Du Toit sheds light on how Boks handled Ellis Park defeat
SPOTLIGHT: The Springboks are no strangers to having their backs against the wall.
In fact, some of their most memorable victories have come when the odds were stacked against them – and Thomas du Toit believes they will once again need to embrace that mentality when they face the All Blacks on Saturday.
South Africa suffered a 16-33 defeat to New Zealand at Ellis Park last weekend in the first Test.
Springbok prop Du Toit, who can cover both sides of the front row, will be part of the 6-2 split bench that will face the All Blacks on Saturday in Cape Town.
Having watched from the sidelines, Du Toit understands that it is of utmost importance not to let last weekend’s defeat continue to haunt them heading into the second showdown.
In recent seasons, the Springboks have had a tendency not to let one defeat have a negative impact on their overall objective.
In 2021, against the British & Irish Lions, the Springboks recorded a 17-22 defeat before securing a 2-1 series win.
At the 2023 Rugby World Cup, they suffered a defeat to Ireland in France before finding their groove and claiming their second consecutive Webb Ellis title.
Last year, they also went down 22-38 to Australia at Ellis Park in the Rugby Championship before bouncing back and eventually retaining the title for the first time in history.
“I think the important thing for us was to park that game and take the learning as quickly as we can,” the Springbok tighthead told reporters at the team hotel.
“We’ve done an incredible job over the last couple of years in putting every individual week, every individual game in its own box and not trying to go back to that box and looking behind us the whole time at what we did wrong, but just trying to rectify as much as we can and trying to make it right as quickly as we can.”
The Springbok revealed that they had a proper review on Monday.
“We took on board the learnings, took the good stuff, worked on the bad and worst things of the game – it was as easy as that.
“We parked it and hopefully just learned as much as we can in the shortest amount of time.”
He added: “We’ve got that undertone of what this occasion is.
“However, the reality of it is we want to win on Saturday, and what we need to do during the week is going to be important.”
All-round improvement needed
While the scrums have been a major talking point since the start of the Greatest Rivalry, Du Toit stressed that every aspect of the Springboks’ game will need to improve, particularly with wet weather conditions forecast.
“Unfortunately, in this game you can’t only have one aspect of the game firing right for you,” the Sharks-bound prop stated.
“You need to have multiple firing at the right time and for the right amount of time in the game.
“The scrums always stay close to my heart, so yes, I’m obviously going to say that it would be great to have scrum dominance throughout the game.
“But in reality, you need every aspect to fire – your kicking game and your attack, your defence, your entries into the 22 and getting over the whitewash. Those are important things.”
