Christchurch - He wasn’t giving away any plans or secrets, but Springbok captain Adriaan Strauss admitted on the eve of Saturday’s Rugby Championship match against New Zealand that his side would like to frustrate the back-to-back World Cup winners.
The All Blacks have pretty much had everything go their way in recent years and have in fact not been beaten on home soil since 2009. That’s a run of 43 Tests... and the Boks are the team that inflicted that defeat on them, in Hamilton, 32-29.
Strauss’s men aren’t being given much chance of a repeat performance, but the Bok skipper said the key to winning against the All Blacks was to frustrate them, and his side would do their best to do just that at AMI Stadium on Saturday (kickoff is at 9.35am). It is, after all, a “tactic” that worked well for the Boks in their World Cup semi-final in London last year, with the eventual champions edging the Boks 20-18.
“That’s the one thing about the All Blacks... If they get into their stride and play how they want to, then it’s very difficult to stop them,” Strauss said on Thursday, a day out from his last meeting with the All Blacks in New Zealand.
“So, the key is to unsettle them... That’s what’s going to make this a good battle. We mustn’t allow them to dictate the game... and at the same time we’re going to have to be more clinical than we were the last time (at the World Cup), and make less mistakes in the crunch moments.”
Strauss was quick to point out, though, that the current side would draw very little on what went down in late October last year at Twickenham. “Sure, we’ve talked about that game, but not to use anything tactically or strategically this time... it’s not really possible because we are a totally different team this year... There are a lot of new faces, and we’re doing things differently.”
The Boks go into the match on the back of an up-and-down year, with Allister Coetzee’s team losing first in June against Ireland and then coming back to take the series 2-1. A few weeks later, the Boks just edged the Argentines in Nelspruit before they came unstuck, for the first time in Argentina, when they lost in Salta. And last week, Strauss’s team were beaten by the Wallabies in Brisbane.
“We’ve certainly had a few challenges in the last couple of months, but we know we’re a work in progress,” said Strauss, who’ll step down as team leader at the end of the season.
“At this stage there’s a feeling that we’re really playing against ourselves. I can see there is progress in the things we’re doing, like there were good moments against Australia last week, but we need to improve our execution, take our chances and put together an 85-minute performance.
“I’m hoping things start to click for us soon, hopefully as early as this Saturday.”
The Boks have been slammed here in New Zealand and there has also been plenty of criticism from inside South Africa, but Strauss says that is part and parcel of being international sportsmen and that it serves as a motivating factor.
“We know we haven’t met our standards, our own goals and our ambitions, but we know where we are going and what we’re working towards... and that motivates us more than anything else. The critical questions that are out there are fair. It’s part of the game, all we can do is stay focused on what we need to do.”
IOL