Aphiwe Dyantyi keeps eye on the ball
Winger celebrates but says Boks must stay focused
Image: REUTERS/Ross Setford
Aphiwe Dyantyi has refused to take the credit after scoring two tries in the Springboks’ 36-34 Rugby Championship win against the All Blacks at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington on Saturday.
Dyantyi‚ who is widely regarded as one of the hottest properties in world rugby‚ brought the Boks back into the game after their rivals went up 12-0 in the 21st minute and helped the Boks pull away to 36-24 in the second half.
He also produced a possible match-saving tackle on the imposing Kieran Read‚ who spilled the ball‚ with the All Blacks’ captain in a good position to score a try and put SA under pressure.
The Lions winger put the famous victory down to team effort and warned against over confidence, as they still have two more remaining matches at home in the competition.
“Obviously, it feels great to have managed to score two tries against the All Blacks, but the important thing was to come to New Zealand and get the result as a team‚” he said.
“We can’t get ahead of ourselves because we still have two matches to play back home.
“We will definitely enjoy this win because not many teams come here and win‚ but we still have a lot of work to do.
“We must immediately press the rest button and focus on those remaining two matches.”
Asked to explain how they managed to remain calm after New Zealand stormed in to an early 12-0 lead‚ Dyantyi said they discussed the importance of staying in the moment and not losing focus.
“Throughout the week‚ we focused on not switching off at any moment in the game because if you do that they will pounce on you‚” he said.
“We needed to stay in the moment and that was the message during the week and during the game.
“We had to grind out there and at the end we managed to get the win‚” he said‚ adding that the win would do a lot for their confidence.
“We were playing against the All Blacks and it was very tough out there.
“If you look at the past two Tests where we lost to Argentina and Australia‚ we had many chances and did not capitalise on most of them.
“In this match we had about six and capitalised on five and we are always trying to improve because this is Test rugby.”