News

Steyn his own worst critic

June 21 2008

The 'Francois Steyn debate' rages on in South Africa. After receiving mixed reviews of his performance at fly-half against Italy in Cape Town on Saturday, the youngster has promised to work harder than ever.

Steyn's boot was one of the Springboks' principal weapons against the visiting Italians and his try to open the scoring came in for heaps of praise from both sides' coaches.

Steyn himself however wasn't about to get carried away, admitting that he made some mistakes that took the sheen off his performance.

"I struggled a little in the second half. I think I lost concentration a bit," said the World Cup-winner.

"It was the first time in a long time at that I played at fly-half. I enjoyed it but there still a huge amount of work to do.

"The first half wasn't that bad, it wasn't raining too strongly, but when we ran out in the second half it was pouring. But when you're a Springbok you have to be up to the task and the conditions can't be used as an excuse."

Asked how much freedom he had been given in his decision making, Steyn reiterated coach Peter de Villiers's vision of 'playing the situation'.

"There is a gameplan to follow, but you can still do your own thing within that gameplan," he said.

"Peter gives us the opportunity to do our own thing.

"I'm not happy with all of [my decisions], I made some mistakes. I'm only 21 so there's still a lot of time for me to learn.

"With players like Jean [de Villiers] and Bryan [Habana] in the team you have to give them freedom. But you're still playing in a team and it's still a team sport, so we have to do whatever is best for the team."

The Sharks utility back had a couple of kicks charged down, but feels it had more to do with his mind than his technique.

"I think I lost a little bit of concentration. I haven't played 80 minutes in a long time, so I don't know if I was tired or whatever. So I'll have to work on that," he said.

"There were also a few where I didn't find touch. If you want to be the best you have to be 100 per cent all the time. So I'm going to be hard on myself and work hard at it."

Steyn's 'decision' to concentrate on playing fly-half has been another hotly-debated subject in South Africa, but the young man revealed that he was not alone in making the call.

"There's a bit of a misunderstanding [on the issue]," he said.

"The coach and I had a one-on-one discussion and we decided that it would be better for me in the long term to play at fly-half. That was our decision and we'll see how it goes."

Asked whether he was happy with the decision, his answer was unconvincing.

"Ja," he says sheepishly. "But we'll see as time goes, you can't say now. A lot of work still has to be do be to get me back on form and where I want to be."

With regards to the Springboks' outlook for Tri-Nations, Steyn thinks it wouldn't be fair to use Saturday's game as a benchmark.

"We wanted to play better than we did today, but the weather didn't allow for it and the Italians also played quite negatively," he said.

"But you can't blame them, we have to be better than that and not be complacent.

"I don't think we were complacent, but we should have scored 50 points today.

"I think New Zealand will play a much more open game and that will allow us to pick up our game as well.

"It goes both ways, we'll see when we get there. We're in great shape, after the Super 14 some of the players have started playing some of the best rugby of they've ever played."

By Ross Hastie at Newlands