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Jake White

PARIS. — South Africa have become a team nobody will fear anymore after their shock opening Rugby World Cup defeat against Japan, according to former Springboks coach Jake White. South Africa lost 34-32 to Japan in Pool B last Saturday in the biggest upset in the competition since its first edition in 1987.

“We have become an ordinary team,” former coach Jake White, who led the Boks to the world title in 2007, told French sports daily L’Equipe yesterday. “Nobody fears us anymore. (Pool B rivals) Scotland have started to fancy their chances and it worries me.”

White, who now coaches French Top 14 side Montpellier, added that South Africa’s mistake was that they had underestimated Japan.

“The Japanese were perfectly organised, they had a plan. The Springboks, instead, thought that simply turning up on the field would be enough,” he said, adding that the staff had failed to prepare the game properly.

“Apparently nobody knew what to expect against Japan, nobody knew the Japanese players. Yet we have guys like Fourie Du Preez who play in Japan. Have we asked them information? I don’t think so.

“I don’t want to lack respect towards Eddie Jones or the Japanese team, but this defeat should never have happened. Rugby is our national sport, our players have known each other for a long time. We’d known for three years we’d be facing Japan.”

South Africa now take on Samoa on Saturday and Japan face Scotland today.

The United States are the other team in Pool B.

Springbok assistant coach Johan van Graan called the current situation in the Boks camp “the biggest challenge of my career” as the side look to turn their game around just days from suffering their most humiliating defeat in history.

While hard words were spoken on Monday, Van Graan repeated the team mantra that they need to right the wrongs of Brighton as soon as possible if they are to have any chance of going further against a tough Samoan side.

The assistant coach wouldn’t be drawn into talk that the team ignored instructions to maul more and followed their own lead during the game, even when it was slipping away, nor built any scoreboard pressure in a game they struggled from the start.

“The whole weekend was disappointing. That is in the past now, we can only control what we can control now. We had a good look at our set piece and our line out was pretty good. We were pretty happy with those two maul tries. We weren’t happy with the opportunities we had with 10 minutes to go that we didn’t finish but we as a team take responsibility for that,” Van Graan said.

“Those are decisions we make on the field and we have to live with them. It’s a new week, and we must go put it right on Saturday.”

There is only one way to go now and up. Anything else would be catastrophic not only for the team, but for South Africa as a whole.

“The mood wasn’t good on Sunday. It’s a new day, a new week and you have to move on. It’s the World Cup, there will be upsets. We do have a choice — Either sit down and stick our heads in the sand or flippen get up and go,” Van Graan added.

“That’s the good thing as the players, the whole group took responsibility. We can’t control what happened last week but we can control what happens this Saturday.

“Everybody wants to be on the field on Saturday. I’m sure whoever the coach selects will take the field knowing there are a lot of things to put right.”

The Boks would be looking to make an impact against Samoa, but given the history between the two sides it is likely to be a bruising affair which won’t be as entertaining as their opener.

But while some of the squad still looked shell-shocked, the long video session on Monday had helped and put things into perspective, with the team now knowing just where they went wrong.

The question now is if there still is enough belief to turn the ship around, especially after the weekend shock they received.

Van Graan believes there is.

“We’ve definitely got the belief. But the belief isn’t about winning the World Cup, it is about beating Samoa on Saturday,” he said.

“For us there is only one game in this World Cup, and that is Saturday. On Sunday we will reassess and then take it from there. For us there is no tomorrow, we can only control what happens on Saturday.” The Boks are set to name their team for the Samoa clash at Villa Park today — Supersport/Reuters.