Burger: Fancy stuff is for the backs

Published: Friday, 23. September, 2011 in category Southern Hemisphere

The Springboks scored 12 tries against Namibia in their 87-0 victory in Auckland on Thursday, with only two tries being credited to the forwards, and that is the way it should be according to Schalk Burger.

The backline need to do their job and score the tries because the forwards have enough other jobs the big flank quipped.

"Against Fiji, the forwards had their chance," Burger said.

"Gurthro (Steenkamp), Beast (Mtawarira) and Danie Rossouw scored, so I think we have now had our share.

"We don't score a lot of tries so it was time we left it for the backs to do their work for a change."

Wing Gio Aplon, centre Juan de Jongh and scrumhalf Francois Hougaard added two tries each on the night while the forwards won a penalty try because of their solid work in the scrum.

Their only other contribution to the score was a late five-pointer by in-form lock Rossouw.

Burger said he was not concerned about the team's speedsters beating them to the race for the line.

"In fact, it is nice when you take your head out of a scrum or ruck and the backs score a try."

Burger said he was looking forward to some rest ahead of next week's crunch match against Samoa at Eden Park.

"It is always good to get a couple of days off," he said.

"It was a relatively short turnaround from our last match, so we will now have time to rest our bodies.

"With that said, we know that we can't switch off completely.

"It is in the middle of the competition and there is a big match ahead of us next week."

Getting a weekend away from the predominantly wet training fields will also give Burger a chance to recover fully from the cold he had leading up to their third match of the tournament.

"I didn't feel that good this week. I was a bit blocked up and, to be honest, I struggled to sing the national anthem because I lost my voice, but it should come back one of these days."

SAPA