Adnaan Mohamed

Pretoria – Springbok wing Bryan Habana's lapse in defence at crucial times cost the Springboks the Test match against the All Blacks last week.

By his own admission Habana has been poor by his own high standards in this year’s Tri-Nations, but he sees Saturday’s clash with the Wallabies at Loftus Versfeld as the ideal opportunity to turn things around.

“Yes, last week we made a few defensive lapses on defence against the All Blacks,” Habana said at the Springbok hotel on Thursday.

“I was the man to mark Cory Jane in the last movement. Juan de Jongh marked the man on my inside, but when I turned I couldn’t get back fast enough to stop Richie McCaw from scoring the winning try,” he explained.

“Personally I was happy with the way I played, but we put ourselves under unnecessary pressure,

When Juan (De Jong) made that high tackle in the first half, it was actually my fault because I shot out of my line,” he admitted.

The 64-Test veteran believes the Boks have been playing Test rugby long enough to know where things have gone wrong.

“As players we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to perform. There is of course also a lot of pressure from the public. I take responsibility for my personal faults. But we don’t only want to rectify things as individuals but also get things right as a team.”

The speedster believes this is not just another game where they have to be physically up for the challenge, but they will also have to be psychologically prepared to raise the level of intensity.

He is particularly is looking forward to his personal duel with the talented youngster James O’ Connor who will mark him on Saturday.

“Quade Cooper (flyhalf) is one of the best players I have seen in the game in a long time. With a playmaker like Matt Giteau on his outside and brilliant players like James O’ Connor, Drew Mitchell and Kurtley Beale in the back three, they can be particularly devastating.

“It is going to be tough! But as disappointing as the last few Test matches were, we are still confident that we can turn things round on Saturday,” he added.