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Wednesday, August 13, 2008

On to Cape Town and the All Blacks

The Springboks will return to the Tri-Nations at Newlands on
Saturday. As I said last week if the Boks could keep up a
high tempo throughout the match, they would overcome Argentina.
Nine unanswered tries is emphatic in anyone's book.

This week they entertain the All Blacks in what I believe
is going to be a very close encounter. Having said that I
still take the Springboks to edge it.

The coaching staff have selected a very strong team and while
there are always going to be those who believe that certain
players should be in ahead of others, this is a quality side.
In the return of Fourie Du Preez I believe you will see the
best of Butch James. Du Preez relieves a lot of the kicking
pressure off James and together they form an outstanding
partnership.

A major advantage for the Springboks is going to be their
height in the lineouts with the All Black locks and hooker
coming in for a lot of pressure.

The return of Percy Montgomery at fullback for his record
breaking 100th cap will not only strengthen the kicking game
but add a quality point's scorer to the side.

All in all like any Springboks, All Blacks match-up, this
is one not to be missed.

Jake White speaking to the Mail & Guardian's Mike Trapido

4 comments:

  1. You did nail the tempo issue wrt the Pumas. The boks played a pacy attacking game that comprehensively overwhelmed the vistors.

    AB's will be different. Unlike the Pumas the AB's are a full strength side (foreign-based player issue aside), we have no ELV-experience advantage, no ELV-related fitness advantage, no altitude advantage, no out-of-season advantage, and no real ranking point advantage. Player by player match-ups favour SA, but not by a lot.

    So the question is: If the game plan for last week was to play at pace, then what should the game plan be for this week?

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  2. so u call urself the champ . so how come no post after 3 days of the worst defeat in history ,after u said the boks will win. cmon jake

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  3. Rooikat,

    I too am very keen to see Jakes opinion on the home nil game. I guess it's taking a long time to edit the original to make it sound more diplomatic!

    Don't hold back Jake!

    My personal opinion is that Jake set up a the strong base and Pieter has been feeding off of that. Its all very well to come and say "oh we'll play a more expansive game" but theres no way he could have won a single game if he'd been put in charge of the boks pre-Jake. Pieter does have some radio friendly soundbites (and some that make him sound like he's lost his mind) but if the boks continue to lose in this way those politically correct platitudes won't save his job.

    Good to see you still have a prescence Jake, a bit like obi-wan kenobi from star wars... "if you kill me you will only make me stronger Darth Vader". Can I say that?

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  4. Thanks guys. The update is now posted.

    Let's hope we see a vast improvement on last Saturday.

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