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Cape Town - Former coach Nick Mallett is impressed by what he’s seen from Springbok captain Warren Whiteley.
In his first international as captain, Whiteley led the Springboks to an impressive 37-14 victory over France in the first Test at Loftus Versfeld.
Mallett shared his views on the match in the SuperSport studio afterwards where he made special mention of Whiteley.
“I just want to quickly make mention of Warren Whiteley. As a captain, he has an ability to give such enthusiasm to his team. It is obvious that he is a caring captain, who manages through his personality and his unselfish attitude towards the rest of his team-mates,” Mallett said.
“He creates a great team spirit, because the work-rate of this team was just totally different from last year’s team. It just looked disorganised and tired and lacked energy on defence and attack in 2016. This team looked as though they wanted to play for each other.
“If we look at last year compared with this year, the work-rate of the players are far better and the captaincy obviously generates that spirit.”
Hostilities in the series now shift to Durban where the second Test will be played at Kings Park on Saturday (June 17).
The third and final Test will be played at Ellis Park in Johannesburg the following weekend (June 24).
