Springboks coach backs 'very exciting' prodigy to deliver the goods ...

Despite their woeful record against the Wallabies in Brisbane, the Springboks are quietly confident ahead of the teams’ clash in the city in their Rugby Championship opener.

That was the message from Springboks captain Siya Kolisi and assistant coach Mzwandile Stick, who said the world champions haven’t been focusing on their team’s poor Brisbane form.

Instead, the Boks are concentrating on pitching up mentally and physically against the Wallabies in a bid to make a successful start to their Rugby Championship campaign.

“This is a very important match for us,” said Kolisi. “We haven’t done well in Brisbane in the past, and although we cannot win the Rugby Championship here, we can lose it here (in Australia), so we have to do well this weekend.

“We’ve worked hard since we arrived here and we know what we are up against, so stressing about the record (here in the past) won’t help. Our focus is on what we must do on the field, and we know it’s going to be challenging.

“We are facing a side that are coming out to win in front of a sold-out stadium, and who will have a lot of supporters behind them. They also won against Wales and Georgia, and will it be huge for them to get a win over us, but that said we know what we must do, and we have played against some of these players before, so our focus will be purely on us.”

Stick echoed those sentiments and said the world champions don’t focus too much on records.

“If we place ourselves under pressure because of that we’ll be on the wrong track,” he explained.

“This week is about trying to improve on our game. So, we must pitch up with the right mindset, implement our plans well and be effective in our execution.

“As a team we want to win every game we play, and we want to do it for South Africa.”

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He added: “A win is very important for us because we still want to develop our game and continue to evolve with our new coaches in Jerry (Flannery) and Tony (Brown).

“We didn’t pitch up in our last few games in Australia, and we cannot afford to do that again this weekend.

“They have a team boasting players with a great X-factor, and who are good enough to punish you if you make mistakes or don’t go into the game well prepared.

“We also want to build on what we did against Portugal (the Boks won the match 64-21) and having a few extra days in Brisbane helped us. In my opinion, it was probably one of our best training weeks.”

Despite having four Springbok caps apiece, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (fly-half) and Elrigh Louw (number eight) will make their run-on debuts for their country and Stick and Kolisi expect the duo to give a good account of themselves.

“We haven’t done anything differently with Sacha starting because we don’t want to place extra pressure on him,” said Stick. “As a coach, it’s great to see how the players help one another improve, and it’s been the same with Sacha, Manie (Libbok) and Handre (Pollard) this week.

“A lot of people see him (Sacha) as a very exciting young player, but we know him well having come through the SA Rugby structures, while he also represented the SA ‘A’ team.”

Similarly, Kolisi is excited to have Louw joining him and Pieter-Steph du Toit in the Springbok back-row for the highly anticipated encounter.

“He had an amazing United Rugby Championship season, and as a loose trio we want him to have the ball,” he said. “He’s a strong carrier and he competes well on the ground, so we’re excited to see him earn his first start in the jersey this weekend.”

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