Matfield eyes Springboks improvement

Victor Matfield is looking for South Africa to demonstrate their famed uncompromising approach against Grand Slam champions Ireland at Croke Park tomorrow.

When the Springboks lost to France earlier this month, much was made of the fact the tourists, for once, were second best in the physical battle, something Matfield believes they need to dominate against Ireland.

He said: “We like to dominate teams and we didn’t do that against France. They beat us with a great work-rate. It was better than ours and that’s why we lost.

“I feel this week our work-rate will be up. That’s meeting rucks with numbers, three or four at a time, really shifting at the contact area.”

Matfield was not prepared to be drawn into placing any extra emphasis to the game because it will see the World and Tri-Nations champions meeting the RBS 6 Nations winners.

“It’s definitely not an unofficial World Cup title, or anything like that, it’s just another test we want to win,” he said.

Matfield is placing the emphasis firmly on what South Africa are doing, rather than looking at Ireland, who have drawn 20-20 with Australia and defeated Fiji 41-6 in their two autumn internationals so far.

“I think we know the things we want to do, we’ve been doing them it all year,” he added.

“We want is to be mentally fresh, as we need to get it all together if we are to win against a great Irish side.”

The 32-year-old, who has 91 Test caps, was surprised Ronan O’Gara was overlooked as fly-half in favour of Jonathan Sexton.

And the lock says South Africa plan to give Sexton a tough time tomorrow by attacking the fly-half channel.

“He must be a great player because it is a big step for Ireland to leave out a guy like Ronan O’Gara,” added the South Africa vice-captain.

“O’Gara’s an awesome player, one of the best tactical kickers in the game.

“In modern rugby that’s the one channel all the teams try and attack.”

Matfield locked horns with numerous members of the Ireland team on last summer’s British and Irish Lions tour, which saw the Springboks prevail 2-1.

And he is looking forward to renewing his second-row rivalry with Paul O’Connell, the Lions captain.

“It’s going to be another tough match up between two great second-row pairings,” said Matfield, who will partner Bakkies Botha in the engine room, with O’Connell and Donnacha O’Callaghan teaming-up for Ireland.

“I think Paul can do everything. In the modern lock you normally get an athletic or the more physical guy. He does both.

“He’s very good in the line-outs, he gets stuck in, and does a lot of ball carrying. He’s very tough to play against.”

One thing which does, however, worry Matfield is the presence of the former Springbok assistant coach Gert Smal in the Irish camp.

“Yes, that does concern me a little as I think he’s an awesome coach, probably one of the best I’ve been coached by,” said Matfield.

“He’s got all the calls from the last 20 years, I think. He knows everything, and will probably be able to help Paul a bit.

“But again it’s a case of us focusing on our game, making the right calls at the right time.

“I will probably need to adapt on the day a bit, do one or two things differently. Hopefully, that will work.”