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De Villiers bides his time
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Jean de Villiers would love to be playing in his usual second five-eighths position but for now is content to bide his time on the right wing as South Africa looks to reverse last weekend's disappointing loss to New Zealand. |
Thursday, 15 July 2010
Sportal.co.nz
Jean de Villiers would love to be playing in his usual second five-eighths position but for now is content to bide his time on the right wing as South Africa looks to reverse last weekend's disappointing loss to New Zealand.
De Villiers was named on the wing for the second week in a row as coach Pieter de Villiers kept faith with the majority of the side that underwhelmed in the 12-32 defeat at Eden Park.
The only forced changes in the Springboks side named on Tuesday were in the pack where Danie Rossouw and CJ van der Linde replace the suspended Bakkies Botha and injured Jannie du Plessis respectively.
Jean de Villiers, who was the Springboks' player of the year in 2008, always knew his decision to go to Irish province Munster could open the door for a rival and so it has proved with Bulls player Wynand Olivier now preferred alongside Jaque Fourie in the South African midfield.
"I thought Wynand had a fantastic Super 14 and deserves his place in the team now," said the 59-cap veteran. "I went over there knowing it might happen and it did happen.
"But in saying that I gained so much by going over there and really enjoyed that. Another great challenge is to come back and fight my way back into the team in the position that I want to be playing."
De Villiers has cut short his stay in Ireland to return home to fight for a spot in next year's World Cup squad but has no regrets about his decision to leave in the first place.
"I went over there for the life experience as well and from a game point of view I learned a lot," he said.
"The friends I've made, the places I saw and the experience as a whole for me was fantastic.
"Sometimes you have to make decisions not only on rugby because rugby is such a small part of your life. What I learned and what I gained in life experience is just so much more I think.
"Hopefully at some stage I will get an opportunity at 12 to prove that I'm still good enough to play there.
"But for now my focus in 14 and hopefully I can put up a better performance than last weekend because I thought it was quite dismal last week."
He conceded he had been exposed on defence in Auckland and felt a bit 'rusty' having not played on the wing for five years until last month against Italy.
"It's tough but then again you get selected for your country you have to be up for it and you have to be able to adapt and play good rugby and I definitely didn't do that on Saturday."
He was not alone in that regard as the All Blacks carved through some lacklustre Boks defence, gained the upper hand in the set piece and won the physical battle at the breakdown.
It had left the Springboks feeling wounded and raw after letting their standards slip.
De Villiers said the group had worked hard to move away from what he termed a 'dark place' when previous coach Jake White took over.
"Back then the Springbok brand wasn't what it should have been and we've worked so hard to get that back to where it belongs.
"To put in a performance like that is one step forward and 10 steps back in way.
"There's a great responsibility on us to improve that again and put in a better performance.
"It definitely won't be easy because I thought the All Blacks played really well and they executed very well and in every department they basically outplayed us," he added.
"It will be tough for us to bounce back but those are the challenges we get in sport and that's the challenge as an individual I enjoy - to bounce back and show we're good enough to beat them."
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