Peter de Villiers cautions competitors not to take his squad lightly: Tri-Nations update
The South African rugby coach, Peter de Villiers, has declared his injury ruined side will still be comparable to the other Tri-Nations teams and cautioned them not to take his side lightly in the event. South African Rugby Union has ruled 22 players out
of the Tri-Nations Cup 2011 because of various injuries. Talking to the reporters on July 13, De Villiers said that Springboks still have depth in their squad and will give a tough time to their opponents in the upcoming event.
South Africa Rugby Union (SARU) has recently been suspected of declaring key players unfit for the Tri-Nations Cup in order to rest them for Rugby World Cup 2011. RWC 2011 will kick off on September 9, with less than two weeks after the final of Tri-Nations
Cup. The upcoming event of Tri-Nations Cup 2011 is scheduled to be played from July 23 to August 27.
De Villiers told the media that although his side will miss a number of key players in the forthcoming event, they have enough strength in their squad to cope with Australia and New Zealand. He argued that, in the presence of skipper John Smit along with
Ruan Pienaar, Danie Rossouw and Morné Steyn Springboks could stun their opponents.
Peter de Villiers lashed out at critics who are calling the current Springboks squad as second-string and said that, "The people speaking about the B team are the same people who said I must drop the A team because they are not good enough. To me this is
a Springbok team going to compete and we are serious about becoming No1 in the world again, and if we can do that before the World Cup it will be brilliant."
De Villiers further said that, "We looked at their (Australia’s and New Zealand’s) squads and we are not surprised. That’s how we thought it would be. But maybe that can cause some confusion because the Reds played a different style to that which the Wallabies
used to play.”
The opening match of Tri-Nations Cup 2011 will be played between South Africa and Australia, on July 23.
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