He scored two match-winning tries to secure a bonus-point victory for the Springboks, but for captain Jean de Villiers another dream became a reality in the Rugby Championship win over Australia – running on to Newlands with his two daughters.
De Villiers and Bryan Habana celebrated their 100th Test caps achieved Down Under by taking to Newlands for their 101st and 102nd games respectively with their children in their arms – De Villiers’ daughters Layli (two years and eight months) and Lana (14 months), and Habana’s three-month-old son Timothy.
And it may be De Villiers’ last Test at Newlands, although next year’s preliminary draw announced by Saru at the end of 2012 for the single-round Rugby Championship stated that the Boks would take on Argentina at Newlands.
But as special as that moment may have been, and it was underlined by a 28-10 bonus-point victory, a victory over the All Blacks at Ellis Park this Saturday may mean as much, if not more to the Springbok skipper.
The world champions clinched the Rugby Championship title with a 34-13 bonus-point win over Argentina in La Plata at the weekend, which put them six points ahead of the Boks with one game left.
The South Africans haven’t beaten the Kiwis since 2011, going down 14-10 in Wellington a few weeks ago, but the way with which they held on to the ball in producing multi-phase attacks should equip them with the necessary confidence to go toe-to-toe with Richie McCaw’s side at Ellis Park.
And De Villiers will hope that they can go one better than last year’s corresponding game, where the Boks scored four tries but conceded five and still lost 38-27 in a sparkling game of rugby. “If we play next week the way we played (in this game), we’ve got a good shot at beating them. It’s important for us to put up a good display next week, and we came close in Wellington but just didn’t get there. So it will be important for our group, and we are quietly confident. But it will be a massive challenge,” the skipper said.
“We had chances in our previous games as well, and we finished them off this time. It shows that our coaches don’t just sit at the hotel and eat and sleep. The plans that we have are really good, and if we can carry those out (on Saturday), we can get a result like we did in this game.
“I thought we didn’t play badly abroad in those two games, and obviously a couple of things went against us and we lost those games. This performance was an improvement on the previous week, and now we need to improve again. We are happy with where we are at.”
The Boks left it a bit late to put the Aussies away though, with first a Patrick Lambie drop goal giving them an 11-10 lead with 10 minutes left, and then his late try was sandwiched by two De Villiers touchdowns that secured the bonus point.
But the captain felt that the terrific Wallaby defence would eventually be pierced, and it came off the back of a brilliant Jan Serfontein line-break, with De Villiers finishing in the corner.
“You never plan to leave it that late, but we always said that if we stick to our structures in the first 60 to 70 minutes, we believe we can break them down in the last 10,” said De Villiers.
“And it came down to that, and once we sort of got that bit of momentum and the crowd got behind us, we were just unstoppable at stages. So it was probably one of the best 10 minutes that I have been involved with – it was really good.”
But beating the All Blacks is another matter entirely, and the Boks may have to do it without one of their best players as barnstorming No8 Duane Vermeulen left the field in the second half at Newlands with a rib injury.
Bok coach Heyneke Meyer said afterwards that Vermeulen had a “50-50” chance of playing at Ellis Park and was “very worried” about the Western Province star, especially with injuries having already sidelined Willem Alberts and Francois Louw.
It is understood that a decision on Vermeulen’s fitness could be made this morning, and this would influence whether a replacement player is called up. One would think that Western Province number eight Nizaam Carr is next in line as he was invited to train with the Boks last week in Cape Town, and has been in outstanding form in Super Rugby and now the Currie Cup.
He was again in the spotlight at the weekend by scoring two tries for WP in their win over the Pumas in Nelspruit.
But if Vermeulen is ruled out, there is a strong possibility that Schalk Burger could line up at No8, with Teboho ‘Oupa’ Mohoje retaining his place at blindside flank. Burger made a big impact when he came on in the last 25 minutes, and had to move to No8 for the last 18 minutes following Vermeulen’s injury.
Meyer has said before that he would like to consider Burger at the back of the scrum with a view to the World Cup next year due to his all-round playmaking skills and robust defence, while he is able to create turnovers on the ground as well.
Lions captain Warren Whiteley is a specialist No8 and came off the bench against the All Blacks in Wellington, but he is likely to get a bench spot if Vermeulen can’t play at Ellis Park.
Bryan Habana didn’t come out for the second half after taking a blow to the head in a collision with Handré Pollard as they tried to tackle Wallaby centre Tevita Kuridrani, but Meyer said there was a “good chance” that Habana would be ready to face the All Blacks, as he had passed a concussion test. - The Star