'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
Big difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 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 Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 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!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 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.
30 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.
30 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 comments