News
Smith trusts underdog All Blacks
August 15 2008
Wayne Smith has urged the All Blacks to prove the doubters wrong and emerge triumphant from Saturday's Tri-Nations clash with world champions South Africa.
After back-to-back losses to the Springboks and Australia, Graham Henry's troops dug deep in damp and windy conditions in Auckland to thrash the Wallabies 39-10 a fortnight ago.
And the All Blacks will look to continue their tournament revival this weekend, but Assistant Coach Smith acknowledges the Newlands encounter with the Boks represents his side's toughest task yet.
"I think it is [a step up]," he said.
"It's a challenge to us to reach the level we did in Auckland and surpass it. That's what great teams do, they consistently reach that level.
"There are a lot of doubters around, who doubt the team has the heart to do it again. But that's the challenge, to take that level and intensity off shore and put it on the field at Newlands.
"You can't do it for them. You can draw on your own experiences and tell them what it will be like and you can try to recreate situations at training. We trust these boys that they will put it all out on the park this Saturday."
The All Blacks headed to Cape Town buoyed by their convincing Eden Park victory over Australia and Smith claims the past week's preparations have gone to plan.
"We've had a good week, done a lot of homework, worked hard and the players are now preparing themselves [mentally] to be where they need to be," Smith said.
"Whatever they do is up to them, but they have the responsibility to get there.
"The biggest challenge is Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and the amount of preparation work.
"They are important days for getting the strategy right, to get it across well, to not overload the players.
"That's the biggest challenge weekly, getting those days right and setting it up so the players can enter this period in the right space so they can get it right and unleash at Newlands."
Henry and his coaching team of Smith and Steve Hansen made history this week when he named an unchanged XV for the first time in 56 Test matches at the helm - a sign they're happy?
"In the past we took into account that players needed a break and we've always had a large pool of players who could all perform at a very high level," Smith continued.
"It was easy to make changes under those conditions but this team has had a week's break so it was great that we could pick the same team."
Meanwhile, Bok coach Peter de Villiers earlier this week accused the All Blacks of using illegal tactics to gain an advantage in the line-out and scrum, but Smith has avoided getting into a war of words.
"I know there's been a change in the coaching style and the up-front nature that he [De Villiers] has," Smith added.
"Whether that's one of his strategies, to try to create an attitude that we [the All Blacks] are not as good as people think? I'm not too sure.
"They have always been massive contests and there have never been any easy ones. Whether that's slipped a bit, I can't answer that, I don't know.
"I'm not like your fella [De Villiers], who likes to talk about the other team all the time. I only have a sense for my team and what they are trying to do."