The Springboks will be playing for the 60 million South Africans when they line up against hosts France in their eagerly anticipated Rugby World Cup quarter-final at the Stade de France in Paris on Sunday night.
The was the message from Springbok assistant coach Felix Jones on Thursday as they looked forward to the make-or-break clash.
Jones said: “This is a hugely anticipated match against France at home in the World Cup quarter-final. There will be a large crowd with the majority of them being French, but we have 60 million people at home in South Africa and we’ll be playing for them.”
Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber will announce his matchday squad for the match on Friday, and Jones said the competition for places in the team was tight.
“We want to pick the right team to get the result on the weekend,” said Jones. “In the last year we’ve been trying to balance things in terms of the player load, and we’ll see in the next three games if we got it right.”
When asked how difficult it would be to select between Handre Pollard and Manie Libbok at flyhalf, given the importance of accurate goal-kicking in the playoff stages of the world’s biggest competition, Jones said: “Our selection is very tight in a number of positions, and flyhalf is one of them. Handre has done the job for us before, but Manie has also been playing good rugby for us.
“We are taking penalties into consideration. But that said, in a game there could be 10 penalties and over a 100 rucks, seven or eight scrums, and 20 lineouts, so it’s just one of the considerations.”
Jones said one of the key focus areas for the team this week was to build a solid foundation in the opening stages of the match to prevent a situation in which the game comes down to the dying minutes - similarly to last season when they suffered a heart-breaking 30-26 defeat against France in Marseille.
"There have been a number of games over the last two to three years where it comes down to the last play of the game or the last kick of the game or a penalty in the last minute or two either way, giving one away or receiving one. We have also won a lot of games in those dying few minutes.
"We expect this to be a very tight game. What do you do to overcome that? You probably don't want to let it get to that stage and try and nail your biggest moments in the first 70 minutes so it doesn't come to that point. But if it does you need to be accurate. We were disappointed we couldn't finish off our last opportunity against Ireland."
On what the Springboks expect from France Jones said: "There is a real resilience in what he's built in comparison to what had gone on before. It's a very tight group that play for each other. You've never beaten France until the last few moments of the game, the very last play. The depth that has been built.
"Look at their depth at hooker even with [Julien] Marchand who could potentially miss out if he's still injured. Even if he isn't there, there are two or three guys ready to step in who are tier-one test excellence. You can say the same about Antoine Dupont. If he does play, he is one of the world's best players, a World Player of the Year, but [Maxime] Lucu behind him has also been absolutely outstanding for them."
"Dupont's presence is something that you can see. He has a big impact on the players around him and [their] belief. Everyone knows the quality of player. We can't control the presence he brings, we can only control trying to stop the many talents and abilities that he has. If it's Lucu, there are some really effective pieces of play he can put together. We can't control the presence but we can try and stop what's happening."
