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Springboks rate Wallabies ahead of the All Blacks
Yahoo!Xtra / Neil Reid in Perth - July 18, 2008, 9:28 pm
Springbok forwards coach Gary Gold says the Wallabies offer a step-up in opposition to that posed by the All Blacks last weekend.
The world champions take on the Robbie Deans-coached Wallabies in Perth on Saturday, seven days after beating the All Blacks on New Zealand soil for the first time since 1998.
It was an impressive turnaround from the Springboks, who the week earlier had been downed 19-8 by the All Blacks in Wellington.
But Gold said the effort the Springboks showed in beating the All Blacks last weekend would need to go up a notch at Perth's Subiaco Oval, citing a superior Wallaby line-out and loose forward trio make-up.
"Our skills this week, in my opinion, are actually going to have to be sharper," Gold said.
"We are going to have to be sharper at the breakdown.
"And from a line-out point of view, with respect to the All Blacks, I think the Australians are going to pose us a tougher contest there.
"It (being physical) is going to be an objective of our team and we got it right last week. But this week they pose different problems to us.
"They have picked a fetcher, where the All Blacks didn't have a fetcher. And they have obviously got another one coming off the bench.
"There has definitely been a massive improvement from the physicality of the Australian teams over the last couple of years.
"You only have to look at the Waratahs this year. In the Super 14 they were one of the more physical teams that you played against in the entire competition.
"And you could see that the selection of certain individuals, namely their back row, are Waratah based."
Springbok coach Peter de Villiers added of the Wallaby threat: "We know that it will be very, very tough because they have a point to prove.
"Everybody focused on New Zealand by falling out in the World Cup, Australia did too. And they have a point to prove.
"And they have great coaching and brilliant players. We will be aware of the threat they pose to us."
And the Springbok brains trust has warned the Wallabies that they won't be coming up against a side who already have one-eye on returning to South Africa.
A win tonight in Perth will set the Springboks up nicely for Tri Nations triumph.
While the Boks had basked in the glory of their 30-28 win over the All Blacks last weekend, de Villiers said that their feet were firmly planted and minds focused on downing the Wallabies on Aussie soil.
"They are professional guys, they know what lies ahead of them, they know what they have to do before they go home," he said.
"I think in our fifth or sixth year of touring with this (group of) players and they understand they are going to be away from home for this period of time. And they just concentrate on what they have to do.
"The one thing we got right is after the game we didn't mention anything about rugby. We just enjoyed the win, we went wild, wild, wild.
"Some of the guys went wilder than that.
"After that, we could bring them back and say, 'Right, you can't go wilder than that, come back to basics and start focusing on the new task at hand'.
"And they just did that."
Meanwhile, de Villiers said he was realistic that weather conditions could significantly alter his game-plan to play expansive rugby.
Perth has been battered with a series of electrical storms over the past two days, although settled weather has been forecast for Saturday night.
Bad weather has plagued three of the Boks' five tests they have played to date in 2008.
He said if the weather continues to batter Perth, he was confident in his impressive pack to play a forward-orientated game.
"The guys on the field know when they have to make changes on the field. They are mature enough and they are professionals," he said.
"The team we selected is still the right team to do the job.
"Dry weather for us is much better for the way we want to play. But we don't focus on things we can't change, and weather and referees are the kind of things we can't change.
"We just have to work with it."
Springboks rate Wallabies ahead of the All Blacks - Yahoo!7 Sport
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