Springbok team doctor Craig Roberts has acknowledged that the extra hard work on conditioning being put in by the squad at this point of the World Cup build-up may have contributed to the lack of energy in last week’s poor performance against Argentina in Durban.
Roberts, asked to what extent the current training regime being followed from the squad’s base in Umhlanga Rocks might have impacted on the performance, said that he couldn’t put a value on it. But he said that the goal of being in tip top shape for the World Cup, which kicks off in little over five weeks from now, demanded an element of risk when it came to the players being in peak condition for the matches being played currently.
“It is difficult to put a number on it but it was always our plan to go extra hard now with the World Cup in mind,” said Roberts.
“We knew we would be a little bit flat. That was the risk we had to take, but we had to put in a lot of conditioning during the week. Monday and Tuesday last week were really hard sessions. It was always part of the plan and it is money in the bank for the World Cup.”
The Boks were determined after the Argentina defeat not to make excuses and head coach Heyneke Meyer made only a brief reference to what Roberts was referring to when he mentioned “overtraining” as one of the possible factors behind the flat performance that contributed to a disturbing 37-25 defeat.
When asked about it at the post-match press conference, Meyer deflected the question away, but in private conversation with Supersport.com on Friday morning he did mention the hard training as a possible debilitating factor on match day when asked about the Bok chances of winning comfortably.
All the senior players interviewed after the Pumas match spoke about a lack of energy and feeling physically unable to respond to the call for a lift in intensity when they fell behind on the scoreboard early in the game.
It is a common cause among rugby coaches now that driving the players hard in a match week is bad science, but Meyer would argue that he has little option at this point of the World Cup build-up. Apart from the hours they’ve put in on the training field, the players have also been spending more time in the gym than they normally would during a match week.
As Roberts says, although that might sound counter-productive to the Bok chances of notching the wins that they need to in order to win back the confidence of the public, it is “money in the bank” for the World Cup.
If the approach can be regarded as a sacrifice, it needs to be recognised that it is not the first time Bok coaches have been prepared to make sacrifices in a World Cup year. Both of Meyer’s predecessors, Jake White and Peter de Villiers, sent understrength squads on the away leg of the Tri-Nations in World Cup years, with their teams finishing last in the competition.
White’s team went on to win the World Cup, De Villiers’ side was knocked out in the Bryce Lawrence affected quarterfinal in Wellington in 2011.9Very politely put!)
Yep oaks the bryce lawrence who was subsequently made nz ref of the Year!!!!!!!
