White - 'Things can only get better'
De Villiers injury a blow to the Springboks
Jake White was understandably elated with his team's 36-16 victory over Scotland in Durban on Saturday, but the Springbok coach believes his team can still make a massive improvement ahead of next week's second Test.
The Boks made a near-perfect start to their centenary season – outscoring their opponents by four tries to one in a much-improved showing from last week's stuttering, and tryless, 30-27 win over the World XV in Johannesburg.
"The guys themselves were critical afterwards," said White after the match at the ABSA Stadium. "Sure it was an outstanding performance, but our finishing let us down at times."
The Boks scored two tries in each half – through the impressive Schalk Burger, wingers Breyton Paulse and André Snyman and points-machine Percy Montgomery, who delivered yet another polished performance from fullback. But there were also missed opportunities for skipper John Smit, fly-half Jaco van der Westhuyzen and scrum-half Fourie du Preez in the first 40 minutes.
"We had a lot of pressure on us this week, and we came through well," said White. "There have been a lot of positive things in the last two weeks, and I must compliment the players for the way they have handled the pressure.
He added: "Our forwards must be complimented for the way they performed. Gert Smal and Balie Swart have worked very hard on getting it right, and it's paying dividends. We sapped the energy of the Scotland forwards and were very impressive on the drive."
The only disappointment on Saturday, however, was the injury to chief playmaker Jean de Villiers in the build-up to Snyman's second-half try.
"Jean will not be available for next week," revealed White, who confirmed that his star No.12 suffered a rib injury. "We will have to wait until he has undergone a scan to see what happens after that, for the game against France and then into the Tri-Nations."
White could also make some unforced changes ahead of the second Test against Scotland in Port Elizabeth – André Snyman could come under the microscope after a poor performance in the No.11 shirt – but he was not revealing anything on Saturday night.
"We will have a look at the video and then make our selections for the next Test based on what comes out of that," said the Bok boss.
"The fact we won like we did could make it possible to try some new things next week and we also have Bakkies Botha, Albert van den Berg, CJ van der Linde and Bryan Habana coming back. Someone like Jacques Cronjé wasn't involved today, so we could make some changes without weakening our team."
White also reveald that fitness tests on Monday will determine whether Botha, Van den Berg, Der Linde and Habana will be available for the second Test against Scotland.
In addition to these players, centre Wayne Julies has also been asked to rejoin the Springbok squad as a result of the rib injury that will keep De Villiers out of the game for four weeks.
White said he will consider these players, depending on the advice of the medical staff.
The Bok coach expects De Villiers to be back in time for the Tri-Nations series.
The Boks, however, can be expected to face a much-improved Scotland outfit next week.
"We just weren't aggressive enough on defence," lamented Scotland coach Frank Hadden afterwards, "we allowed them to make too many off-loads. But we like it tough and we expected it. It was a good learning curve and hopefully we can put those lessons to good use before next week."
When asked to compare the Boks to France and England – who the Scots beat during the Six Nations – Scotland skipper Jason White added: "The big factor was playing South Africa at home. The Springboks were given a hard time in the press this week and they had something to prove."
By Howard Kahn
