'Revitalised' Jannie vital to Bok cause
Jannie du Plessis, one of the many victims of South Africa's poor Super Rugby campaign, has silenced at least some of his critics.
This is the view of Springbok assistant coach John McFarland, who feels the much-maligned Du Plessis will have a vital role to play of South Africa is to get scrum dominance over Australia in their opening Rugby Championship match in Brisbane on Saturday.
Following his underwhelming form in Super Rugby this year, so-called pundits have called for the Stormers duo of Frans Malherbe and Vincent Koch to start ahead of the 32-year-old Montpellier-bound tighthead prop in the Bok team.
The same applies to his Sharks teammate and loosehead prop Tendai Mtawarira – with calls for Trevor Nyakane, Heinke van der Merwe or the now injured Steven Kitshoff to get a run ahead of the Beast.
However, Du Plessis and Mtawarira started in the 46-10 over the World XV at Newlands last Saturday and will continue to feature in the Boks' build-up to the World Cup.
"Mr [Jannie] Du Plessis and Mr [Tendai] Mtawarira are vital to the cause," the Boks' defence coach, McFarland said in Brisbane – where the Boks are preparing for Saturday's encounter with the Wallabies.
"The scrum is a big area of the game now," he said, adding: "The scrum is an area to gather points and to gather penalties.
"If you gather penalties through having a strong scrum, you are going to make field position or you are going to get points on the scoreboard."
McFarland said he was "very pleased" with the performances of two veteran front row forwards.
"Jannie looked like a completely revitalised, the way he ran around on the field [in Cape Town at the weekend].
"His workrate was really high, his tackling was good, he was good in the collisions.
"It was a fresh start for them and again showed when players come together at the Springboks, then they are different people in the Green and Gold."
McFarland described defence and discipline as "hugely important" to the Bok cause this week.
"You want the players not to concede penalties at the breakdown.
"You need to be disciplined in terms of your defence, to stay in line, to make sure your is right, to make sure you are in the right position.
"Also, discipline in terms of sticking to the system.
"Every player's role is critical as a job within the structure."
