The Springboks who will run out at the Stade de France tonight were handed
their match jerseys yesterday afternoon by the stars of their memorable victory
over New Zealand in Johannesburg 12 years ago.

John Smit, the captain of the current Springboks side, admitted it was a
“pretty special event” to be received by the likes of Francois Pienaar and
Joel Stransky, the captain and match-winner respectively from 1995.

“We had the jumpers given to us by a number of the guys who laid the
foundations for World Cup success in South Africa in 1995,” said Smit.

“Morne du Plessis (the South Africa manager in 1995) was the guy who spoke
first. Then Francois Pienaar spoke and alongside him were Joel Stransky, Balie
Swart, James Small and Chris Rossouw.

“It was exactly the same format as the other jersey presentations, where the
team sits in our team room, and whoever’s presenting the jerseys stands in the
front and gives a couple of words.

“But this one was a little more special than others and pretty personal.”

Smit’s men are favourites tonight to repeat the exploits of the class of ‘95.

They look to have the power in the pack to at least match England up front,
and they possess more cutting edge and match-winners out wide than the holders.

England have got this far by perspiration more than inspiration, and Smit does
not want his team to be caught up in what is expected to be a negative England
game-plan.

“I think it certainly is a clash of style, and I think both have their
benefits in terms of it really doesn’t matter how many tries you score.

“We’ve tried to give as much analysis as possible to the type of games that
England have played against their opposition.

“I think they (England’s opponents) have fallen a little bit into their trap
of not playing rugby, and it really is up to us to make sure we are clinical and
use the ball as effectively as we have done in the last couple of weeks.”

Smit is now just desperate to get out on the field after a tortuous build-up
this week.

“All seven weeks have been geared towards this one evening of rugby so the
talking, I think, is done,” said the hooker.

“Now it’s just time for playing.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 20th, 2007 at 5:43 pm and is filed under World Cup News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.