Adnaan Mohamed

Brisbane –  Springbok coach Peter de Villiers believes the Wallabies will be technically stronger than the All Blacks in Saturday’s Tri-Nations clash at the Suncorp stadium in Brisbane.

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South Africa have never beaten Australia in seven attempts in the Queensland capital.

“Australia are technically better than the rest of the world in all sporting codes. It doesn’t matter whether it is athletics, swimming, or rugby.

They will pick up the little things and really work on it,” De Villiers said at the Springbok hotel on Tuesday.

The Bok coach says the suspension of Jean de Villiers is a major disruption to his plans for this week.

“Yes, Jean's suspension definitely is a huge loss. I am so glad that we are only on tour for three weeks, otherwise I could end up going home alone,” he quipped.

“I don’t know if we are targeted more on or off the field. However, it is a bother because a guy like Jean was struggling to get back to his best form. He was busy getting there and we wanted to give him more game time on the wing. We were about to move him back to centre. This has forced us into a new way of thinking,” he explained.

About the possible inclusion of Gio Aplon in the place of De Villiers, he said: “The big plus point in this team is that nobody replaces anybody. Anybody that comes into this team has to create his own environment.  Gio is very different to Jean and brings something else to the party and so does everybody else we bring in.”

The Springboks have played two tough Test matches against the All  Blacks, while Australia will be well rested. The Bok coach believes it could favour the home side.

“I think it is six of one and half a dozen of the other. We are battered and bruised a bit. They (Australia) didn’t play for four weeks and it perhaps balances each other out nicely. They will obviously be much fresher and also draw some energy that we haven’t won a game yet on tour. I think it will be difficult to contain them when we take the field on Saturday.

The coach says South Africa is a proud nation that don’t like losing.

“It hurts us a lot. We are still the Tri-Nations champions and we are not going to give that crown away without putting up a fight. We’ll just have to step up and focus on a positive result more than anything else,” he added.