All Blacks aim to outsmart Boks
2008-07-11 22:02
Dunedin - The All Blacks want to add more smarts to their performance, confident they can again match the Springboks for muscle in the second Tri-Nations rugby Test here on Saturday.
The New Zealand Herald quoted assistant coach Wayne Smith as saying that striking the right balance between brain and brawn was hard in any Test, let alone against the South Africans who brought an intense physicality.
Despite New Zealand's 19-8 win in Wellington last Saturday, Smith hopes to see an improvement at Carisbrook.
Smith said: "We played with passion and we stood up physically but we weren't complete by any means.
Questioned his credentials
"It was an intense game and sometimes in those physical games you lose some of the clinical nature of your play."
The South African Rugby Union earlier demanded an apology from former All Black Craig Dowd over comments he made about Bok coach Peter de Villiers.
SA Rugby said in a statement that it noted with quot;with shock and disgust" Dowd's description of De Villiers as a "puppet" and questioned his credentials to coach a national team.
De Villiers, 51, was named South Africa's first black coach six months ago. He was a surprise selection by a majority board vote to replace World Cup winning coach Jake White.
SA Rugby chairperson Mpumelelo Tshume was indignant about the remarks from the former All Blacks prop.
"Mr Dowd's comments are not only deeply and personally offensive to Peter de Villiers and SARU but also comically ill-informed on the affairs of South African rugby," Tshume said in the statement.
'Good grace to apologise'
"We trust he will show rather better judgement in having the good grace to apologise to Peter de Villiers and to the South African rugby community for the profound offence and hurt he has caused."
The Springboks surprised by making few surprises to their team on Thursday, introducing veteran fullback Percy Montgomery for Conrad Jantjes and winger JP Pietersen for Odwa Ndungane while hooker Bismarck du Plessis replaces injured captain John Smit.
- Sport24