Coetzee makes more remarkably upbeat comments about Boks' year
The Springboks play their last match of the season today against Wales in Cardiff, but captain Eben Etzebeth said his side will not need any extra motivation for the clash in the Principality Stadium.
South Africa, one of rugby union’s traditional major powers, suffered a humiliating 3-38 loss to Ireland in Dublin three weeks ago but have since beaten France and Italy while in Europe.
On Saturday, the Springboks will play their 13th Test of the international season and Etzebeth said he and his team are very motivated for their contest against the Welsh, which will be played in front of a crowd of more than 65 000, with the stadium roof closed for the occasion.
“If you play for, or coach, the Boks, there is always going to be pressure,” South Africa captain Eben Etzebeth insisted.
“The whole rugby-mad nation is looking at you, and Saturday’s game is going to be another pressure Test. We are looking forward to it,”
The lock added: “We always look at our scrum as a weapon. We’re a set-piece team, we like scrummaging, the mauling battle. We don’t care who we are playing out there, we always go for them at scrums, mauls and line-outs,”
Springbok lock Lodewyk de Jager echoed his captain sentiment stating that the side are aiming to wrap up a season that has shown much improvement on last year, when the Springboks managed just four wins from 12 Tests.
“We were utterly disappointed with last year, all the results we had,” De Jager said.
“This year, from the start we said we needed to be better, on and off the field, and there’s a better vibe than last year,”
“This year has been about restoring pride. We needed to after a year like last year, it was not up to our standards, or standards of the history of Springbok rugby.”
De Jager added: “If we get a good result on Saturday, we can be reasonably pleased with the year.
“It’s our last game for six months and we want to end the year off well,”
Springbok coach Allister Coetzee has rung the changes from the side that dismantled Italy 35-6 last week, making five changes to the starting line-up.
“Wales are still a good side,” Coetzee said. “They’ve got great attacking ability… they’re very competitive at set piece – you can never write off the Welsh team,”
“I am really satisfied with the progress shown this year, which has been massive compared to this time last year,” Coetzee told reporters on Friday.
“The players have grown, there is a lot of cohesion and the evolution has been satisfactory. If we could finish the tour with three wins, it would show a massive improvement,” the under-pressure coach added.
“Ireland were too good for us that day and played an excellent kicking game. We learnt from that and pulled through against France, and we were clinical against Italy. We have to take it one step further this weekend.
“The team is completely different from Cardiff last year, the team environment has changed a hell of a lot and our processes are in place with a clear understanding of how we want to play.”
Source: Rugby365
Comments on RugbyPass
I’d say France was far more hard done by in the 2011 final than the All Blacks in this game. Joubert simply refused to call a penalty against the All Blacks in the last quarter even directing an All Black to drop a ball he picked up in an offside position rather than penalizing him. This article also totally discounts the efforts of PSTD. Ask Jordie how well he played. Or the backup flank who played hooker for the entire game. Siya was also a brilliant tackle by Richie from scoring a blinder. Pollard was also fantastic. Look I don’t like the boks style but the only thing more questionable than the content of this article is the timing of it. Get over it already
139 Go to commentsDad Marty was also a handy rugby player for Linwood back in the day. Great bloke. Sensational softball career.
2 Go to commentsWhat ifs are always dangerous. If you look at the game before Sam cane got sent of SA was dominating. You could make the argument the going down to 14 men rallied the troops and made them have to play to win which is always dangerous.
139 Go to commentsOmg… you are bruised And battered Benny. Stop crying … the scoreboard speaks. What a pathetic lover you are.. 🤣🤣🤣
139 Go to commentsPacific Lions, cry me a river
139 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
139 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
139 Go to commentsBen is right here though, Springboks were woefully poor with the advantage they had throughout this game. The France match was heroic because that was an even contest this match had it taken place in Rugby Championship would have been an easy win for NZ. If anything this match should tell the Bok coaches that a lot of this team should be changed. They beat this same NZ team by record margin with the same circumstances but with a different core. They bring back the tried and tested guys and they nearly botch this game.
139 Go to commentsI knew who wrote this article from the first few words in the headline…lol. The red card actually did the ABs a favour. It galvanized them, only then did they step up a gear. Before that there was zero momentum.
139 Go to commentsFirstly the foul on Bongi was a planned move just like the NZ master plan with Bryce Lawrence you kiwis are filthy fux perhaps try to play a cleaner game next time I doubt that’s possible tho but don’t worry world rugby is on yr side they trying to take away all the BOKS strengths to help all you weakling as Jeremy Clarkson would say LA OO ZA ERR..🤣
139 Go to commentsAbsolutely spot on Ben. I certainly wouldn't gloat over a win like that. Frustrating as it is it's done and dusted and history will forever show the result.
139 Go to commentsHo hum.
139 Go to commentsNo question they were the better team. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it!
139 Go to commentsEveryone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
1 Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
139 Go to commentsPerhaps if Bongi wasn’t targeted and removed from the game in the first 3 minutes it would have been quite a different game. Maybe if NZ also faced the same competition the Boks faced to their win NZ would have looked quite different. The final score shows who outplayed who.
139 Go to commentsRubbish article! Abuladze played most of Exeters matches when fit. He got injured against Glasgow a while ago and is out for the rest of the season, thats why he hasnt played for Exeter and Georgia recently. Do some proper research next time!
1 Go to commentsGotta love it when kids throw their toys out the pram and can’t hack it with the grown ups debate. Here’s looking at you turlough! 😉🤣
148 Go to commentsThey lost the game period move on
139 Go to commentsSpringboks won! Stop winging. You can change the game however much you and your rugby colonizing IRB want to and the Springboks will win you at that too. Your mind is colonized my friend get a life
139 Go to comments