Wellington - The Springboks arrived in Wellington on Monday ahead of Saturday’s Rugby Championship Test against the All Blacks after a long day of travelling from Perth.
Captain Jean de Villiers and his team were allowed to lick the wounds sustained in the 24-23 defeat to the Wallabies in Perth on Saturday for an extra 24 hours after being given the day off from training due to the arduous journey from Western Australia.
Despite playing on Saturday night in Perth, the Boks could only start their trip on Sunday evening, which meant they had to fly overnight to Auckland, and then catch another connecting flight to Wellington early on Monday morning.
“Look, travelling from Perth to New Zealand is a challenge because you cross four time zones. So you, in effect, get jet-lagged again. You are just recovering from the jet-lag after getting into Perth, and now in Wellington it’s another four time zones,” team doctor Craig Roberts said on Monday as the Boks checked into their hotel.
“So it takes about four days to adapt to that properly. But it’s something we’ve done in the past and we know what works, and we’ve got strategies in place to address that.”
But the manner in which they lost to the Wallabies, relinquishing a nine-point lead and conceding a try with two minutes left in the game following a controversial yellow card to 100-cap wing Bryan Habana with 15 minutes to go, would have made the voyage over to New Zealand even more challenging.
The All Blacks will be a tougher task for the Boks as New Zealand have not tasted defeat in their last 20 Tests, with the only minor blip being the recent 12-12 draw against Australia in Sydney.
But Bok coach Heyneke Meyer will hope that his team become inspired to pull off a special win for their captain and centre De Villiers, who will be playing in his 100th Test match.
Habana also joined the century club in the Wallaby game, becoming the fourth South African to do so after Percy Montgomery, John Smit and Victor Matfield.