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Taupo - The Springboks have arrived at their new camp near Lake Taupo and have been making their assessments on Namibia’s "Wors", South African backline coach Dick Muir said on Sunday.
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"We have done a little bit of work on him - flyhalf Theuns ‘Wors’ Kotze - and he’s actually played really well," said Muir.
"He has a nice balanced game so we would hope to put a bit of pressure on him and see how he copes with that."
While the former Springbok and Sharks centre tried his best to keep the media’s attention focussed on the team’s next match, he could not get away from giving his thoughts on the 15-6 upset victory Ireland secured over tournament favourites Australia.
"We are going to worry about Namibia and get that under the belt, we have plenty of time to assess those sides when we get to that bridge," he said.
That Pool C result will almost certainly change the path the defending champions will have to take provided they finish first in their pool, as planned.
After a few brilliant side steps and the attempted hand-off, Muir eventually gave his thoughts on the different challenge Australia would pose in a quarter-final. (The Springboks for all intents and purposes planned on meeting Ireland at that stage of the competition.)
"Australia are a team that we know, probably better than we’d know Ireland, but we will just take it one game a time," said Muir.
"Wherever you end up and who you play, we just have to go about doing our work and I think the improvement that we showed this week is important and that there is a lot more improvement that can come from this group of players."
The six tries the Springboks scored without conceding one was the most pleasing aspect for the backline coach who said that he was confident that the team was on the right track.
As for the injury status of the team, Muir said that he doubted that the men who missed last week’s match because of injury would be up for selection against Namibia.
"It is a short turnaround for us, so for those guys who were not available for the previous match, they probably won’t be available for this match," he said.
For the rest of the squad, Muir said it would be business as usual.
"It is nice for us to get away into the countryside here, but we know we have some hard work to get through this week and we only have to training sessions to do that.
"There are certain areas that we want to improve on and we will be hard at work tomorrow doing that."
Should the pressure of the World Cup start having an effect on the team, the local tourism board has suggested that they try their hand at one of the following activities on offer at the biggest lake in New Zealand: Golf, fly fishing, hot spring bathing, hiking or perhaps some soothing massages to heal those bruises.
