James O’Connor reflects on historic victory over Springboks as ‘belief’ is building

James O’Connor has admitted that he is “stoked” to have helped the Wallabies beat the Springboks at Ellis Park for the first time in 62 years.

The 35-year-old returned to the starting line-up for the first time since 2022, as he helped his teammates to their historical victory in Johannesburg.

“From my point of view, just super proud,” he told Stan Sport. “Everything I asked from the guys, they just kept turning up. Even when we were squeezing the screws.”

It wasn’t always plain sailing for the Aussie lads, however, as O’Connor is well aware.

“It was a scratchy first 20,” he said. “I could feel the gaps were there, the space was there. I couldn’t get the ball to that space in the first 20, then I felt we eased into the game in the second 20 minutes of that first half.

“I felt like we built momentum well, and we started to get some outcomes. So a halftime, we spoke about it. We said ‘Look, we’re in this game. We know we can score points, it’s just about trusting what we’ve built.’

“That belief is strong in us now; we’ve been building. You can see in that Lions series, we’re building belief.”

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Stoked is the word of the day

Speaking about the importance of the win, breakdown specialist Fraser McReight said: “It’s euphoric at the moment. We spoke about, as Australians, we haven’t won here since 1963, and we’ve got a quiet confidence about us, and we’re building.

“Paying respect to South Africa, they’re an unbelievable team, and what an atmosphere here. I’m stoked the boys are able to come here and show our grit.

On his personal performance, he added: “Just trying to do my bit as a seven, trying to be a pest, and I’m just happy I could do that. But plenty to work on.”

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