'We'll see' - Springboks' pack chief responds to Gatland's 'ego' comments
South Africa have rejected Warren Gatland’s “mind games” as misplaced ahead of Saturday’s opening Test clash with the British and Irish Lions.
Head coach Gatland claimed the Lions had already dented the Springboks ego at the set-piece despite South Africa A toppling the tourists 17-13 on July 15.
The Springboks will host the Lions in Cape Town on Saturday, amid an increasingly tense off-field backdrop with the tourists frustrated by South African Marius Jonker acting as Television Match Official (TMO).
Gatland believes the Lions have already ruffled some feathers in the home forward pack, but Springboks assistant coach Mzwandile Stick delivered a withering assessment of that stance.
“From my side I won’t go deep on that one,” said Stick. “We were happy as a Springbok team; if you look at the most important stat in the game, which is the final score, we won the game.
“So I’m not too sure what it is that they dented.
“I’m not going to fall into that trick of playing the mind games, I’m not a mind games person. The game is going to be played between four lines.
“If Gatland is talking about the egos, he doesn’t really know much about us as South Africans.
“So I’m not going too deep on that. Let’s wait and see after the game tomorrow.
“Hopefully we can give the people a good show of rugby.
“We know they are going to be tough, we know they are going to be physical.
“So once again, when it comes to the ego, we’ll see the egos between the four lines.”
South Africa-born Scotland wing Duhan Van Der Merwe has already been braced for any Springboks sledging by the Lions coaching staff.
But South Africa captain Siya Kolisi insisted the Springboks will not be indulging in any such antics this weekend.
Asked for his response to suggestions Van Der Merwe could expect some verbals this weekend, Kolisi said: “Well you clearly haven’t had anything from our side.
“We’ve never been that kind of team and will never be that kind of team.
“We’re going about our business, focussing on the game and we’d never focus on one player.
“That definitely doesn’t come from our side so I don’t know anything about that.
“We haven’t come out and said this is what we’re going to do, we’re going to be chirping.
“No, we don’t do that. We’ll save our energy for the work that we need to do.”
The Boks’ backline coach Stick insisted in different circumstances the home side would even have been keen to mix with their fellow countryman this week.
Stick added: “You know very well that we are good people as South Africans; if it wasn’t for the pandemic, we’d have surely invited him for a braai.”
South Africa’s rugby director Rassie Erasmus will continue his role as water boy in the weekend’s Test opener.
"Tough tough man, the guy never shows pain or emotion"
Are people sleeping on Pieter-Steph du Toit?? The Lions have their hands full with this guy… #Fanzone #LionsRugby @Jamiehuwroberts @jimhamilton4 @StephenFerris6 @AndyGoode10 pic.twitter.com/Dk2JcPxlmq
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 23, 2021
Lions boss Gatland’s anger has been piqued by Erasmus’ pitchside duties, hinting that the Boks boss has at times wandered onto the field in breaks of play without any water.
Stick confirmed that Erasmus will continue to water boy this weekend however, in a move that will doubtless frustrate the tourists.
“To keep it short and sweet, Rassie will be running the water tomorrow,” said Stick.
“That is his role now in the team.
“So he will be there, and he will be running around bringing the water on to the players. And we as Springbok rugby, we are happy with that.”
Kolisi won his race against time to skipper the Boks after his Covid-19 isolation, and the World Cup-winning captain insisted he is fully ready for action.
“I feel good, I feel good,” said Kolisi.
“I do feel good, but I also know if it gets to a place where I’m tired and I can’t go any more, my coaches know me, and the signs when I am tired, so they will take me off the field.
“If it’s the first half or the second half it doesn’t matter, that’s just the code we live by.
“So I have full confidence to go as hard as I can and not hold anything back.
“For me honestly I didn’t have a lot of symptoms, I think I was fine by the second day.
“So it was all in the mental thing, isolating in the room. But I was still part of all the meetings, viewing videos and I was giving input.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Dagg is still trying to get enough headlines to make himself relevant enough to get a job. The Crusaders went back to square one at all levels. Shelve this season and nail the next one.
4 Go to commentsHe was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to commentsAfter their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
3 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
37 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
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2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to comments