Boks to break out on home soil
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Springbok defensive coach John McFarland is expecting his side to have to make fewer tackles against the Wallabies at Newlands.
Both of the Springboks' narrow defeats in Australasia saw them get through a mountain of work on defence, with precious few opportunities to run at the opposition in their half.
However, McFarland is expecting things to be slightly different at Newlands this weekend, with the Wallabies defence set to be tested this time around.
"We made 100 tackles in the first half in Perth and made 110 in New Zealand. We only really got control of that game or to play in the last 15 minutes, and most of the other ball we got was turnover ball.
"The game shapes away from home are very different to home. Now obviously we will be on the front foot and we will be taking the ball to them. Hopefully we will be like Australia were against us in that first minute in Perth," he said.
The Bok defensive coach explained that the major difference between playing at home and away are the external factors such as fatigue from the travel and the influence of the crowd.
"There is a big difference, you are at home and sleeping better because you are not crossing timezones. You have got more normality to your life and your family is around you, it is just more pleasant.
"Also there are more than just three people in the crowd cheering for you so your adrenalin levels are much higher at home, and so they should be," he said.
The Springboks' away record in the Rugby Championship under Heyneke Meyer has not been great, and McFarland admitted that coming home empty-handed again after a few lapses in concentration cost them was incredibly frustrating.
"Over our three years with the Boks it is the closest we have got and we set ourselves a goal of going on and beating them on tour and we got within one minute in both games. It was just mental errors at the wrong time.
"For 78 minutes [in Perth] we were really good, it showed when they scored in the first and last minute, the 78 minutes in between we were in control of the game so at this level you can't really relax for any time at all.
"At the end of the day no matter what you say you have got to be hard-nosed enough to win those sorts of games.
"We put ourselves in with a chance to win, but didn't quite finish it. The nice thing now is that we have got a chance to put it right," he said.
By Michael de Vries
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