Boks have Test attitude
2 Jun 2006
Springbok coach Jake White has a proud unbeaten record on home soil. And he is not about to let that slip against the World XV tomorrow.
“The law of averages will dictate that we will eventually lose at home,” White said at Friday’s press conference. “But we are working hard to maintain that record for as long as we can. A defeat against the World XV is not an option.”
Stand-in captain Jean de Villiers says everything has gone according to plan. “The preparation this week has been very good. Although it is not official, we are approaching this match as if it is a Test. The only thing that has changed is the captain,” grinned de Villiers.
The Boks are favourites to beat an experienced, but ageing World XV at Ellis Park tomorrow, which will provide a fantastic launching pad for the more important assignments later this month. Two Tests against Scotland should be easily negotiated, before the crunch June fixture against a full-strength France in Cape Town.
The altitude is also expected to be a major factor for the team that was thumped 46-19 by England last weekend.
The team that runs out at Ellis Park is likely to change dramatically by the time the Boks take on France, especially with several first-choice players due back from injury.
However, the team de Villiers leads out tomorrow has exactly 400 Test caps between them – and they are considered a second-string outfit. When White started his career as Bok coach against Ireland in Bloemfontein in 2004, the team that gave him an opening 31-17 win had just 179 caps.
It illustrates just how far the Boks have come under White’s guidance.
By Andrew Hollely
179 Comments
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2 Jun 2006, 17:57 pm
a scouser with lovely white legs that has a penchant for grannies and a floppy toff with a thinning bald spot and all the charisma of a bowling ball.
2 Jun 2006, 17:59 pm
LMFAO
Have you ever heard these morons talk? No wonder the Americans like to say they invented English, ha ha.
And there Teeth, Fookin hell mate, almost as bad as there penchant for not Bathing during the week.
2 Jun 2006, 17:59 pm
i suppose it was a knock-knock joke cab.
2 Jun 2006, 18:01 pm
PA, you cant help but hose yourself. nonstop comedy.
2 Jun 2006, 18:09 pm
Sat next to Posh in Blues once. Face liek a pizza. A real shame. No suprise Beckham looks elsewhere.
You misunderstand my comments on Larkham. A fine player. But jsut because he succesfully made the transition SA (as usual taking their idiot medicine from the Aussies) think playing elsewhere in the back line is now a precursor to becoming a 10. Let me Brent Russell and JDV have also been mentioned. Get over it.
2 Jun 2006, 18:16 pm
Imagine if England won the football WC?
We’d be champions at Rugby, football and at the same time hold the Ashes.
These really are vintage years to be an Englishman. Can I dare dream?
I remember being in SA just after the boks won the Amateur World Cup, won some African football tournament and lost in the semi’s of the cricket one day world cup. By Jupier the nation celebrated then.
2 Jun 2006, 18:19 pm
pommie hattrick? whats the world coming to.
2 Jun 2006, 18:21 pm
By the way Cab you understate my achievements.
I have played sport at the VERY highest level. An important distinction my dear chap and one I will demonstrate at our rendezvous in the West Car Park this Autumn. Now dont come wearing one of those Bok starter jackets.
2 Jun 2006, 18:27 pm
St Michel
Is that dogging in West Car Park at the highest level.
2 Jun 2006, 18:28 pm
StM, i am a superb sportsmen myself, i would even venture that i could circumnavigate your *** with a roundball in the car park before firing off a beckham like volley into the windshield of your land rover.
2 Jun 2006, 18:30 pm
‘Supp BokinOzzie
2 Jun 2006, 18:31 pm
Tel him cab.
An Englishman is always a great sportsman until they compete internationally, then they are great whiners.
2 Jun 2006, 18:32 pm
St M, you sound like a real wanker.
2 Jun 2006, 18:34 pm
The english are only good as ttheir stories then nothing else.
2 Jun 2006, 18:35 pm
Only in the bathroom skim
2 Jun 2006, 18:36 pm
Hmmmm youre gonna miss 500 if you hang around here.
2 Jun 2006, 18:36 pm
no no boys, you misunderstand the English, they are a very strange bunch, but can be quite hospitable, which is their folly.
