Teams to play for pride tonight

Gary Hermansson suspects the Springboks were over-tense in Brisbane. Picture / Brett Phibbs

Here's the thing. You've just received a pair of black eyes from the Wallabies, the mother and father of all rugby beatings.

Now it's the All Blacks. At home. So the question for the Springboks tonight is how do you pick yourselves up, dust off the humiliation of Brisbane and produce a challenging, effective performance against your oldest adversary?

First off, it's not going to be easy, what with side issues such as coach Jake White's future rattling about and suggestions it's an unhappy camp.

But the Springboks have not suddenly become rubbish footballers despite the 49-0 scoreline and that means mental, more than physical, elements have come into play.

Gary Hermansson, sports psychologist to the New Zealand Olympic Committee and former Wellington and New Zealand Universities No 8, believes a change in focus will be important for the Springboks tonight.

When they arrived in Australia, he assumes all the attention was on beating Australia. Now their minds should switch to improving, rather than just stay on the end product of winning.

"That performance was diabolical. This time round all the attention should go on how they perform.

"They've been thrown back into an absolute need to be competitive. If you are up against it and under pressure, if you can get back to being competitive in all you do, often you find yourself pulling together.

"Obviously winning has an importance in the larger frame. But right now for them the issue is back to pride and being able to come off the field and say, 'We gave it everything we can give'."

Hermansson played twice against the Springboks in 1965, in a powerful Wellington side who thumped the tourists 23-6, and for New Zealand Universities who, reduced by injuries to 12 players, were tonked 55-11.

He suspects South Africa were over-tense in Brisbane and as the score mounted, things tumbled from bad to worse. "It was one of two things: either they were over-tense or they just weren't up to it in terms of not having their minds on the game.

"My hunch is they got overawed by the occasion and once that happened things snowballed. Suddenly the tension gets even greater and people start making stupid mistakes.

"Let's assume they are licking their wounds and bringing the wagons together. It's likely they will resolve to put everything on the line and have no real thought other than to take pride on the field and show pride when they're out there."

Hermansson reckons the New Zealand selectors have played it just right by making another raft of changes. Interestingly, he suspects that had the same All Black XV run out tonight, the Springboks' chances of causing an huge upset would have improved.

Why? Partly an element of composure brought on by seeing the Springboks get a duffing from a team the All Blacks had convincingly beaten a week earlier.

"If it had been the same All Black team as beat Australia, then the issue becomes, 'We played pretty well, now how are we going to repeat that?'

"Change the equation and players are going to be looking at each other and their motivation becomes performance-driven. That is not, 'How much do we beat them by, but how do I demonstrate to the selectors I can play in a way to make my mark'."

The All Blacks' challenge tonight is to deliver a statement to the selectors. So the opposition becomes less relevant than it might had the team remained intact from the Wallaby test.

"The more you bring players back to being competitive in everything they do, then the more likely they'll perform in a way where their focus is on what they can control, rather than what they can't.

"My hunch is it's going to be close. I think it's going to be a vigorous game and both teams will be at it pretty strongly - South Africa because they have to, the All Blacks because they want to."