Now for the World Cup. The last month in Europe was not a good one for Heyneke Meyer’s Springboks, but according to veteran lock Victor Matfield, the focus must now shift to the World Cup, which gets underway in 10 months time in England.
The Boks returned to South Africa yesterday after a month in the Northern Hemisphere. They won against Italy and England but suffered defeats to Ireland and Wales.
Matfield, who addressed the media in the absence of regular skipper Jean de Villiers, who flew directly to Cape Town to see a specialist following his horrific knee injury, sustained against Wales at the weekend, said attention would now turn to the World Cup.
“You can’t wipe out what’s gone before ... the records and results of the last three years will always be there, but the only thing that matters is, will we win the World Cup?” said Matfield. “That’s going to decide the whole four years of Heyneke Meyer’s reign. Everything’s about the World Cup now.”
He added previous Bok teams had also battled in the year before a World Cup. “We’ve seen in the past if you go out and win the World Cup a lot of things are forgiven. But if you don’t (win it), then people will look at the negatives and bring things up. The World Cup is very important.”
With several star players missing through injury a relatively new-look squad battled in the wet and cold of the Northern Hemisphere. The defeat at the weekend against Wales has widely been branded the worst performance since Meyer took charge, while the team looked all at sea against Ireland and only scraped past Italy. The effort against England was good, but it was far from impressive.
“Five out of 10 sounds good,” said Matfield when asked how he rated the Boks on tour. “We’re not happy with the tour; we’ve got higher standards than that.
“But a lot of guys weren’t available but the younger, less experienced guys at least picked up experience and when you add them to the group of hardened internationals this team will go a long way.
“It was a big learning curve for a lot of the guys who hadn’t experienced different conditions. And, overall our win ratio is 71percent this year ... that’s far better than in any year before the World Cup that I’ve been involved.”
Without saying it directly, Matfield seemed to suggest the All Blacks would be favourites going into the four-yearly tournament, but that a number of teams would back themselves to lift the William Webb Ellis trophy. “Five or six teams can win it. It’s clear New Zealand are a step ahead of the rest but there will be five teams going there thinking they can win it as well.” - The Star