South Africa are ready for a penalty shoot-out should the World Cup final against England on Saturday be called a stalemate after extra-time.
England’s Jonny Wilkinson memorably won the 2003 final against Australia with an injury-time drop-goal, but Springboks coach Jake White said he was unconcerned that the talismanic number 10 had rediscovered his form with the boot.
”Firstly it goes into extra time and then after extra time it goes to a penalty shoot-out and you’ve got to choose five kickers, so again I think the selection of your team is vital,” said White.
”It has got to be players that are on the field. You can’t have substituted them so I can’t see Jonny Wilkinson getting substituted in this game.”
South Africa beat Argentina 37-13 in their final-four clash to line up a game against England, a team they beat 36-0 in the pool stages.
Bok fullback Percy Montgomery has been a cornerstone of the South African game, which has seen them unbeaten in their run to the showdown at the Stade de France, racking up 93 points from two tries, 22 conversions and 13 penalties in six games.
But White stressed that he had other capable kickers in his 30-man squad.
”I’m quite lucky,” he acknowledged. ”One thing we do have in this team is quite a few goal kickers. You look at guys like Ruan Pienaar, Francois Steyn, Andre Pretorius, Percy Montgomery, Butch James.”
Only James and Steyn have kicked at this World Cup, successful with two conversions and three penalties respectively.
White added that there would be discussions within the camp as to what would happen should it come to a shoot-out.
”I don’t know if we will do extra drills,” he said. ”We will just talk about it in terms of what expectations are so everyone is on the same page.
”You don’t want to be in a situation where it happens and you haven’t prepared for it.”
Otherwise, the Boks would be treating the week ahead as any other, White said.
”It’s the same every week and it’s not changing,” he said. ”We’ve had the same group of guys for a long time now, and I don’t think there’s anything more we can do now, just a bit of tweaking.
”The important thing is to make sure we are fresh for Saturday.” ‒ Sapa-AFP