The All Blacks will be relying heavily on motivation to fuel their performance against the Springboks in Saturday’s Tri-Nations Test at Newlands.
New Zealand’s Test squad were let loose to the media contingent at a Cape Town beachfront hotel on Wednesday morning, and without exception every player said that motivation would be the team’s real driving force.
Their flyhalf, Dan Carter, arguably the world’s finest rugby player at present, led the charge: ”The motivation in the camp is high and the guys really want to do well because this game is a great occasion.”
All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw said the motivation has not come about because his side are bent on revenge after they suffered a 30-28 defeat against the Springboks in Dunedin last month.
”There is no question about the motivation in this side,” he said. ”It just comes about because of the pressure, not only on the coaching staff but also on the players. The pressure is enormous and that just gets the players motivated. We’re haven’t thought about revenge at all.”
On Saturday, the All Blacks’ levels of motivation will simply go up several notches once they have performed the famous haka, their traditional Maori dance, on the hallowed Newlands turf.
After the All Blacks’ defeat in Dunedin, worse was to follow when they took a 34-19 pasting at the hands of the Aussies in Sydney two weeks later.
Earlier this week, All Blacks coach Graham Henry explained that rugby pressure was so great in his country that after those two consecutive defeats he and his fellow coaches apologised to the unforgiving New Zealand nation for the losses.
On Thursday morning, the body language of the All Blacks did not portray that of defeatists but that was because they arrived in the country on the back of an impressive 39-10 victory over Australia in Auckland a fortnight ago.
”Yeah, we got ourselves right back on track in Auckland, and now after a week’s break we’re in fine shape,” said McCaw, the side’s most inspirational player. ”We’re arrived here a day earlier, and that gave us a chance to settle in nicely. We’re pretty used to coming here to play by now.”
Both Carter and McCaw said they are expecting kicking to dominate the game on Saturday.
”There’s so much kicking in every match and that’s just the way the game is going,” said McCaw. ”Kicking is becoming a big part of the game.”
”We’ll be looking to kick into the spaces as part of our attacking strategy,” said Carter. ”When the tactical kicking is good, it just gives the team so much go-forward.”
Carter said he feels the forward battle will be crucial in the game, but singled out the Springbok loose forwards as a key factor. ”Their [the Boks’] loose trio is very dangerous — they’re all ball-runners,” he said. ”If they get momentum, they create space for other players out wide to finish off. They are lethal.”
All Blacks assistant coach Wayne Smith said that kicking in games has increased considerably, even to the extent that teams are happy to surrender possession.
He explained that nowadays teams will kick the ball away in an effort to transfer play into the opposition half — sometimes out of fear.
”Given the many sanctions [the dos and don’ts at rucks and mauls], you don’t want to be caught too often in a breakdown in your own territory because you’re liable to give a free kick away and then the momentum is with the other team,” said Smith. ”You just end up giving the ball away to the opposition.
”Teams kick a lot more than in the past. It’s a consequence of that law. The idea is always to put the pressure on the other team.”
New Zealand are currently heading the Tri-Nations log and after Saturday’s fixture their fate could be pretty much out of their hands as the Boks and the Aussies will be playing back-to-back Tests over the next two weeks.
Carter warned that the All Blacks want to get their noses even further ahead on Saturday.
”There’s so much riding on this game in terms of the Tri-Nations tournament,” he said. ”For us it will be like a knock-out. There’s really no point in saving ourselves — we can’t hold back.” — Sapa