London – This has been one of the toughest weeks for the Springboks in a long time.
They may have lost to Australia and New Zealand under Heyneke Meyer, but they had never surrendered in the UK and Europe in their previous two tours to the northern hemisphere under the current Bok coach.
And the fact that they came off such a high of finally beating the All Blacks, and then going down to an injury-depleted Ireland side last week, would have made the defeat even more difficult to deal with.
Not to mention the three weeks that they had to prepare for the tour opener against the Six Nations champions.
They’ve been hard on themselves since arriving in the British capital on Sunday, and rightly so. Captain Jean de Villiers spoke yesterday about how important the mental preparation has been this week going into today’s clash against England at Twickenham. He added: “We had a lot of physical preparation!”
But what will be of far greater importance today is their execution, particularly on attack. They were able to work their way into the Irish 22, but battled to finish off. And De Villiers has discovered the reason for that.
“My feeling was more that we were half-a-second off the pace in all facets of play. Even though we dominated territory and possession, and I thought our first phases were really good, we were probably just off it a little bit,” the 33-year-old skipper said.
“And that happens in sport and definitely happens in rugby. The difficult thing about that is that it’s not a tangible sort of thing that you can change – that is something that comes from within, and you need all 23 guys to make that mental change, to make that intensity change or whatever you want to call it.
“That’s been the key focus for us – to change that, and if we can function well again in our first phases, because the challenge will be fierce in that department, and still dominate in the possession and territory, then I think we will tick the right boxes.”
De Villiers believes that the Boks don’t need to change too much in their approach on attack. And while England are likely to employ the rush defence as the Irish did, the captain feels they can evade the tacklers.
“I think again, when we do get in that zone, we want to keep things simple and we want the intensity to pick up, and we weren’t able to do that. Coming back to Ireland, credit to them for the way they defended. They were really good, and sometimes you just take it on the chin and you learn from it,” he said.
“They did show us some of our weaknesses in our game that we need to rectify this week, and luckily those aren’t major changes.
“Our handling errors weren’t actually that high compared to other games, but we want that to be as low as possible. England have a similar defensive system and are very good at that. But as with any team, there are minor weaknesses and we will look to exploit that. We have dealt with that in our preparation.”
And, as much as Ireland were the Six Nations champions and were difficult opponents to outwit, it is the old enemy England who tend to stoke the fires of the Bok bellies. There is just something about taking on the old colonial power that gets the South Africans going.
Boasting an 11-0 (10 victories, one draw) record since their last defeat to England in 2006, the Boks will have that extra inch of confidence as well. No matter what Stuart Lancaster’s side dishes up today, De Villiers and his team will know what to expect.
“Whenever we play England, whether it be here or at home, it’s always a massive challenge and a big battle. The focus definitely sharpens up during a week like this, where we know what we’re in for. And when it’s been a result like last week, the tensions are high at stages, but I thought we controlled it well this week,” he said.
“Rugby was born here (in England). Playing in New Zealand is massive for us as South Africans – you sort of grow up wanting to play New Zealand, but playing against England is not far behind that.
“It’s a proud rugby nation, and one of the most difficult teams to beat at home. That always makes for a big challenge, and the reason we play professional sport is to test (ourselves) against the best. To play at a fantastic stadium like Twickenham is always special, and it’s always a great atmosphere and outing.”
And what about those penalties? Will De Villiers opt for the posts this time, or keep going for touch to set up a maul from the lineout?
“It all depends on the dynamics of the game, so we will see…” - Saturday Star