Frustrated De Klerk hopes for an improved showing by the Boks against Argentina

22 August 2016 - 15:28 By Chumani Bambani

Despite producing a man-of-the-match performance against Argentina at the weekend‚ Faf de Klerk was left frustrated by the Springbok's breakdown and he hopes for an improvement against the South Americans in Salta on Saturday.The Boks came from behind to claim a 30-23 win over Los Pumas at Mbombela Stadium‚ with De Klerk one of the players who played an instrumental role in the resurgence of a South African side that had stared down the barrel of defeat for the better part of the game until two minutes before the final whistle.It was far from being a clinical performance by the Boks in their opening match of the Rugby Championship and the breakdown was one of the main areas of concern.“It was very frustrating‚” De Klerk conceded.“I think the main thing is to get quick ball against these guys. At‚ literally‚ every ruck we did not get quick ball. It was very difficult and frustrating for me‚ but I think we handled it quite well‚ especially in the last 20 minutes of the game.“It will be a focus point for us in the next week to ensure that we get quick‚ clean ball… They slowed the ball quite a lot‚ next weekend we will need to be a bit more clinical at ruck time.”In the latter stages of the match it was De Klerk’s quick thinking and tactical kicking that improved things for the Boks at the breakdown.“We wanted to kick long in the beginning‚ but they handled that very well. When we started kicking off No9 we put them under pressure‚” said the scrumhalf.“At test level you may have a set plan for the weekend‚ but you have to adapt after seeing what they do well and adapt to take advantage of their weak points.”Aside from being instrumental in setting up the fightback from the Boks‚ De Klerk was motivated to play at home in Nelspruit.“I really wanted to play well in front of them. I know a lot of my friends and family came out to watch the game. It was great for me to play [there].”De Klerk will hope that the referee during this coming weekend’s game against Los Pumas in Argentina will be stricter at the breakdown and the home side will not be given too much leeway to slow the ball down...

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