Connolly crushes Highveldt hype
8 Mar 2006
New Wallabies coach John Connolly will take his team straight to Johannesburg to prepare for the September 9 Vodacom Tri Nations showdown with the Springboks.
The Wallabies have not won a test in South African since a one point win in 2000 and have won only twice against the Boks in South Africa in 14 years. Connolly believes that too much has been made of playing at the highveldt.
And he is one Australian coach who has had success in South Africa, when at the helm of the Queensland Reds. His recipe. Train where you play.
Using this rationale, he won’t be basing his team in Cape Town or Durban. Rather they’ll learn to live with the delight of Johannesburg.
“Our attitude is that we are going to stay in Johannesburg and get on with it,” Connolly said. “We’ve got to put all that sort of stuff out of our minds. We have got to acclimatise to the conditions. We don’t look for excuses. We go there to play.”
17 Comments
8 Mar 2006, 17:18 pm
yes, keep them away from the bars in Cape Town… our best asset me thinks…
8 Mar 2006, 17:26 pm
he is right, mind you what do we know lol
what are the downsides to preparing up here?
8 Mar 2006, 17:28 pm
I think he is right i always felt that altitude was more an issue in the heads of the players than anything else even though we usually beat the ozzies on the highveld its usually the boks holding on at the end of the game than the ozzies so clearly altitude isnt the reason for the poor results perhaps making it a non issue may help them.
9 Mar 2006, 01:02 am
yep, i don’t see the point of travelling the day before a game. a rare bad idea from the brain of Rod Macqueen.
9 Mar 2006, 03:21 am
Maybe we can now start working on the idea that travelling is not our biggest problem when we get thrashed in the S14…
9 Mar 2006, 07:25 am
Rod mac was not such a bad coach. It don’t matter what they do they still going to get beat, hey brumby iv
9 Mar 2006, 07:30 am
one of the reasons why we lost in pretoria after leading at half time was our preparation.
9 Mar 2006, 08:20 am
BrumbyIV,
Maybe also because we were better?
9 Mar 2006, 08:23 am
the Boks. pfft
9 Mar 2006, 08:53 am
Quite a statistic that they have only beaten us twice in SA. Seems the bars and girls (and guys) have the better of this bunch and not the altitude.
P.S. thanks Ig for finally getting me up and running.
9 Mar 2006, 09:20 am
Show us some stats brumby
9 Mar 2006, 09:38 am
Yeah rite brumby not to be heard of again. Lekker slaap boet.
10 Mar 2006, 07:44 am
I don’t understand why any team doesn’t train at alititude for an upcoming match at altitude?
Is there a logic to bringing them in the day before?
10 Mar 2006, 16:55 pm
Altitude is not that much of a factor for a top sportsman, it is more the pschological effect. If you think about it, some of SA’s entrenched players eg: John Smit, Jean de Villiers, Paulse, Russell, Venter, van den Berg, Burger, etc all play for provincial teams on the coast.
Does that mean that they are affected just like the international teams? Rubbish it is all pschological and in real terms does not relate to 10 points on the field.
It is probable that influence of the crowds influences the opposition more.
10 Mar 2006, 22:15 pm
Like his attitude.
No excuses ,no vakking buzz words
like front up,hands up ect ect, that Our lot
love to use after losing ,AGAIN.
Get on with it.
11 Mar 2006, 03:48 am
Duiwel get a grip bud
19 May 2006, 02:12 am
Yhe sure the ozzies try but just cant beat our springboks
although i moved to australia i still love the
springboks
leker
Dominique
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