Attitude, not altitude, will count
8 Sep 2006
Whenever the Springboks and Wallabies meet on the highveld, the altitude is always a talking point, particularly from the visitors.
But it will be attitude and not altitude that will win the final Vodacom Tri-Nations Test of the year tomorrow. As always it promises to be an absorbing encounter with the Bok pack and Wallaby backs probably providing the impetus for each team.
At the end of a long international season it will be the team that wants it more who will win. The Wallabies are certain of finishing second and the Boks last on the log, so all that remains is bragging rights.
The visitors are aiming for their third win in-a-row over the Boks, which they last achieved in 2000, including their last victory on South African soil. The Boks will be looking to protect a formidable record against the Australians at Ellis Park having won seven of the eight encounters to date. Many say it is the altitude that is often the difference between the two teams, but the atmosphere at Ellis Park always bring out the best in the Boks.
And coach Jake White does not believe the altitude to be the factor the visitors make it out to be. “Let’s be quite honest, the fact that Australia have now decided to practice in Jo’burg for the first time ever it must be an advantage because it is one of the highest rugby grounds in the world to play on. They usually go down to the sea,” he said.
“I don’t think it is a major factor. Look at what the All Blacks did to us at Loftus two weeks ago and they had just landed from New Zealand. So I don’t think it is a difference of winning and losing.”
“I don’t really know how they see the altitude thing, but it must have something to do with performance because a lot of long-distance athletes train at altitude which probably has an effect on your aerobic capacity. Having said that it didn’t help us playing the All Blacks two weeks ago.”
By Andrew Hollely
18 Comments
8 Sep 2006, 11:14 am
GO BOKKE
8 Sep 2006, 11:16 am
Agreed
8 Sep 2006, 11:22 am
Bokke to skop gat
8 Sep 2006, 11:35 am
I don’t believe anything Jake White says anymore before a test match, so that must mean that the altitude is going to flatten the Ozzies and they’ll all be cramping and flat on their backs 20 minutes into the game. It will probably STILL take the Boks till the 79th minute to score the winning points through a controversial TMO decision.
8 Sep 2006, 11:56 am
I don’t think that the altitude factor is at all a factor.
Ellis Park (Lions den) is a bigger factor and the atmosphere from true bok supporters is a factor that favours the boks.
LIONS TO WIN THE CC!!!
8 Sep 2006, 12:28 pm
Go Bokke!
8 Sep 2006, 12:31 pm
WP will win the Curry Cup
Luke for President!
8 Sep 2006, 12:54 pm
“Bok pack and Wallaby backs will provide impetus”.
Well, an old rugby legend once told me, “The forwards win the game, the backs only determine by how much”.
8 Sep 2006, 13:13 pm
Altitude and jet lag and all that stuff is bollocks
8 Sep 2006, 13:28 pm
Stormin Normin – I hate to say this , being a died in the wool shark (banana boy) transplanted into the cold waters of the cape , but that WP #14 they are calling “the Fugitive” because the CIA / FBI / Interpol (Jacky Selebi et al) just won them the CC when the Fugitive made that break up the touchline last week and put Aplon over under the posts .
It was a crucial time in the game when WP were not that far ahead of N.Tvl and NTVL were putting pressure on weepee . After that N.Tvl were as useful as tits on a fish .
8 Sep 2006, 13:32 pm
hello all
i think we will win. we just need to play wide and the backs need to receive the ball on pace like last week. we’ve had this disease of waiting for the ball with our toes touching the advantage line for too many years.
8 Sep 2006, 13:38 pm
again nothing to play for but ‘pride’
oz will be able to get away with a loss by experimenting or resting players etc. if we lose, its the end of the world.
8 Sep 2006, 13:52 pm
The title says it all. Is there a dominating 80 minute effort left in the Bok pack?
Will AP get quick ball and run straight?
I think this my be abridge too far for a clapped out Bok team that shows as much back line innivation as chopped liver.
8 Sep 2006, 14:31 pm
Either Jake doesn’t understand the altitude effect, or he is just bluffing. When the Boks played NZ at Loftus, they had only returned to altitude about 2 weeks earlier, having been away in Australasia for 5 weeks, so they were not altitude conditioned either, although admittedly in a slightly better state than NZ.
Now they are conditioned, while Australia have taken the worst possible route in arriving in Joburg a week before the game.
8 Sep 2006, 15:32 pm
I’ll hope that attitude will count cause the bok’s sure can’t.
8 Sep 2006, 16:01 pm
Can I ask why the game was taken last week to a stadium that was smaller in pitch size and also capacity? I would understand the concept of spreading the game, but is it not business and revenue these days. Just wondering.
8 Sep 2006, 17:10 pm
CSI, it was political manouvering. One of van Rooyens last throws of the dice.
8 Sep 2006, 17:24 pm
thank you jake white for letting us know that the altitude is what is going to make the wallabies lose!!
..and that is if they lose!!
get a life and get a winning formula and stop whinning too much about what is going to make the springboks win convincingly!!!
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