Wiser Pietersen Ready To Go
The Springboks have been going through some rigourous training in the lead-up to the global showpiece.
According to Pietersen, speaking ahead of his third consecutive World Cup, said the blend of youth and expierience in the squad could prove to be a major advantage.
"We preparing ourselves to the best that we can be and have sorted out smaller details for the teams attack and defence," he responded to a questions surrounding the Springboks' poor form going into the competition.
Now a veteran in the team, he described the difference of being a young buck in 2007 to being more expierienced and knowing his responsibilities for the team in 2015 and said the desire to play for the Springboks then and now is still there.
Pietersen has been utilized at outside centre, but prefers his role as a wing – athough he understands his role in the team requires him to possibly be a backup in the No.13 postition.
According to Pietersen, since Heineke Meyer took over the reigns the ultimate goal of the past four years has been to lay a solid platform and put structures in place to ultimately challenge for the title.
"My body is in pain but the past five weeks have been good. I have focused on sharpening my footwok skills and a major focus has been placed on my ability under the high ball. I am ready to go. maybe we will see a different JP in 2015 and forget about the JP of 2014.
"Although our ranking has suffered the past few months, we know South Africans expects us to win. The players fully understand the responsibility played upon us and are going to give it 100 percent to make the country proud. Rankings mean nothing, at the end of the day it's all about winning the World Cup in England," he added.
Pietersen said that the team have not forgotten about the miserable Rugby Championship campaign and that it proved to be a learning curve as a team.
"Its all about rectifying the things that went wrong during the Rugby Championship," he stated.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions stepped in earlier this month stating that they cannot support the "whiteness" of the Springbok team.
Pietersen stated that the players are a close knit group and with being a professional player you need to be prepared to get negative and positive comments made about players or as a team.
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