Zimpapers Logo

TOKYO. — In terms of what they have to prepare for this week in facing Wales in the Rugby World Cup semi-final South Africa’s Springboks could not have asked for a more stark contrast with what they were getting ready for this time last week.

Whereas ahead of the quarter-final at Tokyo Stadium the South African squad was focusing on combating the Japanese pace and tempo, and were putting in place their own plans to launch an aerial bombardment on the team representing the host nation, this week they are getting ready to combat a Welsh strategy that is heavily accented on kicking and winning the territory battle.

“We are expecting a very tough battle with the kicking game, Wales have a very solid kicking game behind their plan,” said assistant coach Mzwandile Stick.

“We know they have four top class players when it comes to the boot. If you look at Gareth Davies at scrumhalf, he has good distance with his boot. Look at the back, a guy like Liam Williams and also Dan Biggar, they have both been around for a while, are good kickers of the ball and have experience. They are a very territory focused team.

“They just don’t allow teams to come into their half. That will be a big part of their game and I don’t think in the space of a week they will try to move away from that. So combating their approach it is going to be a big part of our game. We have got to make sure that any opportunity to get into their half and when we get into their 22 we must make it count. There will not be many opportunities, but when they come it is key that we convert them into points.”

Stick agreed that the preparations for this week’s game will have to be in direct contrast to what was put in place ahead of the Japan match.

“This week we are focused mainly on what we will get from Wales. Last week we knew that the biggest challenge was going to be containing the Japanese ball in hand game, whereas now it is a a very different beast. — AFP.