Ken Borland

South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer said his team were delighted to be back at home, but injury problems meant he could not totally relax as the Springboks had their first training sessions of the week in Pretoria on Monday.

Having drawn with Argentina and lost to Australia and New Zealand on the road in their last three Rugby Championship matches, the Springboks take on the Wallabies at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday in a last-ditch effort to stay in contention to win the competition.

But any hopes Meyer may have had of freshening up his team with new faces could be stymied by injuries, most notably to centre Francois Steyn and up-and-coming flyhalf Johan Goosen.

“We had three tough away games in a row, the only team to have that, so it’s great to be back at home and the players are a lot more relaxed. I wanted to go hard with the full squad of 30 at training today, but we’ve picked up lots of little untimely injuries,” Meyer told journalists at Loftus Versfeld on Monday.

Steyn rolled his ankle and was on crutches as the team practised at one of their spiritual homes on Monday afternoon, but team doctor Craig Roberts said x-rays were clear and a decision on the 25-year-old World Cup winner’s availability will only be made on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Goosen has a bruised heel but took part in some training, albeit barefoot.

Incumbent flyhalf Morne Steyn missed 11 points with wayward kicks when South Africa lost 11-21 to the All Blacks in Dunedin on September 15 and has failed to gel with his backline. When Goosen has come off the bench to replace him in the last two tests, for half-an-hour in total, he has looked the part and general opinion in the republic is that the 20-year-old should start instead of Morne Steyn against the Wallabies on Saturday.

But Goosen’s niggle and the possibility that the Springboks will lose 53 caps worth of experience at inside centre if Francois Steyn cannot play could delay what seems an inevitable changing of the guard.

“You obviously want to give players a break when they are fatigued, but if I hadn’t called Morne Steyn into the test squad then he would play Currie Cup for the Bulls. The pressure won’t go away for him, the Bulls are also under pressure. It’s best to keep him involved with us, he’s taken a lot of criticism but you’re still working with a human being and I can see that he is himself again back at home,” Meyer said.

“I’m not just going to throw Morne away, he just kicked badly and Johan is not 100% and I’ve been bringing him through slowly. If I bowed to public pressure, then I would change the team every week.

“You can’t just throw a whole bunch of 20-year-olds in against the Wallabies and All Blacks, they’ll be slaughtered, and I won’t push anyone unless they are 100% ready,” the coach added.

Meyer said he was confident his team could take the spoils against Australia, even though the Wallabies squeezed home 26-19 in Perth on September 8, with the Springboks failing to turn pressure into points, especially in the first half.

“It will definitely be different playing Australia here compared to Perth, where we should have won. In the past we’ve done well against them at home and I have a good feeling about this team, it’s definitely developing, there’s a great vibe,” Meyer said.

The other Springboks who are dogged by injury niggles are prop Coenie Oosthuizen (general stiffness), flank Jacques Potgieter (groin), wing Lwazi Mvovo (hamstring) and lock Flip van der Merwe (calf).

Australia utility back Adam Ashley-Cooper said on Monday that injured flyhalf Quade Cooper’s comments on the squad, in which he roasted the camp for having a “toxic environment”, would not be a distraction as the Wallabies prepare for their Rugby Championship Test against South Africa in Pretoria on Saturday.

“There’s a lot of people who are afraid to say what they feel so they just go along with it and nothing is going to change,” Cooper told Australian Associated Press at the weekend. “That’s why I feel so strongly as a player. I don’t want to be involved in the toxic environment, and that’s how it is at the moment.”

Cooper has also tweeted his displeasure at Wallabies coach Robbie Deans’ game plan, saying he was only allowed to play the attacking brand of rugby he favours from “February to May” at the Queensland Reds in SuperRugby.

But Ashley-Cooper said there was a very convivial mood in the Wallabies camp.

“I’m not aware of what the tweets are saying, but you can’t ignore social media, it’s a big part of the game. But it won’t be a distraction for us.

“There’s a great buzz in the squad and we’re excited to be here. We’ve had two good wins and we feel that we’re building as a group,” Ashley-Cooper told a news conference in Johannesburg on Monday.

While Australia have come from behind to win their last two Tests, against South Africa and Argentina, Deans is still under enormous pressure at home, mainly due to his record of just two wins in his last 16 matches against the All Blacks for the Bledisloe Cup.

Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer is also feeling the heat with his team managing just a win and a draw against Argentina thus far in the Rugby Championship.

“I think the Springboks are facing similar challenges to us with a lot of injuries and having to give opportunities to younger blokes. But those youngsters bring a lot of enthusiasm and energy which the older guys can feed off.

“The Springboks are coming off two disappointing losses so they’ll be pretty motivated and we expect it to be really tough to win in Pretoria.

“The challenge is greater for us away from home, we have two really tough games on a pretty tough trip and with the travel conditions added in, so there’s no room for complacency,” Ashley-Cooper said.

