Newcastle – Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer was in ebullient mood last night when he unveiled his match 23 to play Scotland in what is shaping up to be one of the most eagerly anticipated games in Pool B – a must-win for the Boks against a Scotland team that has won two out of two.
Meyer, contrite last week after the humiliation at the hands of the Japanese, has regained his mojo and warned the tournament to be aware of the burgeoning Boks.
Meyer said the Boks would be unbeatable if they continued to play to their strengths – uncompromising forward play, tactical prowess from the halfbacks, and clinical finishing by the backs.
“For me there are two schools of rugby strategy – one that produces wins and one that produces defeats. And we have been doing more losing than winning in 2015 as we explored different options to try and grow out of the game and become more versatile,” the coach said.
“And while we still have those new arrows in our quiver (the ability to attack from anywhere on the field and score brilliant tries), we changed tactics last week against Samoa when we played to our strengths. I am not being arrogant when I say that if we play the way we are supposed to play, there is not a team in the world that can beat us at this World Cup.”
After being unable to have a field session on Monday and only a semi-contact session on Tuesday and yesterday, Meyer was ultimately able to name a starting line-up that has only three changes to the team that started at Villa Park.
There is a straight swop at 13 between Jean de Villiers and Jesse Kriel, at No 5 lock, Lood De Jager takes over from injured Victor Matfield (hamstring), and at hooker, Bismarck du Plessis returns after having been out of the match 23 last week because of a combination of a knee niggle and the need to give Adriaan Strauss and Schalk Brits game time.
Meyer said that Bismarck had always been earmarked for this game given that the pre-World Cup planning had this game down to be the decider of the pool.
Meyer has not had a lot to smile about this year but he cracked an ironic grin when he admitted that a tricky and unprecedented challenge facing his team this week was reinventing the entire system of calling their line-outs because of the presence of two former Bok squad members in the Scotland team the Boks play on Saturday.
Scotland’s prop WP Nel and flank Joshua Strauss were never capped for the Boks but they were included in several national training squads before pinning tartan colours to the Scotland mast.
“They have our manuals on line-out calls,” Meyer said. “Well at least they did and I am not sure how much they remember but they certainly understand Afrikaans, which has forever been our asset because the opposition never have a clue what is being said when we form up for a line-out.”
And with line-out genius Victor Matfied out of the match injured, the duty of running the line-outs befalls the youngster De Jager, who not only has to implement a new code of calling the line-outs but might as well do it in English.
“But to be deadly serious, this is the least of our worries,” Meyer said. “We are a team of fighters and we have been on the back foot for most of the year, and certainly in this World Cup from match one.
“Half of this team picked up some kind of injury against Samoa last week in a brutal match, but most will play on this week because you cannot win this World Cup without players willing to dig deep, and our guys are unquestionably doing that.”
Springboks: Willie le Roux, JP Pietersen, Jesse Kriel, Damian de Allende, Bryan Habana, Handré Pollard, Fourie du Preez (capt), Duane Vermeulen, Schalk Burger, Francois Louw, Lood de Jager, Eben Etzebeth, Jannie du Plessis, Bismarck du Plessis, Tendai Mtawarira. Replacements: Adriaan Strauss, Trevor Nyakane, Frans Malherbe, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Willem Alberts, Ruan Pienaar, Pat Lambie, Jan Serfontein. - The Star