All Blacks hero’s bullish Greatest Rivalry prediction: Dave Rennie’s men will get ‘sick of winning’
All Black second five Jordie Barrett is tackled by two Irish players and an inset of Stephen Donald.
Former All Blacks fly-half Stephen Donald is backing Dave Rennie’s men to beat the Springboks in all three Tests in South Africa.
The side arrives in South Africa next month for the inaugural Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Tour, with their opening games against the Sharks, Stormers and Bulls before the Test series opener against the Boks at Ellis Park. After a midweek game against the Lions, the two nations then square off in Cape Town and Soweto before a series finale in Baltimore.
Stephen Donald’s bullish prediction
Donald believes that the All Blacks can replicate the Sean Fitzpatrick-captained side in 1996 and win all three matches in South Africa against the back-to-back World Cup winners before ‘getting sick of winning’ and letting the Springboks win the series finale in the United States.
“I was confident for the last couple of weeks,” the 2011 World Cup winner said on the Breakdown show when asked about the team’s prospects against Rassie Erasmus’ men.
“Rennie talked about the kicking game getting the balance right. I reckon last night the boys had to confront slow ball more than they had in the first couple of weeks, and with all the entertainment aspect of a game, they still had the ability and smarts to go right: ‘We are going to kick here, and we are just going to put up a box and start again’.
“So, I love the way we’re playing; confident look we might give the Boks the American one; just we might be sick of winning by then. We’ll go first three; my confidence is high.”
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Justin Marshall’s take
While Donald boldly predicted a clean sweep in South Africa, fellow former All Black Justin Marshall stressed how difficult it is to beat the Boks away from home.
However, he did hail the work done by Rennie and his coaching team this July in the Nations Championship. While Donald was bullish in his prediction, Marshall believes that the coaching team will be well aware of the challenge that awaits them. Still, he thinks that they should be confident heading to the Republic for the series he believes to be perfectly set up.
“We’ve been going well, and a good side comes and puts pressure on you. They put you into places you’re not used to being in,” the ex-scrum-half remarked.
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“I think the All Blacks did that to a very good Ireland side. They force them into errors that they don’t usually make, and you know that’s credit to the team and the coaching group. I certainly don’t think Dave Rennie is underestimating what is in front of him in South Africa.
“That’s again what you put the boots on for. It’s the toughest challenge in the game to go there and win a series. We’ve only ever done it once in ’96.
“They will be very well grounded in that respect, but I think confident we can go toe-to-toe with the best teams in the world. No problem whatsoever. This is great. It’s set up so well. One and two in the world. Four tests on the bounce. Here we go. Can’t wait.”
