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Fitzpatrick: 'South Africa haven't moved on from 2019'
All Black great Sean Fitzpatrick believes South Africa have failed to evolve their game since becoming World Champions in total contrast to New Zealand who are favourites heading into the 100th meeting between the two nations in Australia on Saturday.
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The former All Blacks captain accepts the Springboks will raise their game after suffering successive Rugby Championship defeats to Australia and the hype that will surround the century of matches will ensure a titanic battle. However, Fitzpatrick is unimpressed by the Springboks continued reliance on a kick-chase tactical game which was good enough to beat the British and Irish Lions and he also has a timely warning for France who are favourites to lift the World Cup they stage in 2023.
Fitzpatrick said: “I don’t think South Africa have moved on from 2019 yet and they need to change. The All Blacks evolve so that when everyone else catches up they then take it to another level in terms of attack. The All Blacks have developed nicely after the disappointment of last year and there are new names coming through with a real depth in leadership which is great to see.
“The Springboks did enough against the British and Irish Lions who took them on physically and they were never going to win that battle and I was disappointed in that series on a number of fronts. With due respect to Australia, the Springboks will lift their intensity playing the All Blacks.
“If you only focus on international rugby then you are not going to develop any talent coming through and the guys in the All Blacks know that if they don’t play well for Auckland or the Crusaders they won’t get into the test side and that puts pressure perform for their clubs. It means when they do get selected for the All Blacks they go to another level. Beauden Barrett has taken a little while to get back up to speed but his performance last weekend was what we expect from him but that is also a result of the pressure coming from Richie Mo’unga and that is great for us. “
Fitzpatrick who won the first Rugby World Cup in a young All Blacks side that beat France in the 1987 final, has a warning for the French who are shaping up to be favourites to win the trophy for the first time on their own soil in two years time. Fitzpatrick said: “The World Cup is coming quickly and while people can talk about France having home advantage in 2023, it can be a hinderance as well. In 2011, there was a lot of pressure on the All Blacks at that tournament and whatever the pressure the French think there will be in 2023, it will two or three times more intense.”
In a 92-cap All Black career, which saw him captain his country 51 times, Fitzpatrick faced the Springboks 12 times and finished with nine wins, one draw and two defeats. One of the losses came in the 1995 World Cup final and that momentous match remains iconic in the history of the sport. While he would like to get that game “back”, Fitzpatrick prefers to concentrate on having lead the All Blacks to a first series win in South Africa in 1996.
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He added: “There is one of those two defeats I had against the Springboks I would like back! It would have been nice to have that one in the locker but the games I remember as being the best would be in 1996 when we became the first All Blacks to win a series in South Africa. It was the first tour of the professional era and we took 36 players away and really targeted that series win. John Hart did a fantastic job after Laurie Mains had developed the team and guys like Christian Cullen came into the team.
Dave Rennie's Wallabies may have found a fatal flaw in South Africa's controversial kicking game. #RugbyChampionship https://t.co/vMX9BG0zv4
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 20, 2021
“Winning the series at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria was very special and as we came off the pitch Jonah Lomu and the guys who had not played did a Haka for us. That All Black pack wasn’t overly big but our generation would say it was the best rugby we played and we were the fittest and fastest we had ever been.
“To walk off the pitch and be hugged by Don Clarke, the great All Blacks full back, who was living in South Africa and hear him say “Thank you Sean for doing something no other All Black team has done – I can now die a happy man!” It was the high point of our careers and to be honest 1995 and the final wasn’t really spoken about.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
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