Have the Springboks turned the corner in their 44-31 win over the Wallabies at Loftus Versfeld?

Just as the Boks win over the All Blacks in Rustenburg in 2006 was a turning point, this ugly yet important test victory over the Wallabies, may define the Boks 2011 Rugby World Cup campaign.

RELIEVED BOKS

After the match, Springbok captain John Smit was a relieved man as he was asked how he felt.

“Certainly it’s a good feeling. Last week my heart was broken, this week just feels so good to be able to let Victor enjoy it in front of his home crowd, it’s almost a fairytale” said Smit.

“It’s difficult when you get a start like that because you can look at it in 2 ways. You can see yourself as having a massive handicap and trying to chase it the whole time or you can see it as 60-70 minutes to go to get your game going and be patient.”

“We know we made one or two mistakes that gifted them tries but we also knew we have the whole game ahead of us. There was no inexperience or panic in the team and thankfully a few guys have seen this before and come back from it.”

THE BOKS HAVE LEARNT THEIR LESSON

Smit said the side was able to draw on past experiences, including the comeback test against the Lions last year, and no doubt from the disappointment of just 7 days ago at Soweto.

“Thankfully we’ve been in situations like where we’ve been able to learn from this. A year ago we were in a similar situation on this field against the British and Irish Lions.”

“As long as you draw on all those experiences, and we’ve worked hard in our 4 weeks off. Last week was better and this week was even better. Now we’ve just got to make sure we keep on improving.”

His vice-captain Victor Matfield echoed his skipper’s thoughts as he said, “Luckily we are experienced enough to know that when you start like that, you have to stick to the things you know and you don’t go out of your game plan. We stuck to what we knew and things started to happen for us.”

“I think it also helped the way the Wallabies wanted to play, it gave us the freedom to play and we knew if we played then things would happen for us.”

Springbok coach Peter de Villiers admired the composure his side showed, and will be aware his side was from perfect in grinding out a win.

“You will never play the perfect game. Last week we were a lot more intense, but this week we were more composed. In Soweto the guys were afraid to make mistakes and that showed in our play. Today that wasn’t the case and I think we benefited from that” de Villiers said.

AUSTRALIAN THREAT

With another game against Australia next week in Bloemfontein, de Villiers was well aware of the threat the Aussies posed.

“This defeat doesn’t make Australia a bad team. We did well to put pressure on their key players, but they are dangerous when they get space and we’ll have to be aware of that again next week. They’ve got some good dancers in the team, guys who can dance without hearing music. We’ll have to be a lot tighter defensively if we want to shut them out again.”

BOK FOCUS

When asked if he intended to lead the Boks into the next World Cup, Smit was emphatic in his desire to keep leading the Boks.

“No you’ll see me around. [It’s] certainly gonna be a year that I want to play well and I’ll be there. I’ll be putting my hand up. It’ll be up to the selectors and coaches to see if I’m good enough next year.”

“When you’re losing you’re always gonna cop it so we’ll just make sure we work hard.”

With Peter de Villiers set to lead us to rugby’s holy grail, one can clearly see where the Bok focus lies.

“Victor and I are relieved that it is done and dusted and now it is time to start on the next chapter. But we do that one day at a time and we know how much we need to improve and how much work there is for us to be ready for next year. It’s not all about this Tri-Nations, it is about being ready for next year’s seven week process” said Smit.

Whilst I have no problem with that as I also believe the World Cup is the most important trophy, I am not sure enough experimentation have taken place, or enough opportunities have been given to those who deserve it,

de Villiers appears to know who is strongest line-up consists of, and that will certainly be formidable, but what if one of his key players sustains an injury just before the World Cup?

Rudolf Straueli found out how they can bite one in the bum when his key weapons Bob Skinstad, Andre Pretorius and Jean de Villiers were ruled out of the 2003 World Cup.

It’s an important lesson for de Villiers to remember.

Now should be the perfect time to put in place contingency plans just in case.