“It is easy to criticise and obviously I’ve made a lot of mistakes”.
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The 48-year-old’s contract expires after the World Cup and the South Africa Rugby Union have yet to say if it will be renewed. “If you turn up without the right attitude then they will punish you”.
“I’m totally insane, I’m a total nutter”, Meyer declared.
“Sometimes on the video I can’t believe it’s me, but that’s who I am on the sidelines”. “I believe that we’ve grown as a team, the guys showed leadership and the youngsters really matured”.
McFarland stressed that South Africa are determined to go out on a high note when they take on the Pumas, who were beaten by Australia at the semi-final stage.
“If I coach a small team or the Springboks I just love it”.
The return of top-level touring to the world rugby calendar will see Joe Schmidt’s double Six Nations champions go into the lions’ den next June when they visit a Springbok side sure to still be wounded after Saturday’s narrow World Cup semi-final loss to New Zealand at Twickenham.
The 38-year-old Matfield, making his 127th Test appearance, replaces Fourie du Preez as skipper after the scrum-half suffered a tournament-ending injury in the 20-18 semi-final defeat by New Zealand. It will never be good enough if I coach South Africa to come close and not win. The South Africans were in front by 12-7 at the break.
What a shame the late, lamented Ripley, an outstanding England No8 and an even finer human being, has not been around to witness this World Cup.
“I don’t have any rugby memorabilia in my house”.
“I am very proud”.
“It does not mean anything to me”.
Nicolas Sanchez will captain the side for the first time in his career and there is a side issue to be resolved because he is protecting his lead at the top of the points scoring charts at the tournament.
“I’m nearly speaking like it’s my last game”.
“There was a beggar on crutches at Ellis Park, he only had one leg, but once the Springbok bus pulled up he just left everything, fell on his knees, and you could see that made a difference”. In the context of where we are, this is a vital game.
“Basically it will be the mentality that nothing can get worse than this, the pressure we’ve been under after that first week”, Pollard explained.
“Those are the things that keep you going”.
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“For me it’s probably the last game and I think there’s quite a few guys in the team whose last game that will be”, he explained. It is my (24th) birthday tomorrow (Thursday) and I don’t feel like celebrating it. We need to get up for it and we’ll be doing it for the Springbok shirt.
