Coaches turn psychologists for test

Graham Henry and Jake White

WELLINGTON - It is the people skills of Graham Henry and Jake White, as much as their coaching qualities, which will have a major say in tonight's Tri-Nations rugby test between New Zealand and South Africa at Westpac Stadium.

Springboks mentor White suffered easily the heaviest setback of his 2-1/2 year tenure when his side crashed 0-49 to Australia last weekend.

This week has been about standing up in the face of some bitter personal criticism but also ensuring each of his players know what is at stake.

"It's easy to sink into a hole and pretend that nothing's happened," White said.

"As I said to the players, it's been easy when you're winning, you judge real people when you're going down as well.

"One of the things about being a coach is that people look up to you, especially your players. You've got to make sure that you send the right signals out."

All Blacks coach Henry has kept a sharp eye out for any signs of complacency within his side.

Eight changes from the team who beat Australia have provided energy but it was not so easy to scrub from the mind the images of Springboks players fumbling and bumbling at Suncorp Stadium last Saturday.

Yesterday Henry sensed his players' heads were still in the right place.

"As far as you can judge. My measuring stick tells me they're right but you don't really know until the guys take the track," he said.

"They've prepared really well as individuals and as a team and I think they'll play a pretty sound game."

The All Blacks' only two losses in their last 20 tests have been against the Springboks.

Both were tests in South Africa but Henry is keen to point out that only late tries denied the South Africans in the last two tests on New Zealand soil.

However, he is ignoring other, more recent history.

Before their Australian capitulation, the Springboks were entirely unimpressive in clocking wins over a World 15 and Scotland (twice) in June and have lost their last four tests against major rugby nations.

"There's never been a weak South African side in my memory and certainly they'll want to resurrect what happened last week very quickly," Henry persisted.

The tourists, who have dropped from second to fourth in the world rankings, weren't exactly boosted by critical observations yesterday from former Springboks first five-eighths Naas Botha and Joel Stransky.

"We can't score tries, in fact we didn't even look like scoring tries," Botha said.

"And the whole time we are going about how the forwards must dominate. The forwards aren't even in the game.

"At the moment there is nothing which we can even say that at least we can build on."

Stransky suggested perhaps it was the injuries that had caused the problem but on reflection could find only three players who were missing from the best possible starting 15 -- flanker Schalk Burger, lock Bakkies Botha and creative back Jean de Villiers.

White appeared relieved the Springboks didn't have a home test this week.

"After last week's disaster it's been nice to come to New Zealand and get refreshed about how important rugby is," he said.

"Obviously we're missing a couple of key players but the reality is it's the same core group of players, the same coaching staff for the first time in a long time.

"There's no use panicking. We've just got to make sure as a group of individuals that we get it right."

He said nobody could be blamed for the Brisbane humiliation, it was the sort of freakish result that sport threw up on occasion and one which his players were desperate to erase from their memory banks.

"We've got 80 minutes of rugby on Saturday and 80 minutes changes a lot of things," he said.

Teams:

New Zealand: Leon MacDonald, Doug Howlett, Mils Muliaina, Sam Tuitupou, Scott Hamilton, Daniel Carter, Piri Weepu, Rodney So'oialo, Richie McCaw (captain), Reuben Thorne, Ali Williams, Chris Jack, Carl Hayman, Anton Oliver, Neemia Tialata. Reserves: Isaia Toeava, Luke McAlister, Jimmy Cowan, Chris Masoe, Greg Rawlinson, Greg Somerville, Andrew Hore.

South Africa: Percy Montgomery, Akona Ndungane, Jaque Fourie, Wynand Olivier, Bryan Habana, Meyer Bosman/Butch James, Fourie du Preez, Jacques Cronje, Juan Smith, Solly Tyibilika, Victor Matfield, Albert van den Berg, CJ van der Linde, John Smit (captain), Os du Randt. Reserves: Breyton Paulse/JP Pietersen, Bosman/James, Ricky Januarie, Joe van Niekerk, Johann Muller, Eddie Andrews, Danie Coetzee.

Referee: Joel Jutge (France)

Kickoff: 7.35pm.

- NZPA