Springbok flank Willem Alberts‚ who was one of few Bok players to emerge from Saturday’s 37-21 loss against England with his reputation in tact‚ says there is still belief in the squad.
After slumping to their sixth defeat in 10 Tests this year‚ the best the Boks can hope for is a 50 per cent winning ratio in 2016 if they beat both Italy and Wales in the coming two weeks.
And that’s a big ‘if’.
But the experienced Alberts‚ who was prominent both on defence and in terms of taking the ball over the advantage line at the weekend‚ thinks the Boks are close to clicking.
“There is still a lot of belief in this squad. When I arrived to join the team I could see there is no lack of effort on the training ground‚” Alberts said.
“All the players want to perform and play good rugby‚ but unfortunately we are not translating it to performances and wins. But belief is always there‚ and when you pull that Bok jersey over your head‚ you believe you have a chance.
“These are tough times but we will keep on grinding on the training field to get the right result.
“Our structure just needs to click a little bit and then the results will come. It’s slowly but surely turning around.
“I learnt a lot in the week building up to the England Test‚ working with Franco Smith for the first time. You can see positive things happening.”
Alberts put the England defeat down to he and his teammates not executing their skills well enough against a side that exerted pressure on them.
“It was tough out there‚” Alberts said. “England played really well and they performed really well.
“Mostly execution let us down. We lost a lot of possession. We had a good game plan but we couldn’t enforce it because their tactical kicking was accurate and they kept forcing us backwards.
“We have to find a balance when we play. We need to understand when to kick and when to attack.
“Ball retention is a key problem for us because we cannot execute our gameplan when we are unable to hang on to the ball.
"That has to improve if we want to turn it around.” - TMG Digital
Bone collector says the Springboks still have belief
Springbok flank Willem Alberts‚ who was one of few Bok players to emerge from Saturday’s 37-21 loss against England with his reputation in tact‚ says there is still belief in the squad.
After slumping to their sixth defeat in 10 Tests this year‚ the best the Boks can hope for is a 50 per cent winning ratio in 2016 if they beat both Italy and Wales in the coming two weeks.
And that’s a big ‘if’.
But the experienced Alberts‚ who was prominent both on defence and in terms of taking the ball over the advantage line at the weekend‚ thinks the Boks are close to clicking.
“There is still a lot of belief in this squad. When I arrived to join the team I could see there is no lack of effort on the training ground‚” Alberts said.
“All the players want to perform and play good rugby‚ but unfortunately we are not translating it to performances and wins. But belief is always there‚ and when you pull that Bok jersey over your head‚ you believe you have a chance.
“These are tough times but we will keep on grinding on the training field to get the right result.
“Our structure just needs to click a little bit and then the results will come. It’s slowly but surely turning around.
“I learnt a lot in the week building up to the England Test‚ working with Franco Smith for the first time. You can see positive things happening.”
Alberts put the England defeat down to he and his teammates not executing their skills well enough against a side that exerted pressure on them.
“It was tough out there‚” Alberts said. “England played really well and they performed really well.
“Mostly execution let us down. We lost a lot of possession. We had a good game plan but we couldn’t enforce it because their tactical kicking was accurate and they kept forcing us backwards.
“We have to find a balance when we play. We need to understand when to kick and when to attack.
“Ball retention is a key problem for us because we cannot execute our gameplan when we are unable to hang on to the ball.
"That has to improve if we want to turn it around.” - TMG Digital
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