get a run
We can pick Jano to replace the “experienced” FdP and Ruan
I don’t really know the others well enough
Who would you add?
@ Victoriabok:
Let’s see what Willie does next year, for too long he has been the big fish at the little pond at the Cheetahs.
Maybe at the Sharks he will a smaller fish in a bigger pond?
The problem is, the Sharks don’t look like they are enjoying their rugby, but maybe once the Du P,Essie’s brothers are gone it might change.
The Bulls back 3 looked good at times, but it took the other sides only a couple of games to work them out.
Will be interesting to see how they fare with Pollard, Jan and Kriel in the back line with them.
Senatla might be worth a look, but I guess his nr 1 priority is sevens and the Olympic Games.
The back 3 of the Lions offered more than any of the other CC sides, but all these stand out CC players must first show that they can also perform in SR before one can take them too serious.
I reckon it will all depend on who is coach. If HM is reappointed I can’t see too much change in the current Bok side and in the way they will play. He doesn’t rate the Lion players at all, so whatever Kriel and co do will be a moot point….no, I believe he will pick Kriel in his camps and give him a game or two just to appease and suck up to the public who have been questioning his omission. Then he will proclaim that it has always been his plan to select him and he worked on one or two aspects that he identified and that he now deserves his chance
nortie wrote:
We should play two fetchers as well like Australia
Will you pick Brossouw?
Victoriabok wrote:
I think Australia can play 2 fetchers as both of them are exceptional players. Is the 2015 edition of Brussow exceptional? In my opinion not even close.
@ Victoriabok:
Brussouw won’t fit into the current game plan, will he?
Our flanks are used to bash 1st phase possession up, our hooker and back line players are expected to “fetch”
Even the so called argument that Brussouw isn’t a line out option is nonsense, we lost 4 line outs on the weekend with all these so called specialists in the team.
We hardly threw ball at Vermeulen or to the back.
HM tried to play Jakeball, but that only works when Jake is coach. Jakeball is dependent on your kicker gaining huge distance with line kicks, we needed a France Steyn type boot out on the field. People laughed and called Peter Grant a popgun boot, Pollard and Willie wasn’t far away from that either.
Jakeball means the line out is your first weapon of choice, we got that very wrong.
What we did get right was to slot penalties every time we got close, but maybe that was just part of the AB’s ploy? Concede a penalty every time SA gets close, but keep them away from the tryline or getting to within 5m of the line, they knew they were good for a couple of tries to neutralize the 3 point gains we got.
That’s why we never even threatened to score, we never got in a position to do so because as soon as we came into their half we got 3 points.
After the Japan loss the whole world knew HM was livid because we shunned kickable penalties, so it was obvious that we were going to kick for goal in a semi against NZ.
Wat?
Gulde geleentheid vir HM om sy nr. 1 losskakel te kies, Burger op 10?
Ai, weer Ruantjie op skrummie.
Nee wat, net dit is genoeg rede om enige ander coach aan te stel,laat ons liewers vir die volgende 4 jaar op ander maniere verloor, as deur dieselfde verbeeldinglose wedstrydplan en swakspankeuses van die afgelope 4 jaar.
Nog 4 jaar van Ruan op skrummie is net te veel.
Stel vir Ackers aan, daar is ten minste 6 Bokke in sy Leeus span, en dink net daaraan, ten minste ‘n nuwe gameplan.
Het weer na Saterdag se game gekyk. Feite is, HM se hele gameplan is negatief, hoop die ander span speel sleg of maak foute, en hoop dan om met strafskoppe te wen. Gewerk die 1ste helfte, maar wat as die ander span begin goed speel en driee druk?
Dan het HM geen plan nie, en kan sy gameplan ons nie red nie.
Kan nie nog 2 jaar wag nie, moet nou regte aanstelling maak.
@ nortie:
I read Eddie Jones is jetting in this week to officially start on 1 November. Dobson is in the meantime doing the legwork for him by drafting assessments on all the available players.
At 10 we have a gem of a prospect in Brendon Thomson although he is yet to play senior rugby. I am not convinced with Robert du Preez so we are desperately short of an experienced player in that position. Hopefully they will sell Coleman off to SWD or some other low level team. We also need a good number 6. Otherwise we are fairly well covered.
I am really looking forward to see what kind of impact Eddie will have.
nortie wrote:
No he will fit very well, especially in tandem with Kriel
Like Steve Hofmeyr in a Bloemfontein groupie 😛
nortie wrote:
Victor was supposed to be the lineout specialist
And he lost his own lineout ball when it counted
“Springboks want to finish with a bang”
To slightly paraphrase Eliot:
This is the way the World Cup ends
Not with a bang, but a whimper.
Ben-die-Bul wrote:
Speel eerder vir Paige
Ruan Two step is kak
Vrystaat wrote:
Or a whine?
For losing in the losers match?
For the losers trophy?
@ robzim:
Yep, will be interesting to see his impact.
I see they appointed Russel Winter as forward coach, sort of an “out of the left field” move.
I hope Eddie can improve Damian next year, will be nice if he can teach him to break the line and then pass. Kolbe should be happy, Eddie won’t see him as small player, he has been coaching much smaller guys for a couple of years 😆
I agree that we are still short a world class 10, you need one in SR
Victoriabok wrote:
Ek het al gewonder of Gysie nie dalk een of ander houvas op HM het nie. Maar aan die ander kant dan kies hy ook vir Matfield en Fatman Alberts…… almal kan seker nie ‘n houvas op hom he nie?
robzim wrote:
Prefekte in die bybel studie klas?
@ nortie:
@ 20
The return of the Chop Tackle.
nortie wrote:
Morne?
nortie wrote:
Big in Japan?
Kolbe could be a no 5 in the Brave Blossoms
@ nortie:
@ Victoriabok:
Ek sou Kirchner of selfs Lambie in Willie se plek gespeel het.
Lets be honest, does anyone really care about this match?
@ Foreignerforbokcoach:
According to Willem Alberts ( in article above) they will use the game to show they are STILL champions.
A champion in his own mind I assume unless I have missed something?
@ robzim:
Yes agreed. The ship has sailed and we are fighting over leftovers.
If you were Argentina or one of the lesser nations I can see it being of importance but not to us.
I’m in two minds as to whether I will even watch it.
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