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Cape Town - Springbok forward Willem Alberts says he relished playing a full 80 minutes for the Springboks, despite playing 30 minutes at lock.
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"It was good to start, because I didn't do it in the last couple of games," said Alberts, who was named man-of-the-match after South Africa's 87-0 thrashing of Namibia.
The Sharks enforcer was moved to lock for the last 30 minutes after Bakkies Botha left the field. Botha limped off after hurting his ankle nine minutes into the second half.
Bok coach Peter de Villiers told Reuters they will know on Friday how severe Botha's condition is.
But Alberts told Beeld he didn't mind packing down in the Springbok second row. "I didn't mind replacing Bakkies (Botha) at lock, because we realise he's being nurtured back slowly."
While pleased with the effort against Namibia, Alberts believes there is still room for improvement for the Boks. Among those errors were 14 missed tackles and 16 handling errors from the South Africans.
"It was a good match for us and a lot of things were done correctly, but I do think it would be wrong if we rest on our laurels.
"There were enough things that were not 100%, but for now we are fairly satisfied with the victory."
Prop CJ van der Linde echoed the views of his compatriot.
"We played good rugby at times and even John (Smit) got a couple of runs in. It's always nice for a front ranker to get those runs in," said Van der Linde.
The Bok forwards impressed with their distribution in the contact situation, where they made 18 off-loads while being tackled - with captain Smit, especially, showing his worth.
* Click HERE for the latest RWC odds on BET.CO.ZA
WIN a pair of the new adidas rugby boots
Click to BUY the Springbok kitchen recipe book
"It was good to start, because I didn't do it in the last couple of games," said Alberts, who was named man-of-the-match after South Africa's 87-0 thrashing of Namibia.
The Sharks enforcer was moved to lock for the last 30 minutes after Bakkies Botha left the field. Botha limped off after hurting his ankle nine minutes into the second half.
Bok coach Peter de Villiers told Reuters they will know on Friday how severe Botha's condition is.
But Alberts told Beeld he didn't mind packing down in the Springbok second row. "I didn't mind replacing Bakkies (Botha) at lock, because we realise he's being nurtured back slowly."
While pleased with the effort against Namibia, Alberts believes there is still room for improvement for the Boks. Among those errors were 14 missed tackles and 16 handling errors from the South Africans.
"It was a good match for us and a lot of things were done correctly, but I do think it would be wrong if we rest on our laurels.
"There were enough things that were not 100%, but for now we are fairly satisfied with the victory."
Prop CJ van der Linde echoed the views of his compatriot.
"We played good rugby at times and even John (Smit) got a couple of runs in. It's always nice for a front ranker to get those runs in," said Van der Linde.
The Bok forwards impressed with their distribution in the contact situation, where they made 18 off-loads while being tackled - with captain Smit, especially, showing his worth.
* Click HERE for the latest RWC odds on BET.CO.ZA
