Boks coach ready for war of attrition against Kiwis

SOUTH AFRICA coach Jake White has predicted a physical battle this coming week when his side come up against New Zealand in Cape Town.

White believes the game will provide a very different encounter to the three his side have had against Australia, winning two and losing away from home in Sydney.

The All Blacks are currently considered to be the best side in the world and White admits that the game represents his side’s biggest challenge of the year.

“It will be a very different Test match to what we have played this year,” White said.

“They play very different rugby and one thing they will definitely do, is to attack the sides of the rucks and mauls.

“They play a lot more direct. They make you tackle them, and don’t try to move the ball away from you like Australia do. In some ways Cape Town may be good for us if it is wet.

“It won’t be so quick but we will have to be up for it physically because they will ask questions as to how physical we are.”

White will this week work on defensive formations to counter the All Blacks’ use of the fringes around the rucks to launch their attacks.

“They are very clever around the rucks, using their pillars as attacking options as well.

“The Australians play off Larkham while the All Blacks run off their scrum-halves and loose forwards,” added White.

The Bok coach was impressed with his captain and his team after they clawed their way back from 13-6 down at the break to win the Tri Nations opener against Australia 22-16 on Saturday.

“Sometimes you want those harder Test matches, because they make you become a better team,” he said.

“Those wins, even though they might have been lucky, you put them in the memory banks and those are the wins that take you to World Cup finals. I’m impressed with John Smit as a leader again.

“We were 13-6 down and we won the second half 16-3 - it just shows how good he is.

“The calls that he made and the way he talked to the players showed he is growing as a captain.”

Aussie coach Eddie Jones meanwhile admitted his side threw away a game they should have won, and will be searching for the answers why.

“We’re disappointed, especially as we put ourselves in a position where we could win the game and we didn’t take it,” Jones said.

“This was always going to be a close game, and never going to be an end to end match.”

“We had enough opportunities to win the game and made enough line breaks. We just weren’t able to take our chances when we needed them.”