Boks happy to be written off: Meyer
Coach Heyneke Meyer believes it is when his team isn’t expected to perform that they produce results.
|||London – It may be far from ideal but the Springboks seem to thrive when they are written off and Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer is hoping that their underdog status will once again get the best out of them ahead of their Rugby World Cup semi-final clash against New Zealand next weekend.
From the disaster of their opening round loss against Japan, the Springboks were given little chance of making it into the knockout stages of the tournament let alone the semi-finals but Meyer believes that it is when his team is not expected to perform that they produce the results.
“I just hope people write us off again because it seems to work,” Meyer said after his side’s quarter-final win over Wales.
While their 23-19 win against Wales at Twickenham was a tightly contested affair that went down to the wire, Meyer is comfortable in his team being given no chance against the might of the All Blacks who demolished France 62-13 in their quarter-final encounter in Cardiff on Saturday.
The Springboks have flattered to deceive in the tournament thus far with much of their success coming from playing with desperation but Meyer believes that this year’s World Cup was always going to be a tightly contested affair with the amount of information teams have on each other.
“The margins in this competition are so small. Most of the players play in Europe and other places around the world and there is a lot of IP (intellectual property) going around. There are a lot of quality coaches out there, maybe besides myself. We all plan well, we all look at videos and we all study each other and we know what it coming, it is just on the day. I’m so grateful to be in a semi-final and as South Africans only a win will be good enough,” Meyer added.
The All Blacks will now be firm favourites to beat the Springboks and successfully defend their world title but in Meyer’s eyes the tournament is still wide open and any of the eight teams that made it to the quarter-finals could have found their way to the semi-finals and final.
“All eight teams that went through are unbelievable teams and on the day can put 30 or 40 points against you. We’ve beaten every single one of them but have also lost to them.”
Meyer is quietly confident that his Springbok team have it in them to not only beat the All Blacks but to also replicate the feats of the teams of 1995 and 2007 and win the World Cup.
“All we need is composure, you always need luck and need to be best. It won’t be easy but there is no reason why we can’t. It’s back to the drawing board, it has been a long tough year and season. The mind starts to wander because every Test for us from the beginning has been a must win, so we need to regroup and anyone of the teams can make it. We need to regroup and hopefully we can go all the way,” Meyer said.
– IOL