The Australian Super 14 rugby teams could find themselves at the receiving end of the new experimental laws to be applied from next week says Springbok coach Peter de Villiers.
However, the laws were likely to favour the South African sides, De Villiers said here on Tuesday, reports News24.
“I have an idea the Aussies may fall into their own trap. They were eager to have these laws introduced but I’m not sure they have the talent and the depth to adapt to them,” he said after attending a Cheetahs trainings session.
Referring to the match between the Bulls and the Lions last weekend, De Villiers said he believed the SA players had adapted well to the changes.
He had also visited the Stormers in Cape Town and felt they had done the same.
“I believe we will get on top of it (the changes) soon and if our teams progress the way they have been doing, we should again have teams in the Super 14 semi-finals.”
De Villiers believes the new laws will promote faster rugby and continuity but he does not want to speculate about the impact the changes may have on big, physical forwards.
“There will always be diversity in the game and we have big players who are also mobile.
Enough talent
“We are still not certain how these new laws may work in our favour but we have natural athletes and enough talent to benefit from them.
“We have, for example, big prop forwards who have run away from their opponents in international matches,” he said, probably referring to CJ van der Linde’s tries against England at Twickenham in 2006 and in Bloemfontein last year.
However, the old laws will probably apply when the Springboks play in their first Test match of the year, against Wales in June.
The experimental laws are expected to be used for the Tri-Nations Tests against Australia and New Zealand.
One of De Villiers’s challenges during his first months as national coach will be to prepare his Test players to revert from the new laws to the old ones and back again to the experimental ones.
February 6th, 2008 at 8:47 am
PDV pull your head in…
The Aussies have eclipsed us for years in the skill-set dept on the run… and only ‘purportedly’ suffered in the scrums (well not against the RSA teams)…
We are now going to be seeing less scrums and lineouts this S14, against Aus teams that have already got a whole season of ELV’s under their belt…
The ARC was fast, super-fast… and the passing and ball skills sublime by the end… our fattie’s better be super-fit, no matter how ‘quick’ they are…
I’ve have no doubt this was the plan all along by Foxsport’s and the Aus mob… to not only make the viewing more exciting for the avg Joe that does not follow union… but also to get a head start and start winning more games…
It doesn’t matter what code Aussie’s support… if the team is winning internationals… they come out in droves…
February 6th, 2008 at 8:55 am
I am still perturbed about these rules changes! As I said last year, we are moving away from good old traditional Rugby Union ever closer to Aussie Rules and other hybrants of our game.Just my feeling!
February 6th, 2008 at 9:02 am
AB… for those of us that love the rucks/mauls/set-pieces in union… allowing hands in the rucks and pulling down mauls last ARC destroyed that aspect…
February 6th, 2008 at 9:22 am
bryce,
I got hold of the Australian Junior teams coaching manual. It is quite interesting how they focus on handling skills in it.
Every movement involves some kind of handling skill exercise. We don’t focus enough on handling skills at junior levels.
It is just the usual stuff. The junior coaches need to focus on that. I believe that a director of coaching can solve such a problem, but then again I wonder if that is the area he will focus on. Our rugby seems to always want to focus on the u19′s upwards and not really the juniors.
The fact that we had to get Calder to train our players at Bok level shows it. Why don’t coaches start doing exercises like that at u11 level or maybe even earlier. It won’t only help the kids with rugby but thorugh all sports.
February 6th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Brycey old Chap,
Huge wraps for the new rules………eh !
Patrick.