The 28-year-old veteran of 71Tests and numerous SuperRugby games against the Pretoria-based Bulls said Loftus Versfeld would not be a place for the faint-hearted on Saturday.

“Playing at Loftus is always pretty tough, you’re usually up against quality opposition there and a hostile crowd that they feed off. Plus the altitude and the pace of the game there means it’s always a challenge. A win is something we’ve never achieved before in Pretoria, we came close in 2010 [31-44], so there’s a lot of motivation for us,” Ashley-Cooper said.

Australia’s coaching co-ordinator, Tony McGahan, said despite criticism that the Springboks’ game plan was dull and conservative in comparison to the Wallabies’, every top international team employed similar tactics.

“Generally, most sides have the same principles with just small variations from week-to-week depending on the opposition and the conditions. But the core values are set in stone.

“You need a bit of both possession and territory. You use possession to gain territory and that’s how you control the scoreboard, converting field position into points. It will continue to be that way in test rugby.

“There will be more cause to have a penalty against you when you’re running the ball out of your own half, but you tend to get more favour from possession on attack. It also depends on the quality of your possession,” McGahan said.

Australia will name their team for Saturday’s Test on Thursday, while South Africa’s squad will be announced on Wednesday.

South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer on Saturday included three flyhalves and a trio of fullbacks in an expanded 30-man squad for the Springboks’ two home Rugby Championship tests against Australia and New Zealand.

South Africa went hard at Sri Lanka and hammered them by 32 runs in their rain-reduced ICC World T20 match at Hambantota on Saturday.

: http://www.supersport.com/cricket/article.aspx?id=1593311

With rain delaying the start of play for two-and-a-half hours, the match was reduced to a faintly ridiculous seven overs a side, but it didn’t stop South Africa from playing with the same intensity as in their overwhelming opening victory over Zimbabwe.

Captain AB de Villiers led the way with the bat, plundering 30 off 13 balls as he lifted them to 78 for four after they had lost the toss and been sent in to bat.

South Africa’s much-vaunted new-ball pair of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel then had Sri Lanka’s batsmen in immediate submission. There was no question of them treating the batsmen with kid gloves as they bowled with aggression and control to leave the hosts on 13 for two after three overs and out of the contest.

South Africa have some weighty decisions to make at the top of their batting order, but Hashim Amla again did a good job opening the batting, scoring 16 off nine balls, with three fours.

Richard Levi scored 4 off four balls but, after a diet of normal seamers from Nuwan Kulasekara, he was then deceived by a back-of-the-hand slower ball and Dilshan Munaweera covered the ground well from midwicket to wide mid-on to take a fine catch.

The loss of Amla, beautifully stumped down the leg side by Kumar Sangakkara off left-arm spinner Rangana Herath, at the end of the third over brought De Villiers to the crease and he was quickly away, hitting a four and two sixes, but also using the size of the outfield well with cleverly-placed shots that saw him collect two runs on five occasions. He and Faf du Plessis, and then JP Duminy, also kept the pressure on the Sri Lankan fielders with excellent running between the wickets.

Du Plessis found batting more of a challenge and could score just 13 runs off 11 balls, but Duminy went to 12 not out off five balls with ease, suggesting he should have batted number three instead of the out-of-form Titan.

The left-hander also gave the innings a wonderful finish as he scooped Thisara Perera for four and then drove the last ball straight back over the bowler’s head for a magnificent six.

With Ajantha Mendis allegedly resting a side strain (the mystery spinner is more likely just being kept hidden from the Proteas until the knockout stages), Lasith Malinga was Sri Lanka’s only truly top-class bowler, but he had a difficult time, conceding 27 runs in his two overs.

Morkel and Steyn then came tearing in with the ball as Sri Lanka made a sorry start to their run-chase, with Tillakaratne Dilshan suffering the agony of being run out without facing a ball.

The match situation was tailor-made for the hard-hitting opener, but he was back on his heels as Mahela Jayawardena called for a quick single and De Villiers was able to turn a wayward throw into a run out with some brilliant work behind the stumps.

Jayawardena struggled to four off six balls before flicking Steyn high to deep square-leg and Sangakkara came to the crease with the required run-rate already 14.20 runs per over.

Sangakkara tried some wild sallies but his only boundary in scoring 13 off 11 balls was via a classic cover drive off Johan Botha.

One of the world’s greatest batsman was removed by the grand old man of the South African team, Jacques Kallis, who bowled a marvellous over that could easily have gained him two more wickets.

The pace of Steyn then accounted for Thisara Perera (1) and Munaweera, who looked out of his depth in scoring 13 off 14 balls, fell in the final over, bowled by Albie Morkel.

Sri Lanka ended their seven overs on 46 for five and suffered a massive defeat for such a truncated game.

Steyn finished with magnificent figures of 2-10 in his two overs and Morne Morkel conceded just nine runs in his pair of overs up front, and they are giving South Africa an edge in helpful conditions that gives them penetration and makes run-scoring difficult.