O'Connell knows Matfield's secrets

 

Matfield has long been regarded as the line-out maestro of both the Springboks and of world Rugby, however the veteran feels that O'Connell may have picked up some South African-based tips and tricks from current Western Province Director of Rugby and former Ireland forwards coach, Gert Smal.

 

"I think Paul O'Connell is a fantastic player, I have said it before, I think he is probably the best players I have played against in my career," Matfield said from Dublin

 

"He is also a student of the line-out, you can see that he puts in a lot of hours analysing and preparing, getting his whole unit ready for the weekend.

 

"It is always tough going up against him.

 

Part of O'Connell's analysis comes thanks to Smal who Matfield believes taught the Irish skipper how he thinks at line-out time.

 

"I also think when Gert was here, he gave a lot of insight into how I think about the line-outs to Paul, so that makes it more difficult.

 

Although the additional understanding of Matfield's game is set to make the challenge greater, the Bok veteran is still looking forward to going up against his nemesis at the helm of the Irish pack.

 

"It is always a great battle against him and he has some great jumpers with him in that unit, we know it is going to be very tough and we will have to be accurate in what we do because they will definitely put pressure on us at line-out time."

 

Matfield has said his team are looking to be perfect against the Irish at the scrum and line-out' the hosts have impressed at set-piece time with a 100 percent record with their scrums.

 

"I think we have very high standards for ourselves when it comes to set-pieces, we felt after the Championship that we were close but we were not there yet – or exactly where we want to be," Matfield continued

 

"It was good to have these two weeks [training before departing for the tour] and hopefully we can take it onto the field and be very accurate in whatever we do.