It is not so much the fear of the threat posed by the Irish as the conditions the Boks are expected to encounter that will see them opt for a tried-and-trusted approach.
The weather predictions for Saturday’s showdown with the Grand Slam-winning Six Nations champions, Ireland, are suggesting the Boks may face a Croke Park gale similar to the wind that blew them off the park three years ago.
Heavy rain, a strong wind and very poor visibility – with the temperature rising to a maximum of 5°C (41°F).
In his recently released biographyCaptain in the cauldron, Bok captain John Smit, described how his team fell foul of the conditions in their last Test in Dublin – a 15-32 loss to Ireland in 2006. He described how they “walked out into a gale” in their last appearance at the stately Lansdowne Road stadium, and failed to cope with blustering conditions.
They got their first taste of the conditions when they got off the plane in Dublin on Sunday and the wintry conditions haven’t let up since.
A weather report by Will, on rugby365,
Both teams face this conditions according to our weather man.
Just cause we Irish live on a green rock on the edge of Europe where it rains most of the time and to say a cold wind is blowing is the fore runner to a lovely day doesn’t mean we have a magic ability to play in #### conditions. To sofar we have a flood warning in the west and south west of the country and the roof was blown off an apartment block in Dublin. If conditions keep up well be lucky to see the ball get past either 10 the whole match. Could someone send over a few extra jumpers its bloody freezing and Croke Park will be very very cold its a gaga stadium designed for sports played during the summer so the wind and rain pelt across the pitch with little protection for players and spectators alike. its a great stadium though the spectators are a bit far from the pitch . will
Morne Steyn said “he and Fourie [du Preez] walked together off the plane. We just looked at each other and looked to the forwards; [and said] we are going to have to keep the ball a bit more if the wind is blowing like that.
Not surprising then to hear the Boks talking of ‘keeping it tight’.
Lets smash their rubbish forwards in the first half and then run away with the game towards the end.
Bad blood, sweat and beers
Candid Boks coach De Villiers on drinking up and moving on
By David Kelly
Tuesday November 24 2009
With the South Africans pitching up in town for Saturday’s unofficial World title bout, who better to approach for some pre-match trash-talking than coach and noted ballet-hater Peter de Villiers.
Even though the two principal characters of this summer’s eye-gouging episode — namely Lions’ victim, Luke Fitzgerald and the perpetrator, Schalk Burger — will be marked absent this Saturday, it would be a shame to waste another opportunity to indulge in the latest Irish sporting craze of ‘not getting over it’.
To remind readers, it was of course De Villiers and his refusal to condemn Burger’s offence in the second Lions Test in Pretoria, until forced into an embarrassing climbdown by his employers, which so agitated the sporting world last summer.
eccentric
The eccentric South African, unfortunately for those of us seeking blood, has gotten over the limited amount of ‘it’ he deemed necessary to get over. No bad blood then?
“Well, I think the bad blood was only with you guys,” De Villiers, with commendable patience, answers. “There was no bad blood with us. We extended the hand to them, like we do in all our other games, to have the opposing team come to our dressing-room and we provide them with a beer or two so the guys could mingle. They never accepted that invitation.”
All fine then? Think again. “I don’t think there was anything extraordinary on the field of play that could cause bad blood,” he adds, bafflingly.
“Again, it’s where you stand and look at things. I think most of the reports were over-rated over here. Guys were looking for things that were non-existent. For us, there’s nothing. We are here to do a job. The blood thing is nothing that can affect us.”
Well, we hardly expected a second apology, did we? Still, Saturday’s IRB awards in Dublin could be an interesting evening, especially after South African captain John Smit’s pointed comments in his autobiography, claiming that a senior Lions tourist was behind the refusal to share a post-match beer.
Munster’s new South African signing Jean de Villiers has spoken to Lions captain Paul O’Connell about the whole farrago and concluded that it was all a misunderstanding rather than a pointed diplomatic snub.
“Maybe they don’t like South African beer!” the coach exclaimed yesterday, before further placing rugby into its non-balletic context. “Rugby is like any other sport. It is like swimming. You are there to build bridges.
“There is nothing between the players on the field. When they leave the field they are really disappointed when they lose and they feel great when they win.
“But that goes on now for over a century. Nothing’s changed. Not all of us have the same mental approach to the game, not all of us worry the same about winning and losing. So we have to respect that too as individuals.
“Some people will take a loss and move on, others will sit on it for three days. We just have to respect those kind of things because it is human nature.”
Perhaps they’ll share a beer this time? Here’s mud in your, erm, eye and all that?
“We’ll be there,” declares De Villiers. “I don’t think we should make a big thing out of that. My choice is to have bit of lunch with you. The person next to me doesn’t want to have lunch with you. Why make a big deal of it? That’s life, you know. As long as we cherish this great game and be servants of it and make a difference through it, that’s all that counts.”
