South Africa coach Jake White said his team played one of the best matches of his tenure to crush England 36-0 in their World Cup Pool A match on Friday.
He added that one of the most pleasing aspects of their victory was that the world champions had few chances to score, with captain John Smit adding they had been motivated by the ”big zero on the other side [of the scoreline]”.
”It’s one of the biggest results we’ve had as a group. As soon as we knew the pool, we knew that facing the world champions was going to be one of our toughest challenges,” White told a news conference.
”I was most impressed with our defence, the commitment we showed with 15 minutes to go in the way we still defended our tryline.
”We put on all the reserves and they were still fighting for their lives to keep England out.
”England had a couple of driving options late on and four years ago they would have scored from them.”
Smit said: ”It must rank as one of our most clinical 80 minutes. We did not give them a sniff.”
White acknowledged the excellent performance of Fourie Du Preez but said he did not want to single out individual performances and the scrumhalf had been given very good balls by the forwards.
He also said England had had problems in the build-up with injuries to both their flyhalves, though the Springboks had lost flanker Schalk Burger to suspension.
Smit praise
The Springboks avenged a pool-stage loss to the world champions in the 2003 tournament in Australia by inflicting on England their highest margin of defeat in a World Cup.
Less than a year ago, after defeat by England in the first of two Tests at Twickenham, White’s job was on the line.
Victory in the second Test helped keep him in his job but paved the way for a change of coach for England with Brian Ashton coming in.
Smit praised White for his coaching and planning qualities, saying: ”It’s taken a toll on his hairline but we’re benefiting from that.”
He added that South Africa would not get carried away with a performance that had Ashton saying it confirmed their status as one of the two best teams in the world.
”We won’t get complacent. If a team falls victim to complacency, then they don’t really believe [they are so good] in the first place.” — Reuters