Assistant coach Jerry Flannery insists the Springboks’ focus will be on beating Italy on Saturday before chasing bonus points that could decide their Nations Championship fate.
South Africa and New Zealand are level on 15 log points, with the Boks ahead on points difference (+81 to +51). Only the top team in each hemisphere reaches the final at Twickenham on 29 November.
“We are aware that we could win all our matches and not feature in the final,” Flannery said on Tuesday, ahead of the Boks’ clash with the Azzurri in Turin.
“At the moment our points differential is superior, but we are aware that it will come down to teams getting bonus points.”
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The teams met last year in Pretoria, where the Boks won 42-24. Rassie Erasmus’ men dominated early, running in four tries for a 28-3 lead. Italy fought back, outscoring South Africa 21-14 in the second half before Marco van Staden’s late try sealed the win.
“We don’t want to go into matches being disrespectful of the contest and target bonus points,” Flannery continued. “We’ve played Italy before, and they pushed us really close.
“We want to focus on winning … After that, you can switch to scoring four try bonus points, but I think it’s difficult to head into a match with the mentality of winning with a bonus point.
“You’ve got to win the game first, and the quality of teams we are playing is too high to think of bonus points initially.”
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The Boks had their first training session on Monday, with many players having featured for their clubs in the URC on Saturday.
“The [Nations Championship] tour is a good representative for us going into a World Cup next year where players have to assemble and play matches on a consistent basis in a short period of time,” Flannery added.
“We’re not sure how much we will rotate [players] during this period, so for us it’s very much like knockout stages to play group stages, head into a Round of 16 before the quarter-final, semi-final and final.”
Photo: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images
The post Flannery: We’ve got to win first appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Assistant coach Jerry Flannery insists the Springboks’ focus will be on beating Italy on Saturday before chasing bonus points that could decide their Nations Championship fate.
The post Flannery: We’ve got to win first appeared first on SA Rugby magazine. Read More