De Villiers does, however, delineate the difference between the British and Irish influence on this summer’s Lions tour, before careering into matters of even deeper historical resonance. He may be many things but boring ain’t one of them.
“If I started to list who impressed me it would take all day. They’re a good bunch of players. They were the Irish team camouflaged in a red jersey in South Africa and we know it.
“I think this Irish team can be much better than the Lions were because they have played together for much longer and shared stuff you have to build quickly on a Lions tour.
“You can’t look at November form in isolation. They have won eight games this year, so they’re on a roll. They’re a proud nation, built on certain things from history where they had to fight hard to achieve what they had to achieve in life.
“And you can’t separate life from rugby, we all know that. For us, we respect those things. We never had that in our country, we didn’t have to fight so hard to be recognised in the world. We have all the talent out there too. And our readmission came a little easy for us.
“But this will be only one more win for us. There are no international games that are less important than any other. Our 43 million people at home like to back winners. We like to bring the hope to our country.
“And we saw what a great tool rugby is to build our country off the field too. So we have an obligation and a responsibility towards our people to make them have a better life. So all the wins are important. That’s why we play this game. We will never prepare for any game not to win.
Passion
“We focus on every game we played this year. We’re a proud nation. Sometimes you miss the point when you see us. We are only 37 people here representing a proud nation. Any game, even at primary school, you can watch the passion of our parents — come over and see for yourself! For us, this is important but only another international game.”
The last time the South Africans rolled into town, De Villiers’ World Cup-winning predecessor, Jake White, caused arguably even more upset than his openside by declaring that only two of the then top-three ranked Irish side would make his selection. De Villiers, perhaps offering an apt parable for current times, chose not to dabble in a similarly hypothetical ruse.
“My grandfather said something to me 40 years ago and I live by that to this day,” he tells us. “You only look back if you want to go in that direction. We don’t intend going in that direction now.”
Or, in other words, get over it.
– David Kelly
Irish Independent
Just some news from Eire
boks look to de villiers
By David Kelly
Thursday November 26 2009
South Africa are preparing to risk Munster’s big money signing Jean De Villiers against Ireland as the weary world champions’ injury list mounts ahead of the Croke Park clash, WRITES DAVID KELLY.
De Villiers was last night given permission by Munster to replace Adi Jacobs, despite previous assertions from coach Tony McGahan that the marquee signing would be remaining with the province during November.
Fourie du Preez, Bakkies Botha, Bismarck du Plessis, CJ van der Linde, Zane Kirchner and Schalk Burger all face late fitness tests ahead of today’s delayed team announcement by coach Peter De Villiers.
Irish captain Brian O’Driscoll will square off with rival Du Preez, who is expected to play, just hours before the IRB Player of the Year is unveiled, but the South African would gladly exchange the personal award for victory in Dublin.
“He had a good season, but personally it was my best season I’ve ever had,” declared the world’s best scrum-half. “It’s just one more game for us, it’s a big game, but rugby’s a team game and it’s not about getting accolades it’s just about the team.
“If I was told that Brian O’Driscoll would win the player of the year award but South Africa would win the test match, it would be absolutely brilliant.”
And the 27-year-old Bulls’ maestro has also rubbished suggestions that this weekend’s Croker cruncher between the hemisphere’s respective champions deserves the ‘unofficial world championship’ tag.
“The Irish believe that, but for a team that could not even reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup two years ago, to think that one victory against us will make them the best, is a bit much,” he said.
“If the British and Irish Lions won the series against us, then they could have staked a claim, but this has been an unparalleled year for Springbok rugby. Saturday’s result will not take away what we have achieved this year.
“We have only had one average game, so it’s not like our form is gone completely off. I can’t comment on the midweek games because most of the top guys didn’t play in those.
“So, for the top guys we had a great season and we’d like to finish it off on a high. It was just one really passionate performance from France that caught us off guard, so you can’t really say our form is off.”
– David Kelly
Irish Independent
Thanks Irish,
A thought struck me while I was reading this last article and it is based on VanStraaten posts yesterday regarding his low opinion of the Boks.
So, I have to ask you: Van Straaten isn’t an Irish surname, is it? 😉
Top of the morning to you Irish!
Thanx for the local updates, mate. Makes for interesting reading.
Morning all,
Irish thanks for that article mate. Hope you well.
The weather sounds horrible for rugby actually. Then both teams have to play in it.
Selections, selections and will say it again. Selections are going to be key. PdV needs to select right.
I know some of my mates here don’t think the same as me, but I would have loved to have had Fransie to play on Saturday. Especially in those conditions. If we lose Bakkies to that back injury that is going to be a massive loss.
Dia duit to all
7 – Irish, not sure what that means but howdy.
See with the horrible weather conditions for the game. Can Boks extend a hand to Ireland to use Ellis Park for Saturday 😆
@8 Puma – it is hello in Irish Gaelic mate…just a habit as the language is dying.
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