Can Boks win Down Under?

JOHANNESBURG – Do the Springboks have enough belief to win both tests in Australasia? Former All Black and Golden Lions coach John Mitchell doesn’t think so, but also points out that the away leg of this year’s Castle Rugby Championship is of massive importance to Heyneke Meyer’s team in the way they take their game forwards.
If the Boks can win both, Mitchell believes, then they will have set themselves on the perfect path to arrive at the Rugby World Cup strong and confident and would have made big strides forward in their game plan. The Boks leave tomorrow for Brisbane, where they will face the Wallabies on September 7, and then move on to Auckland to take on World Champions New Zealand a week later at Eden Park.
Despite poor win records at both venues and a poor performance in Mendoza by their own standards, there is hope the Boks will be able to bounce back and produce an inspired performance to give themselves a chance of winning this year’s Rugby Championship trophy. But it won’t be easy. The first thing the Boks need is that belief, as Mitchell explains.
“I don’t know if there is enough belief at the moment in the Boks to win both. If they win both then they are going to create the necessary belief to move forward,” Mitchell told supersport.com. “That will also create a reverse psychology and those deposits will be huge against the All Blacks and Wallabies going forward. But I guess they don’t have those deposits just yet and that is why this particular trip is so important for the Boks. They’ve got to earn those deposits to turn around the mental sphere and their outlook.”
With a massive battle against the Wallabies looming, Mitchell believes the two areas which will be key will be defence and the breakdown, precisely the two areas that looked to be lacking at times in the win in Mendoza over Argentina. “Clearly they have to get to their ball quickly and get past their ball, over the ball and secure the space against the Aussies, which they can do,” Mitchell explained about the breakdown. – Supersport.com.