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Johannesburg - Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer says teams from the northern hemisphere will have a slight advantage over their southern rivals in preparing for this year’s Rugby World Cup.
Meyer said although team management’s planning had been exceptional, he was nervous about the lack of time left before the start of the global showpiece in September.
“I am really worried about the amount of time we have - it is not an excuse - we have to put a lot of work in,” Meyer said.
“I truly believe the northern hemisphere teams will have a lot of time to prepare, it is the end of their season and they have time to play friendlies.
“They should be super fit and (have) a lot of time to prepare. So we will have to work really hard to catch up and the main thing now is to get the patterns going again.”
The Bok mentor said the team had evolved since he first took the reins of the national side and would still make some minor adjustments ahead of the World Cup.
He was, however, adamant that they would not make any radical changes to the game that has worked for the side over the past three years.
“We’ve done a lot of research, we spoke to a lot of guys that went to the World Cup from different countries that won the competition,” he said.
“One thing that came out was that you have to stick with things that worked for you and you can’t just change everything.
“But you can’t be predictable and the game evolves every six months so we tried one or two new things.”
The 2015 Rugby World Cup, to be staged in England and Wales, runs from September 18-October 31.
