News

Matfield feeling the pressure

Wednesday 20th August 2008

No pressure: Matfield faces a hat-trick of defeats as Bok skipper

South Africa captain Victor Matfield has admitted to feeling the pressure ahead of the Springboks Tri-Nations clash with Australia where his team are facing a third successive loss on the trot.

After losing to the Wallabies in Perth and then the All Blacks in Cape Town last weekend - both under Matfield's leadership - the Boks' chances of winning their first Tri-Nations trophy since 2004 are looking very bleak.

But should they notch up bonus-point victories, South Africa have a chance to at least avoid the tournament's wooden spoon when they host Australia for the first of two Tests in Durban before moving on to Johannesburg for their final Tri-Nations match.

Two years ago in 2006 they lost four in a row before bouncing back to beat the All Blacks 21-20 at Rustenburg. That 2006 losing streak started with a 49-0 thumping by Australia in Brisbane.

After going down 19-0 to New Zealand on Saturday, Matfield and his troops could be heading down the same bumpy road under Peter de Villiers' first term as Springbok coach.

Following South Africa's World Cup win, and then going on to defeat the All Blacks on their own turf for the first time in a decade, the Springboks - and us included - believed their world champion status and Tri-Nations campaign was on track.

But now their backs are firmly against the wall.

"There is always a lot of pressure," Matfield told Supersport.

"Naturally, we want to win. Therefore, we put ourselves under a lot of pressure

"We don't want to lose to New Zealand in South Africa and two defeats are unacceptable."

Even though the South Africans will now need a miracle to win the Tri-Nations, it still serves as motivation for the Springboks according to Matfield.

"To play for the Springboks is always about pride," he said.

"We want to win this test. There is still a chance of winning the series and we want to be positive and play positive rugby."

Obviously coming off a 0-19 whitewashing is not ideal but the Springboks say they will be looking to turn it around and start playing positive rugby.

"There were opportunities that we did not use," said Matfield.

"You get only three or four chances. The All Blacks used theirs, we did not."

Matfield did not want to give too much away ahead of this week's clash but said that the team had worked on their shortcomings since last week.

"We have looked at one or two things where we can improve and we have started working on them in training," said Matfield.

"We hope things will go better."

With Danie Rossouw still injured, De Villiers elected not to call up a lock cover for Matfield and Andries Bekker, who will continue as the second row in the continued absence of Bakkies Botha, who is out for the rest of the Tri-Nations season.

Instead, it will be Juan Smith who will move to lock in the event of injury.

"We will move Juan to lock if there is an injury," said De Villiers.

Smith is not a stranger to lock as he played there for Jake White's winning 2002 South African U21 team, but it is unlikely the Boks would have gone for this option had the Wallabies stuck with Nathan Sharpe.

The experienced Western Force captain was dropped from the squad that has travelled to South Africa, which means that his ball-carrying abilities have been taken away for Saturday's clash.

However, the Springbok skipper, Matfield, reckons they will make up for this in other areas, with former South African Dan Vickerman now ready to play a full part.

"Nathan is a good ball carrier who asks questions of defences, but Dan is a better player in the line-outs," said Matfield.

"He is one of the best line-out forwards around, and with him back in their team their line-out is going to be very difficult to play against."

The Australians feel they have a better chance of winning in Durban than in next week's match in Johannesburg. Therefore, the South Africans should be prepared for a tough battle against opponents who don't always do well on tour.

But De Villiers does not believe in singling out matches.

"We want to do our best. Sometimes we don't reach our goals," said De Villiers.

"It will be disappointing if an international team regard some matches as more important than others.

"It's about national pride."

The Wallabies last won a Test match in South Africa in 2000 when they beat South Africa 19-18 in Durban thanks to a last-minute penalty to Stirling Mortlock. It was also Nick Mallett's last Test as Springbok coach.

If they win in the Republic, the Aussies will have an opportunity to relax a little before taking on New Zealand in the final match of this year's series, in Brisbane on September 13.