De Villiers was right: Boks must first beat the All Blacks

Springbok coach Peter de Villiers was quite right when he said his charges should first beat the All Blacks before they could truly feel like the rugby world champions.

But he has been accused by some blinkered South African supporters of undermining the Springboks’ status as winners of the Rugby World Cup in France last year, adding that the Boks had won the William Ellis Trophy fairly, “finish and klaar.”

These people are, of course, right about the Springboks being the world champions. They hold the Webb Ellis Trophy and they will still be world champions after Saturday’s Tri-Nations match against the All Blacks in Wellington, New Zealand — win or lose!

However, the question is: will they genuinely feel — and perform — like world champions afterwards? Remember what happened after the 1995 RWC?

There is a perception, rightly or wrongly, that the All Blacks are the stronger of the two sides and this is why the Boks must beat them to prove that they are worthy of the world title.

This perception exists perhaps because the two teams did not play against each other at the 2007 RWC. De Villiers contributed to this when he was reported to have said: “We didn’t play New Zealand in the World Cup so we have to beat them to call ourselves proper world champions.”

Then there is also the widely held belief that the All Blacks might have been defeated in the quarter-finals because of a try scored from a forward pass. And there are the hard, cold statistics of the most recent encounters between the two teams. When they last met before the RWC tournament, also last year, the All Blacks beat the Springboks twice. That was in the Tri-Nations.

In fact, the last time the Boks beat the All Blacks was way back in September 2006, when they scraped home 21-20 at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg.

Therefore at present, the All Blacks do seem to hold the high ground.

It is debatable whether de Villiers made his statement, as he claimed afterwards, to be provocative so as to motivate the Boks. I suspect it was rather part of a psychological campaign launched by both teams over the past week or so with each side singing the praises of the other.

While de Villiers has said the World Cup-winning Boks won’t feel like legitimate world champions until they beat the All Blacks, All Black coach Graham Henry billed this Saturday’s Tri-Nations opener against the Springboks as “the biggest test” the All Blacks have faced during his five years in charge because “they are, after all, the World Champions”.

Oh please, gentlemen! Such polite praise singing will be the last thing on the players’ minds as the national anthems are sung on Saturday. Then the fight will be on for the Tri-Nations trophy and who walks off 80 minutes later at the top of the IRB world rankings (at 30 June, the Boks were on top with 90.81 points and the All Blacks were second with 89.79).

But win or lose, the Boks will be World Champions until 2011, whether they feel like champions or not. Here’s hoping they feel like champions on Sunday!