Bok desire to be 'consistently good' is their driving force

The Springboks are driven by a desire to be “consistently” very good, and while they want to break their bogey against Ireland this weekend in the first test at Loftus Versfeld, it hasn’t been their sole focus in preparing this week.

Bok pivot Handre Pollard made it clear that his side were being driven by a deeper purpose, and a hunger that hasn’t been tainted by back-to-back World Cup victories, as they appear for the first time on home soil since claiming the Webb Ellis trophy back in November last year.

Pollard, who was a massive part of the World Cup-winning squad, said that while those victories were amazing days together as a team, they were now in the past, and the Boks wanted to take the next step forward by being a consistently exceptional rugby team.

“For us, it is great what happened in the past - the two World Cups. We all enjoyed it and we celebrated it, but we want to win every test match we play,” Pollard said.

“To play for your country is the biggest privilege there is and I don’t think anybody in this group needs any more motivation than that. It has been said we have been a bit inconsistent between World Cups and we want to rectify that and be better. We aren’t unrealistic, we know we won’t win every game, but we want to be consistently very very good.

“In terms of motivation, you don’t need much more than the Springbok jersey.”

And while the confidence is good in the squad at the moment, Pollard brushed off suggestions that the bogey against Ireland, with the latter winning the last three games between the two sides, including a five point win in the pool stages at the World Cup, is the team’s focus this week.

Poetry in motion from Handre Pollard and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu 🥶 pic.twitter.com/fQBzkavb9D

— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) July 2, 2024

If Pollard is to be believed, the team haven’t given it much attention.

“Confidence in the group is good, we have been training hard and preparing well. But we’re not driven by that - of course we want to win and we want to beat them, but we’re not focused on that.

“We will speak a bit more on that on Friday but for now everything is more technical, to make sure we put ourselves in a position to win a rugby match. For now it has been focused on detail and rugby stuff,” he added.

'DEFEND OUR HOME GROUND'

And Pollard believes that while the Boks did lose in the pool stages in Paris last year, they played very well on the night, but were unfortunate as they fluffed several opportunities to win.

That, in itself, should give them a lot of confidence going into their home match.

“I was in the stands watching it, and I remember thinking the guys did a really good job and played really well that day. It was just unfortunate we didn’t convert all our opportunities of course. I thought we created a lot, and we had opportunities to put them away.

“We didn’t give credit to them, they are a great side and will always try to keep us out so, it is not a scar, we should take confidence out of that.

“We were close that day and back at home now we will try and change that.”

“Lovely, it is a special place, keep it dear to my heart, I spent seven good years at Loftus and love playing there. One of the great stadiums to play a test match at and to play at a sold out Loftus stadium will be a special day,” he added.

And while that would make it special, Pollard knows all too well that the Boks will need to be at their best when Saturday arrives.

“We see it as a test match at home and whoever we play at home, we have to defend our home ground, that is it. Whether it is No 1, two, three, four, it doesn’t matter. Ireland are a great team and they deserve the respect that they get.

“But it is up to us now to defend our home turf and we are really, really looking forward to that.”