Springboks will not show any mercy to Barbarians, Bakkies Botha
Springboks’ lock Bakkies Botha has made this thing clear to Barbarians that Springboks will not show any mercy to them. They will play, as strongly as they played against England last Saturday, when his team beat England with the score of 21-11 at Twickenham
Stadium, London.
Springboks, who have completed their this year’s Test matches with the win against England, are still in London, as they have to play an un-official match against Barbarians this Saturday. Although, this match does not have the status of a test match, the
Springboks still want to end the season with a win. The match will be played at Twickenham stadium, London.
Botha, who was talking to Times Live last night, said when he enters the rugby field then it does not matter for him, who he is playing against. He said, if he is representing his country, then it means, he has to put his everything in the game.
Botha, who made his debut for Springboks back in 2002, said he always feels proud, whenever and wherever he wears his country’s jersey and it always puts a smile on his face and the same will be the case against the Barbarians.
He further said, a win is a win whether you win against any country, and a win against the Barbarians will help Springboks to end their season on a good note.
Botha also talked about Springboks’ recent performance, which is not going good. They were only able to win 1 match in the Six Nations tournament early this year. They also lost to Scotland in the recently ended autumn international test matches. He admitted
that the team’s performance has not been up to the mark but after the win against England, he hopes that his team has come out on the right track and will continue the same performance.
"Our results have not been up to our usual standard this year but we have to take it on the chin and make sure things are better in 2011. The confidence and talent is still there, as you saw against England".
While talking about the Barbarians team, he said, they are a very good side, which has players from all over the world but mainly from two great nations in rugby, Australia and New Zealand. Their forward line is very good and they have players like Chris
Jack and Anton Van Zyl in their second row, who know their business very well and can be a danger for the Springboks.
Springboks have decided to play with their new talent in the match against Barbarians and they have sent many star players, including Victor Matfield, Jean de Villiers, Jannie du Plessis, Bismarck du Plessis, Zane Kirchner Ruan Pienaar and Francois Steyn,
back to South Africa for rest.
Many emerging stars including flyhalf Elton Jantjies, centre Andries Straussand prop Coenie Oosthuizen, have been selected in the team, so they could also get the experience of an international match.
On the other hand, Australian Matt Giteau will lead the team and former Springboks’ coach Nick Mallett will coach the team. They will have 6 Australian and 5 New Zealand players in their starting 15 players, which makes their team strong and undoubtedly,
an interesting match is expected for rugby fans.
Barbarians v South Africa, 14:30
Saturday, 04 December 2010
at Twickenham stadium, London
Teams
Barbarians:
J O’Connor (Australia), J Rococoko (New Zealand), D Mitchell (Australia), A Ashley-Cooper (Australia), M Nonu (New Zealand), M Giteau (Australia, capt), W Genia (Australia); S Perugini (Italy), S Moore (Australia), N Tialata (New Zealand), A Van Zyl (Stormers),
C Jack (New Zealand), R So’oialo (New Zealand), M Williams (Wales), C Bourke (Chiefs)
Subs: K Mealamu (New Zealand), J Yapp (Wales), Q Geldenhuys (Italy), D Braid (New Zealand), A Ellis (New Zealand), S Donald (New Zealand), S Rabeni (Fij)
South Africa:
P Lambie, O Ndungane, A Jacobs, A Strauss, L Mvovo, E Jantjies, F Hougaard, C Oosthuizen, A Strauss, CJ van der Linde, B Botha, A Hargreaves, W Alberts, J Smith, R Kankowski
Subs: B Maku, T Mtawarira, W Kruger, F van der Merwe, K Daniel, C McLeod, G Aplon
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