Johannesburg - Despite a poor season with the Sharks, Springbok prop Jannie du Plessis is pleased to be proving his critics wrong following another strong performance in South Africa’s 27-20 Rugby Championship defeat to New Zealand at Ellis Park, on Saturday.
“If you play rugby long enough, and read in the paper you’re sh*t enough times to know that you have to pick yourself up,” said Du Plessis after the game.
“If you’re going to start believing in the loss, when you’re good you’re not actually that good and when you’re sh*t you’re not actually that sh*t. We’ll be over it by Monday, I think it will make our resolve even more. You never play to rectify a wrong, but looking back at disappointments it can push you to higher levels.”
“It’s a very lonely place if you don’t have a successful season. Then it’s easy to find mistakes. Criticism, give me one guy who it doesn’t affect, that man will be a liar. It does affect you. The thing about criticism, if you’re a player you’ve had enough criticism in your life to know how to deal with it and whose opinion counts. The thing about criticism is that it really hurts your family more than you and people confront them. About the criticism, I don’t think at any point in the year did I doubt I had the desire, or whether I have the skills. Unfortunately our season at the Sharks didn’t go as planned, but that happened and it wasn’t for a lack of trying.”
Despite South Africa’s strong performance in the last two weeks, where they lost both the matches in the final minutes of the encounter, Du Plessis said any defeat for the Springboks was bitterly disappointing.
“If you take how much it hurts for the public, and then multiply it by a million, that’s how bad it hurts. It’s not like you start doubting, but you begin asking yourself the same question over and over. It’s like any disappointment in life, you think back to it and play it over and over. What can I have done better, how can I improve?”
To add to the loss, Du Plessis also picked up a knee injury during the game. Springbok management suspect the player sustained medial collateral ligament (MCL) damage but were unsure about the extent of the injury until scans were taken.
Du Plessis, however, was optimistic the injury was not too serious.
“I don’t know, I’m actually not sure. It just feels weird. We don’t really know yet. It looks like a medial ligament. But by Grace maybe I’ll be good, I think I’m a quick healer. Even if they can take a staple gun and just staple it on, if I can run I’ll be good.”
While Du Plessis may have made different decisions concerning penalties, he believed the accuracy of the Boks cost them the result in the end.
“I actually didn’t think they should’ve gone for a penalty, but like I say you go over things in your head afterwards, if we slotted that, we were six points ahead. Then it was 24-26, but at the time they had one guy less and our scrum had gone well against them. We got a lot of penalties and free-kicks, at that stage five metres from their line I would’ve done the same.
“Unfortunately, the accuracy wasn’t there. The scrum was moving forward and the ball popped out and we just should’ve finished. I don’t think it was the decision, it was a lack of a little bit of composure.”
ANA