Springbok coach Allister Coetzee has been trying to convince everyone who would listen that the horror show in Albany has been buried and is a thing of the past.
So much so that he believes how the Boks respond this weekend in the Castle Lager Rugby Championship match against Australia will be what defines the team, and not the 57-0 lashing they took a few weeks back in New Zealand.
The shockwaves from that game can still be felt in and around the camp and the Boks know it is only them that can change the perception that one 80 minute spell did to damage their turnaround strategy.
Coetzee and his co-coaches have been making all the right noises this week about how they have moved on and that the defeat doesn’t define them. But they will know the danger of this game against the Wallabies, and the fact that a match they traditionally tend to win with Australia’s poor record in South Africa is more now an expectation.
Given their poor first half in Perth and shock a week later, it is difficult to see what psychological scars have been left on the team, and their response will be massively scrutinised in these last two games in the Rugby Championship to see if it was only a blip on the radar or systematic of something deeper.
The fact that so much has been spoken about the return in Cape Town next week against the All Blacks makes this game against Australia even more dangerous for the Boks, as they will need to put up an exceptional performance to convince a sceptical public that they are better than the 57-0 scoreline suggests.
Coetzee himself believes that his players will bounce back and show that they are better than their performance in New Zealand.
“It’s going to be massive. We have to respond. I have no doubt in my mind that these players will respond this week,” he said.
“Australia is always never easy at altitude, it will be a massive ball-in-play outing for us, unlike in Australia before the match it started raining, it was a massive downpour and we had to adapt tactics. But if you look at what the Aussies are really doing and are good at, we can expect them to come with a ball-in-hand kinda game. They fancy their chances here at altitude, and they have good backs, like I said previously. Their strength is a good setpiece, lineout and good hard running backs. They try and use that for momentum and to get quick feed for running ball. Take it through phases, that is their strength, looking after the ball and playing with continuity.”
One place that Australia are likely to target is the outside backs and the wing defence that was so brittle in Albany. But the Boks coped well in Perth and should have won the game, giving them confidence that their defensive system will stand the test this weekend.
“You sometimes do get it wrong, when you do make one or two system errors. But they have a ball-in-hand approach and the Folau factor is always there, joining the line. We will have to be better defensively, we will definitely have to be better.
“I think we have good plans going forward for this weekend. We might have been a bit passive, we need a bit more urgency. I don’t want to talk about our plans, but I think the attitude is always there. In that Albany game, the collisions were still unbelievably strong and there were great tackles, but we have to continue to do it for 80 plus minutes, that is why there is no time to lapse at all in the next two test matches, especially the one against the Aussies.
“Because they have enough quality and world class backs and players in their side.”
Asked if the next two weeks will define his side, Coetzee believes the response, more than the scoreline, will define this group of players. And he believes they will show the public their resolve in the next fortnight.
“I think what it will show, is the character in this team. Winning doesn’t always mean you are the world’s best team. Sometimes it is about really be able to dig deep and for those youngsters to show massive improvement and to learn from last week’s experience.
“Whatever happens, the game is unpredictable - you could be 20 points up or you could be 20 points down. It is how you respond to the situation and that is what I want to see – how we improve from last week. That will define this team in my opinion – if we can come back if we are behind and still pull it off, or if we are in front, can we still stick to the processes and not change and go into a different mode?
“To stay and play the way we have planned to play, to follow our processes. That will define this team in my opinion.”
Coetzee names his match 23 on Thursday but they proof, as they say, is in the pudding. The test will come on Saturday and the response will be scrutinised.
Only the match 23 can answer the question of how much damage Albany did to this side, and whether it is actually dead and buried, in the past, as the coaching side have said.
