Defending champions South Africa are in New Zealand for one reason — to retain their rugby World Cup crown, veteran Springbok lock Victor Matfield said yesterday.
“We’ve come out here to win it again,” the no-nonsense second-row forward said ahead of South Africa’s opening game against Wales on Sunday.
If they were to be successful in the Oct. 23 final in Auckland, the Boks would become the first team to defend the William Webb Ellis trophy and would also hand them an unprecedented third Rugby World Cup title.
Matfield, 34, will win his 118th cap against the Welsh, but said he expected fireworks not just from the Red Dragons, but also fellow hard-hitting Pool D opponents Fiji and Samoa.
“We’ll take every game very seriously in the World Cup, but we really believe this is a big game for us,” he said of the Wales clash. “We’ve been focusing on them for quite some time now. Hopefully we’ll get everything right and it’ll be a good game for us.”
However, Matfield played down expectations that the opening match against Wales would be the group decider, saying: “We’ve got a very tough pool. Fiji will come out firing and Samoa played very well against Australia” when the South Sea Islanders beat the Wallabies away 32-23.
“We’re just all focusing on this first game. It’s been a very long week, everyone wants to get to the game now. The World Cup is the biggest stage you can play at as a rugby player so there’ll be some extra nerves, but every team has got that, it’s just how you handle that. Preparation is very important, we had a good three weeks together, we just want to get to game and get into it,” he said.
Turning to Wales, Matfield said they had focused on the aggressiveness the Welsh have shown at the ruck and in defense, adding that they would talk with English referee Wayne Barnes to ensure all is kept within the rules on Sunday.
“They do a very hard-pressing defense and with it comes [the fact that] they compete very hard at ruck time,” he said. “That last [pre-World Cup friendly] game against England [which Wales won 19-9], England clearly struggled to get any quick ruck ball, clearly something we’ve been focusing on.”
Matfield added that the invariably windy conditions at Westpac Stadium would make it interesting for both sides.
“It’s very difficult stadium to play at, especially for the kickers, and that’s something both teams will have to adapt to,” he said.
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