Birmingham - After their shock defeat to Japan on Saturday that has cast doubt over the Springboks ability to go beyond the pool stage of the Rugby World Cup, Springbok assistant coach Johann van Graan says the team has taken the decision not to lie down and die.
On Monday at their marathon video review session, the Springboks came face-to-face with the brutal truth of how they allowed themselves to fall on the wrong side of World Cup history.
After confronting the ills of their ways which have led to a massive outcry back at home in South Africa, the Springboks are determined to fight back and live up to the expectation of making it through to the quarterfinals.
Van Graan says the players and management have taken responsibility for the bad turn of events that unfolded last Saturday but says there is an eagerness to set the record straight against Samoa at Villa Park on Saturday.
“Obviously the whole weekend was disappointing but that is in the past now. We can only control what we can control now. It’s a new day, new week and we’ve got to move on. That’s the World Cup and these upsets will happen. We do have a choice, either we sit down and stick our heads in the sand or we get up, take the next job and go. That’s the brilliant thing about the players. We as a group took responsibility. We can’t control what happened last Saturday but can control what is going to happen this Saturday. Everybody wants to be on the field and we have a lot of things to put right on Saturday,” said Van Graan.
While the Springboks will be baying for blood against Samoa, they will need to be wary of a Samoan team that will be buoyed by what Japan did and their close run in against the Springboks four years ago in New Zealand.
Van Graan is not oblivious to how well Samoa have progressed since the last time they played against each other two years ago, and believes that the Springboks got their rude awakening of how there are no easy teams at the World Cup in their defeat to Japan.
“Samoa is a fantastic team. We played them in 2013 and they have some very good players. They are a well-coached team, I think they did some good things over the weekend and we’ve been watching them for a while. This is World Cup rugby like we experienced first-hand, there are no weak teams in this competition. It is going to be a tough 80 minutes,” Van Graan said.