Trevor Nyakane says the Springbok pack have learned their lessons from the first Test against Australia and are determined to “go hard” at the Wallabies in the second Test in Brisbane on Saturday.
Nyakane was named to start ahead of Steven Kitshoff in one of three changes to the Springboks’ match-day 23 as they look to bounce back from their loss to Australia this past Sunday.
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The Springboks had an iffy performance at the scrum in the first Test, managing to win a couple of penalties, but also conceding a few and possibly not enjoying the ascendency that they had planned in the buildup to the match.
Notably, the Wallabies managed to win a turnover scrum penalty five metres from the Springboks’ tryline just before half time, allowing Quade Cooper to put the hosts into an eight-point lead at the break.
From the final scrum of the match, Australia managed to push the Bok pack over – some would say illegally – isolating Jasper Wiese and winning a breakdown penalty to seal their victory.
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During an online media conference on Wednesday, Nyakane said they have gone over Sunday’s performance and learned where they went wrong.
“Look, the set piece is always something we are trying to improve on,” Nyakane said. “Obviously, there were a few technical things that happened. There were a few things that we worked on during this week. I think we have managed to tick those boxes. With the things that went wrong, we will never be happy with that, but they were small things that we needed to fix.
“We can’t point out any single person and say that person did this wrong. It’s the whole group, it’s the whole pack that’s on the field. We have worked really hard this week, so we are looking forward to this challenge. It’s going to be a battle, but we like it tough. We will go hard at them but we know they will also do the same. ”
Nyakane also sent a strong message to the Wallabies, saying the Springbok pack was “hurt” from the penalties they conceded at the scrums and are looking to come back stronger at the Suncorp stadium.
“It hurts us as a pack. It doesn’t matter where or how it happens, for us, we always scrum to be dominant. Whether that’s a scrum on the halfway line or our own five-metre line, we always thrive to be dominant and get 100% scrums. It was tough to see that.
“We as a team know we have to come back, look at those pictures and try to understand what happened. We have looked at those images and it’s deep in our hearts; it’s sore, it’s buried in the back of our minds.
“We know what they are capable of. We know that they will come at us much harder than they did last week, so we are prepared for that. We know it’s not just going to be a walkover. We always say we need to start with momentum and end with momentum. That applies to the set piece. We will be doing all we can to be as dominant as we can.”
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Photo: Matt Roberts/Getty Images
