South Africa will forget that they were beaten twice by Australia this year when the two sides meet for their quarter-final Rugby World Cup clash.
The quarter-finals matches were decided on Sunday and became a case of the northern hemisphere versus the southern hemisphere teams. All the Tri-Nations teams find themselves on the same side of the quarter-finals round.
Despite the Boks’ poor Tri-Nations showing, they do know the Australians pretty well, considering that teams from these nations also contest the Super 15.
The Boks have welcomed the quarter-final fixture and are said to be more relaxed now that their families have started arriving in New Zealand.
Bok coach Peter de Villiers said: “Australia won’t be easy, but they will be easier.”
He explained that the Wallabies will be less physical than Samoa but he is confident that the Australians will try to be more physical in this game.
“Secondly, we understand Australia and we know what they do. We’ve been playing them for years, and they’re not likely to change anything this coming week. For them it will be easier and for us it will be easier,” said De Villiers.
The coach added that Australia might be challenged by the Boks’ scrum.
“It will be a challenge for them on the scrums, especially as our scrum is exceptionally good at the moment. We use it as a good platform to play from and a guy like Pierre (Spies) gets enough time to go off the back of it. Our lineouts aren’t bad either,” De Villiers told media.
Meanwhile, Australia – who are also dealing with an injury predicament – have called up winger Lachie Turner and Matt Hodgson to replace the injured Drew Mitchell and Wycliff Palu.
It was during Australia’s 68-22 win over Russia on Saturday that Mitchell damaged his left hamstring. He joins a long list of injured players in New Zealand.
Quarter-final fixtures:
Saturday:
- Ireland v Wales, Wellington 07:00
- England v France, Auckland 09:30
Sunday:
- South Africa v Australia, Wellington 07:00
- New Zealand v Argentina, Auckland 09:30
*kick-offs in South African time
Kemantha Govender, BuaNews
Editors Notes: I think it is safe to say that the All Blacks have drawn the easiest game of the semi-finals.