StM has generously invited us all round to his place for tea and tiffin after the game. I also don’t know what tiffin is, but it will be a good opportunity to pocket some wedgewood china.
2 Jun 2006, 18:38 pm
good night ladies, good weekend, have some pints.
2 Jun 2006, 18:40 pm
Before the game old chap. The invitation afterwards depends on your behviour, general appearance and ability to front up after another resounding thumping at HQ. And dont worry the English are famous throughout the world for their magnaminity in victory.
2 Jun 2006, 21:00 pm
StMichel was on the beach in SA,he was the pink faced ,t-shirt tanned lad wearing the Birmingham football top,plastic blow up shark under the arm,sandles with socks and tatoo of queen on his arm.With all those plastic bangles so that he could look “ethnic”
2 Jun 2006, 22:55 pm
Re 113: the same as it mattered for England to build “Fortress Twiks”. It builds confidence in the team, confidence that will eventually spill over overseas.
England did it long enough to win the World Cup, even though, in 6 years prior to it, they had only played 4 matches in the southern hemisphere.
2 Jun 2006, 22:58 pm
Famous in victory is right, for their arrogance and inbreeding.
2 Jun 2006, 23:02 pm
St Mich, the only time a Pommie has the pleasure of my company is when he/she demonstrates that their behavioural standard is higher than the English average (i.e. somehow approaches the bottom rung of South African of good clothes taste and manners). To date, you don’t qualify as your behaviour here is little better than the druggies I see walking through Cambridge city centre. Go back to Eton (which does not rival the top SA schools) and bend over for the headmaster…that’s a boy, be a good chap now, take it like a man…
2 Jun 2006, 23:39 pm
Are there actually people who care about this game ? It’s just a money spinner.
2 Jun 2006, 23:52 pm
sit back and enjoy some different rugby, BlueBlood. It’s away from the boring Tri Nations routine that will soon be upon us again.
3 Jun 2006, 06:51 am
Jeez bluebloood
Perhaps this game will give us a showpiece of attacking rugby we so crave. Its more likely we’ll go into conservative mode in the official tests than this one sso as Mikeybrass says,enjoy it. I look fwd to all games ,its been a long time since the last Bok game and that wasnt a great one. But last seaosn was pretty goo. The boks have done nothing wrong yet,we have everything to be positive about…..ffsakes we havnt even pleyed yet and some guy wrote he wants to get rid of his bokjersey.
As the doos minister of safety says….’get out the country then.’And leave your jersey for me. Boks thru thick and thin !!!!!!!!!!
3 Jun 2006, 07:40 am
Jake White has hoodwinked all and sundry!!!
In the build up to todays “Test” against the World XV Jake White has boxed clever.In removing his senior players through “injuries” he has allowed a second string Bok team to play through necessity and not choice.This perception has been created to dupe the sponsors who would naturally insist on a full-strength Bok team, the fans who believe their heroes need recovery and the players who play today who need not feel any pressure.
This was always going to be a tricky fixture,a must win “unofficial” test where the opposition are high calibre players,but have nothing to lose and everything to gain.With a tough season ahead of the Boks Jake really didn’t need his top players involved in this encounter.He has afterall the two Scotland Tests for his first XV to find their feet and warm up.
Yes Jake has created some hype in the media for a game that could easily have lost it’s lustre and spared his stars.It has given him the opportunity to test his depth in a relatively
pressure free environment and some players will today give indication of their ability at a higher level.
All said and done Jake has pulled the wool over most eyes and well done to him.This is a season where the Bokke must decide if they are men or mice and in Jake White we have the perfect mind to plot the road to the top.
3 Jun 2006, 11:53 am
Well spotted Rasta
Jake is a clever guy
Go Bokke!
5 Jun 2006, 02:16 am
I heard from Tana that St Micky’s great acheivement was winning the WC Tiddlywinks, Mr Umaga, who was set to oppose him in the final, defaulted, making some excuse about having forgotten his handbag.
The real reason he confessed later, was that the opening 2 minutes of listening to St.Mickeys mindless drivel was all he could handle, and he would rather forfeit the Prestige of being World champ than listen to it for a second longer!
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