Win would be massive for Boks: de Villiers

SPRINGBOK captain Jean de Villiers believes a win at Suncorp Stadium for the Boks in today’s titanic Castle Lager Rugby Championship game against the Wallabies will be a massive stride forward for the team. De Villiers knows that the odds are stacked against them. The Boks have never won at Suncorp Stadium in seven starts and have endured a dismal record in Australia as they have never won outside Perth in the professional era.

However, it matters little to the captain, who will get his team together and look to make history today.
“It will mean a lot,” De Villiers said.

“We are here to win the game first of all and secondly the competition. That will be the next step towards that. We have six tough games and we are at number three – we’ve had a good start and its now about being able to build on that momentum.

“It’s a great opportunity and the guys are excited about it and hopefully we will be able to build on our good start.”
De Villiers said the blow that Australia took in losing captain James Horwill was a massive one, but that the Boks couldn’t rely on that to secure them victory.

“It’s a big loss for them, but they have a good replacement in Kane Douglas. They also have Will Genia as captain who has the credentials and who was the captain when we played here last year. Injuries are part of rugby and you need to move on. It’s a big loss for them and I suppose good for us in a way, but Horwill is replaced by a good player.”

While many are seeing today’s test match as Aussie pace versus Bok power, De Villiers doesn’t necessarily agree.
“I think you can describe it in any way you want. For us it’s about winning tomorrow’s game in any way we can. Yes they will bring pace – they’ve showed they can bring the power as well.

We’ve managed to show we’ve evolved as a team as well. We’ve scored some fantastic tries this year and we’ve been able to really work hard on our counter attacking and to play off turnovers. We might just surprise you tomorrow.”

De Villiers said it was important that the Boks took the positives out of their narrow win in Mendoza, which served as a wake-up call for the side.-Sapa.