Boks looking for inspiration
18 Nov 2008
Peter de Villiers says his players are struggling for motivation ahead of the English Test.
De Villiers has made some strange utterances in his time as Bok coach, and this seems to be yet another. He has blamed the Boks’ poor performances in Britain on the amount of game-time they’ve had earlier this year, adding that the Absa Currie Cup also had a role in this.
Nevermind that the Bok coach had the opportunity to rest the players if he felt the need, just as the Australian and New Zealand players were after the Tri-Nations. A player such as Dan Carter didn’t take any part in the Kiwi domestic campaign, while the All Blacks and Wallabies aren’t blaming fatigue – and their tours contain double the amount of matches as the Boks.
As a result of all the rugby played, De Villiers believes the Boks will struggle to find motivation for this weekend’s clash at Twickenham.
“Sometimes it’s very, very difficult to motivate yourself to stand up and just go on and on and on,” he told the media. “It’s always the biggest challenge in rugby to get motivated.”
If the players are so uninspired for a Test against the Poms, the beaten World Cup-finalists, surely then it is De Villiers’s job to lift the players for one final match? He is supposed to be a good ‘man-manager’ so it will be interesting to see if the players respond to his calls ahead of the final Test of the comparatively short three-match tour.
De Villiers added that the players minds could already be on the flight departing Heathrow.
“We’re talking from the players’ point of view. These guys play around the clock against all these big nations.
“Physically they’re trained to deal with it but there’s a mental fatigue that nobody sees. They’re thinking ‘five days more and then I can go back to my family’. Fatigue is taking its toll. I think for the sake of the players I’m so glad the year’s done.
“You look where we started last year in November. The players had three weeks off and then went straight into Super 14 and then it goes on and on and on. All of these guys played Currie Cup too,” he said.
“Five days more and then it’s the end of the year. It’s going to be very difficult. I just hope they uplift themselves a little [on Saturday] to the level we expect.”
The fact that six of this squad (John Smit, Bryan Habana, Jean de Villiers, Fourie du Preez, Schalk Burger and Bakkies Botha) are staying for the Barbarians’ fixture against the Wallabies on 3 December at Wembley contradicts De Villiers’s statements – they obviously feel they haven’t played too much rugby.
Surely the players should need no inspiration when pulling on the Bok jersey for a Test of this stature. However, De Villiers obviously feels they do so lets hope he can muster some motivation for the players in the build-up to the Twickenham Test.
59 Comments
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18 Nov 2008, 10:48 am
fire the coach. he’s is way out of his depth.
18 Nov 2008, 10:58 am
#49 Lo: kak, he went to the cat’s back??? that used to be my local!!!
18 Nov 2008, 11:11 am
Well if you was still living in the land of dreams then you would’ve had the chance to meet this waste of space.
18 Nov 2008, 12:09 pm
#53 Lo: man, what a pub. reminds me of good times.
How the hell did they end up there? It’s not the most famous pub around, although definitely my favourite.
18 Nov 2008, 13:06 pm
“Well if you was still living in the land of dreams”
Mud Isle… roflmao…
18 Nov 2008, 13:53 pm
#8 Big Hit: You must fancy yourself ahead of Saturday.. We have been playing rubbish..
18 Nov 2008, 14:07 pm
Perhaps the team should do as the coach does and look for inspiration from *****…he’s been down that avenue before!
18 Nov 2008, 14:28 pm
This has to be a mind game to lure the poms into dropping their guard. There is no way that a national coach can mean that.
18 Nov 2008, 15:22 pm
He has a point about fatigue. However, fear and pride should be motivation enough for these guys. A huge section of the country is in a song and dance about saving the Bok logo, so in my view it is their duty to go out and show what the Bok means to them. They should have Luke hand out the jerseys…
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