OWN CORRESPONDENT, Paris | Monday 6.15pm.
SPRINGBOK lock Mark Andrews admitted here on Monday that former Springbok fly-half Joel Stransky’s comments that the world champions had “become paralysed by fear and were suffering from a crisis of confidence” were fair.
Writing in his column in Britain’s Sunday Telegraph, Stransky, who played alongside Andrews in South Africa’s 1995 World Cup-winning side, claimed that off-pitch problems in the South African camp had been resolved but he was at a loss to explain their problems on the pitch.
The 27-year-old Andrews said Stransky had made some valid points.
“They’re pretty fair and Joel is entitled to make them, as is anyone who has represented South Africa,” Andrews said.
“But it’s only natural that the guys will be nervous as the World Cup is like an Olympics, where you can sometimes get only one opportunity.
“Thus the players are playing for their places and feel the pressure. With that, every mistake they make must feel to them as if it has cost them their place for the next match.”
Andrews said, however, that the pressure was nothing compared to that of playing at home in 1995.
Andrews added that the gloomy faces Stransky, who kicked the extra-time drop goal that landed South Africa the World Cup, alluded to on the pitch would look happier come Sunday’s quarter-final with England or Fiji at the Stade de France.
“If we pull this one off then there’ll be a lot more smiling going on. You can count on it,” he said.
The enormous lock confirmed Stransky’s other assertion that the bad atmosphere within the team had completely dissipated.
“I really believe that all the problems have been solved and that we’ve turned the corner spirit wise.” — AFP