Adnaan Mohamed

Surfer’s Paradise - Springbok lock, Bakkies Botha, says he doesn’t feel any pain but he likes to see it in his opponent’s eyes.

“You don’t see pain on the body. You see the pain in the guy’s eyes. There are a lot of things happening on the field but you don’t see pain on the player’s body, you see it in his eyes. And when you see pain in the guys eyes it makes me happy,” Botha said at the Springbok hotel on Tuesday.

The fiery Springbok lock was commenting ahead of the Tri-Nations clash against the All Blacks in Hamilton on Saturday.

According to Botha they know what to expect from the All Blacks because they played them in the first two Tests of the Tri-Nations competition and they are approaching Saturday’s Test match as a final.

“We know they will be fired up because it’s their crowd and their home country. They have had a few weeks off, and have had time to regroup. It’s going to be a tough one and we know that. We are going to Hamilton and we are determined to produce the goods and give one hundred percent.

“We are treating it as a final because if we win we will bring home the Tri-Nations trophy. But that’s not our main goal. Our main goal is to focus on what we have to do in the system. If the system works well, we will win” said Botha.

Botha believes that they slipped up last weekend against the Wallabies because of a lack of intensity. He feels they will not make the same mistake again.

“We did not execute our tactics the way we planned. It didn’t work for us. We need to rectify this and put some points on the board this weekend. The intensity wasn’t there in Brisbane. We know what we lacked. We know what we have to do and everybody needs to buy into that. You must have the confidence in the guy next to you so that when you put in the hit, he’s there to support you.”

The Springbok enforcer said that winning in Dunedin last year gave them a lot of confidence and they know what it takes to beat the All Blacks on their home turf.

“The last couple of years were tough but last year’s victory just broke the ice and gave us the necessary belief. It’s an amazing feeling to win there and that’s what the guys want to experience again this weekend.

This (Tuesday) morning’s session went well and we are just going to build it up so we are well prepared when we run onto the pitch on Saturday,” he added.