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Cape Town - The Springboks play an opponent they hardly face outside of RWC action and are expected to beat, yet the defending champions will not risk anything when they step onto the Wellington Regional Stadium pitch.
Coach, Peter de Villiers, a generally unapologetic man, has blatently laid out his stall ahead of Saturday’s crunch game against the islanders.
“Everyone in world rugby knows how each other team plays. I still want to find the coach who does not know how we play. Everybody knows how we play. It’s how we play on the day and how we execute that plan. Everyone says you should have a plan B and a plan C, but I don’t believe that nonsense. You have one plan and inside that plan you have some different patterns,” de Villiers told Friday’s Cape Times.
With seemingly their toughest match behind them in the form of Wales, De Villiers unashamedly said that there is the very real possibility that not all of his squad will gain an opportunity to play on the RWC stage, despite matches against Namibia and Samoa ahead of the knockout phase of the competition.
“We should use the opportunity to sharpen the guys first. We had eight weeks of no rugby, then three weeks of no rugby. In between, we had injuries to Bakkies and Victor. We must do the right things. We must play every guy as if we are playing the final,” added De Villiers.
One of the players who does make his tournament debut is flyhalf, Pat Lambie, but being selected at fullback ahead of the more accustomed Gio Aplon has also drawn its fair share of critics, yet De Villiers dead-panned the critique yet again.
“Gio Aplon has had a lot of chances. I know what he can do and what he can offer. I don’t really know what Partrick Lambie offers us. The one chance we tried to give him, he had to leave the field."
Coach, Peter de Villiers, a generally unapologetic man, has blatently laid out his stall ahead of Saturday’s crunch game against the islanders.
“Everyone in world rugby knows how each other team plays. I still want to find the coach who does not know how we play. Everybody knows how we play. It’s how we play on the day and how we execute that plan. Everyone says you should have a plan B and a plan C, but I don’t believe that nonsense. You have one plan and inside that plan you have some different patterns,” de Villiers told Friday’s Cape Times.
With seemingly their toughest match behind them in the form of Wales, De Villiers unashamedly said that there is the very real possibility that not all of his squad will gain an opportunity to play on the RWC stage, despite matches against Namibia and Samoa ahead of the knockout phase of the competition.
“We should use the opportunity to sharpen the guys first. We had eight weeks of no rugby, then three weeks of no rugby. In between, we had injuries to Bakkies and Victor. We must do the right things. We must play every guy as if we are playing the final,” added De Villiers.
One of the players who does make his tournament debut is flyhalf, Pat Lambie, but being selected at fullback ahead of the more accustomed Gio Aplon has also drawn its fair share of critics, yet De Villiers dead-panned the critique yet again.
“Gio Aplon has had a lot of chances. I know what he can do and what he can offer. I don’t really know what Partrick Lambie offers us. The one chance we tried to give him, he had to leave the field."
