Bring on the Aussies, enthuses De Villiers
2 Oct 2011
The Springboks will play Australia in the World Cup quarter-finals – and Peter de Villiers reckons it will be easier and more familiar than playing the Samoans.
It is the clash of the last eight with the Tri Nations champions against the defending World Champions.
Ireland, in emphatically beating Italy 36-6 in Dunedin, ensured a quarter-final against Wales in Wellington next Saturday with the Boks to play the Wallabies a day later in New Zealand’s capital.
Hosts the All Blacks will play Argentina in the late Sunday kick-off at Eden Park in Auckland and England clashes with France on Saturday at Eden Park.
The winner of the Boks match will play the All Blacks with the other semi-final an all Northern Hemisphere affair.
(Bok coach) De Villiers told the South African media website SuperSport he welcomed playing the Australians, added the Boks would have the advantage at scrum time and that he felt it would be easier playing the Aussies than it was against the unfamiliar Samoans.
De Villiers said he expected the Australians to try and match Samoans for physicality and didn’t believe either Australia or New Zealand could do that to the Boks. He also backed the improved Bok defence to counter Australia’s attacking threat.
Australia has won five of the last six Tests between the two countries, with two of the wins in South Africa. The Wallabies have also scored four-tries or more in four of the six matches.
De Villiers was unconcerned by this statistic and said that while the Aussies could also believe it to be easier because of the familiarity he felt the Boks were playing outstanding rugby at the World Cup and peaking at the right time.
The New Zealand media generally have backed the Boks to beat the Wallabies, but among former Australian players and within the media the feeling is the Australians will be too smart for the Boks and that David Pocock’s return will neutralise the Boks, as he has done successfully on most occasions in the last two seasons.
Former Australian World Cup-winning captain Nick Farr-Jones, in the Herald on Sunday, wrote the Boks looked like a champion at the end of the road and that the last 30 minutes showed the vulnerability of an aged giant. He commended the Boks’ fighting qualities and scrambling defence, but said too many key players were no longer the players who stood tallest in Paris in 2007.
Former All Blacks World Cup-winning prop Richard Loe, in the same paper, disagreed, saying the Boks would have too much muscle for the Tri Nations champions.
Quarter-finals (NZ kick-off times – 11 hours ahead of SA)
QF1: Ireland v Wales at Welllington Regional Stadium on Saturday, October 8, kick-off 6pm.
QF2: England v France at Eden Park on Saturday, October 8, kick-off 8.30pm.
QF3: South Africa v Australia at Wellington Regional Stadium on Sunday, October 9, kick-off 6pm.
QF4: New Zealand v Argentina at Eden Park on Sunday, October 9, kick-off 8.30pm.
511 Comments
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3 Oct 2011, 02:20 am
@TheAgent(TheAgent)-497:
which Wales game ? the one the Boks won, only, “on the scoreboard” and were hiding behind some “computer graphic enhanced re-construction that shaved-the-outside post” ?
tis my favourite Keo-post of the RWC to date. Keep it up, Lady Viagra.
hows things in Gizzy today – any perfect 10-ft barrels in the Greatest Surf Nation in the Universe ?
3 Oct 2011, 02:23 am
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-501: Wales v Fiji idiot. Or does your kind only watch games between big teams because you have no love for rugby.
3 Oct 2011, 02:23 am
@TheAgent(TheAgent)-499:
laughable – the Justice4 campaigners being thick-o enough to call anyone else “dirty” for an open-palmed slap that sent Heinrecho Ronaldo crumpling in a heap.
This from a team that still fields 3 x Gougers in a RWC XV.
3 Oct 2011, 02:27 am
@TheAgent(TheAgent)-502:
Youre absolutely right. I didnt see that match because I was on the p*ss in Wellington.
Ive been to 5 x neutral matches and 3 x AB matches.
Some would be stoooooooopid enough, prior to the RWC, to say that “noone I know is going to RWC matches”.
Must be the computer graphics “enhancing” crowd numbers that Im seeing.
3 Oct 2011, 03:01 am
I believe that South Africa set the record for the least amount of points concede (24) in a pool (of 5) in a WC. That’s a good sign.
3 Oct 2011, 03:22 am
@stormersboy(stormersboy)-505:
against the worst-ever injury and politically-depleted RWVC-Fiji team, ever.
against the gone-home Samoans who couldnt beat…
the youngest, least-experienced Wales side in their long history
and against the weakest team at this entire RWC, Namibia, who only qualified because they beat Kenya at the Africa-qualifier.
Now for the Real Teams.
3 Oct 2011, 04:21 am
Looks like the French rugby world cup campaign is going the same way as their soccer world cup campaign. It is shaping up like a repeat of the last world cup final – Boks vs England.
3 Oct 2011, 05:21 am
Hoping for Ireland or France on the Dark Side of the Draw.
3 Oct 2011, 06:55 am
I wish this oke would just shut up and devote his time to preparing the players. He’s another Jake White or Carel Dup with his blabber mouth either helping the opposition or giving away his tactics.
Let the team do the talking on the field. A few essentially meaningless sound bites talking up the Aussies are probably best now. If you don’t know how; Sham Poo (Snotskiet) or Gwantie10 can help.
3 Oct 2011, 07:24 am
@Kobus Kitty(Kobus Kitty)-34: What do you mean still havent learned? We dont get to decide who we play – and we cant help France for not playing to their expected best
Tonga was a decent 2nd half work out, and Japan/Canada were just awful
But what could we do about it, meathead?
Your prejudice of anything NZ is bordering on obessession. Youre sick.
3 Oct 2011, 08:15 am
@KiaKahaNZ(KiaKahaNZ)-510:
Youve got it wrong there. His obsession with NZ is no less than genuine flattery., he genuinely wishes his team played like the ABs, that much is obvious. However his attitude to fellow human-beings and those less fortunate than the “multi farms” elite is no less than “sick”.
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