Boks ready to go all the way
It's crunch time for the Boks, with predictions that if they beat Wales, they'll be well placed "to go for glory".
|||London - It’s crunch time for the Springboks on Saturday as they do battle for a semi-final spot in the Rugby World Cup, with predictions that if they win against Wales, they’ll be well placed “to go for glory”.
Springbok hard man Duane Vermeulen, the rugged No 8, likened on Saturday’s match at 5pm at Twickenham to “an expedition up Everest”, saying that if they didn’t get past Base Camp, they wouldn’t get a shot at the trek to the top.
“For us, the pinnacle is a place in the final, the top of the mountain,” he said. “Are we nervous? Well let me put it is this way, there is a lot of nervous energy in the team. But it is energy nonetheless, and we just need to channel it in a positive direction.
“If all 23 of us move in one direction, we will be happy with that. Speaking for myself, I just want to get out there and play the game,” Vermeulen said.
Captain Fourie du Preez was more measured in his analysis of what awaits a Bok team that has lost only twice in 100 years of playing Wales, in 30 Test matches. “History does not matter. It is irrelevant. It is not going to help us this evening. But it works both ways. It is not going to help Wales that they beat us in the last game between the teams (November 2014).
“Everything is back to zero. It is now down to who wants it the most, who is the most disciplined, and executes their game plan the best.”
Rain is predicted for Saturday evening’s match.
“Whether it rains or not, it won’t affect our game plan, and probably not that of Wales,” said Vermeulen. “It’s going to be an aerial battle. If you can pin the other team in their half, you might get the turnovers. Either way, we’ve got our plan of how we want to play.
“It is going to be played up-front by the forwards, so it’s going to be a massive physical battle for us.”
The Boks were well aware that the Welsh won’t back down.
“It’s all about the inches and hopefully we can go out there and deliver and make our country proud,” Vermeulen said.
He was asked if the Boks were not as battle-hardened as Wales, who have come though the Pool of Death which featured England and Australia, while the Boks have been playing relatively weaker sides.
“We never really had a focus on Wales’s pool. The major focus was on the games we needed to play, because after the first game against Japan, it was obvious we needed to focus a little bit more.”
Du Preez said the bottom line was that eight teams started at scratch in the quarter-finals.
“Any team can beat anyone, and over the weekend any four of the eight can go through. There are going to be four massive games, and not one of the teams can be written off.
“For us, our route here has been different from some of the other teams.
It was obviously a massive shock to lose to Japan, but it could have gone much worse. We had Samoa next, which was a very big battle for us and then Scotland, who are on the up.
“We could either lie down or stand up, and I think that we showed that we stood up. And I think tomorrow we are going to stand up again.
Line-ups
South Africa: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Fourie du Preez (capt), 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Schalk Burger, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Substitutes: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Jannie du Plessis, 19 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 20 Willem Alberts, 21 Ruan Pienaar, 22 Pat Lambie, 23 Jan Serfontein
Wales: 15 Gareth Anscombe, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Tyler Morgan, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 George North, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Gareth Davies, 8 Toby Faletau, 7 Sam Warburton (c), 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Alun Wyn Jones, 4 Luke Charteris, 3 Samson Lee, 2 Scott Baldwin, 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Substitutes: 16 Ken Owens, 17 Paul James, 18 Tom Francis, 19 Bradley Davies, 20 Justin Tipuric, 21 Lloyd Williams, 22 Rhys Priestland, 23 James Hook
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Kick-off: 5pm SA time
Weekend Argus