JP Pietersen: Boks too physical for All Blacks … and will win Rugby Champs

Former Springbok World Cup-winning wing JP Pietersen says the All Blacks won’t be able to match the world champions in the physicality department in their two Tests in South Africa in the coming weeks and this will result in the Boks winning the Rugby Championship this season.

Pietersen, who played 70 Tests for South Africa and won the World Cup as a member of Jake White’s team in 2007, was speaking to SportsBoom about the state of the Rugby Championship after two rounds of action.

“I will definitely go with the Springboks and I will tell you why,” said Pietersen about who he thought would win the competition this year.

“If you look at their performance the past weekend … their functioning at the lineouts, the scrums, the fact they tackled well and obviously their kicking game was outstanding.

“Funniest thing, we had a young man at 10 in Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Handre Pollard still on the bench. Even a Malcolm Marx coming off the bench, it just shows the depth of the Springbok team and quality they have in that group.”

‘Every coach’s dream’

Pietersen is currently in charge of the Sharks’ Currie Cup team. They beat the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein on Saturday to keep their current good run in the competition going.

“We saw this weekend [against Australia], Rassie made lots of changes and there were still eight World Cup winning players there on the bench.

“It’s every coach’s dream to have players like that and it just shows how deep they can go in the competition if they lose a couple of guys due to injuries. The way they play as well, it’s very physical.

“New Zealand won’t match the Springboks physically. We saw what Argentina did to them. With the scrum dominance the Springboks have, including two different set of packs, I don’t think New Zealand can take the Springboks on physicality in the scrum, set piece and they’ve also got great line speed in the defence.

“New Zealand will struggle to get passes across, especially with Handre, Manie [Libbok] and Sacha, with their kicking game that can transfer pressure.”

Looking back at the two Tests in Australia, Pietersen said the Boks have produced some of the best rugby he has seen from a South African team away from home.

“The Springboks played some outstanding rugby, that was the most complete performance in an away game (in the first Test in Brisbane).”