Centenary Test won’t cloud Bok focus, Davids says

SA will strip away the emotion surrounding a historic 100th Test against old foes New Zealand in Townsville on Saturday and focus on the job at hand, assistant coach Deon Davids said.

SA are licking their wounds after consecutive defeats against the Wallabies and are facing tough back-to-back matches against an unbeaten New Zealand side in the Rugby Championship.

Feelings will run high on Saturday in what will be a milestone meeting between two of world rugby’s biggest rivals

“We understand there is a big rivalry between SA and New Zealand and we respect that,” Davids said.

“We have learnt from the past that milestones can influence your performances.

“For us, the only focus is on our next performance.

“That is what is important for us this coming week.”

Davids said in-depth analysis had been done after the Boks slumped to a 30-17 defeat to the Wallabies at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Saturday.

“I think it is important that you always look objectively in terms of your performance of the previous week,” he said.

“High-performance sport at this level teaches you that you have to take the emotion as quickly as possible out of your game.

“You have to start looking objectively in terms of your plan and how that plan was executed.

“So first we will say we did not perform up to standard.

“We have looked at those reasons and had in-depth discussions about it and looked at ourselves.

“Now it is a new opportunity of playing against a quality side like New Zealand for the next two weeks.

“All the players are looking forward to that and we know that going into these games we cannot dwell on things that are in the past.

“What is important for us is to focus on what we need to do and where we need to improve.

“All the players are excited to get going and to see that we prepare effectively to put up a better performance this week.”

Davids said it was difficult to explain how the Boks had missed 40 tackles in their past two games against the Wallabies.

“It is a difficult question,” he said.

“I think you have to look objectively as to when and where the tackles were made and why it happened.

“Obviously, we always look to see if it was a system or technical error or just effort.

“Sometimes in games it happens that you lose a player with a yellow card and that also puts a bit of pressure on our system.

“So at this point we are looking in-depth in terms of that and there is an understanding in terms of what we can do better.

“We also understand what the All Blacks will bring.

“It is important for us as a team that from a system, individual and effort perspective we are on par and put up a better performance according to our standards in the next game.”

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