AUSTRALIA’S BERRICK Barnes believes he will play at either outhalf or fullback in Saturday’s Rugby Championship Test against South Africa in Pretoria as coach Robbie Deans considers his options at number 10. Barnes, one of three contenders for the outhalf position along with the mercurial Kurtley Beale and strong kicker Mike Harris, has also appeared at inside centre this year as well as fullback.
“I’m sure I’ll either be at 10 or 15, and if I’m fullback then I’ll have a lot more work under the high ball. No side tests the fullback as much as the Springboks do. People talk about the forward battle, but you have to deal with the kicking game as well,” Barnes said yesterday.
Barnes is fully expecting the Springboks to bombard the Wallabies with high kicks and said the tactic had contributed to Australia struggling to beat them in Perth on September 8th. “You’re not allowed to kick in Australia!” he joked. “But there’s a real appreciation for the kicking game here. It’s a huge part of Test rugby, how you exit your own half and we struggled with that in Perth. We’ll endeavour not to try as many grubbers this time.”
If Barnes does play at outhalf, he is expecting the Springboks to put pressure on him by running at his channel with their big centres.
“Frans Steyn is over 100kg, he’s not small, but you have to deal with it as best you can, much like tackling Ma’a Nonu or Sonny Bill Williams,” he said. “It’s not an easy task and I’m sure they’ll use that same channel to attack, although you also have to be aware of what’s outside that with Bryan Habana and Jean de Villiers, who hasn’t been getting many raps but he’s one of the best centres in the world.”
Wallabies media manager Matt McIllraith said a gastrointestinal bug had affected the Australian camp, with lock and captain Nathan Sharpe, props James Slipper and Ben Alexander, lock Sitaleki Timani and loose forwards Liam Gill and Scott Higginbotham all being laid low.
The Wallabies are also waiting on the fitness of hooker Stephen Moore, who strained a hamstring. McIllraith said uncapped Queensland Reds hooker James Hanson was on his way to South Africa to cover for Moore.
The Wallabies will announce their team on Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, forwards coach Johann van Graan believes South Africa’s pack will need to replicate their performance from the last match if they are to beat Australia.
The Springboks forwards dominated New Zealand in Dunedin on September 15th, but their effort was wasted by some woeful profligacy with the boot as 20 points went begging in the 21-11 loss.
“We’ve worked hard the last few weeks and the frontrow gave one of their best performances and the loose forwards got stuck in as well,” Van Graan said yesterday. “We can improve on the lineout, where we lost a couple of balls, but the kick-offs were good and so was the ball retention. I’m really proud of the performance against the All Blacks, we played some of our best rugby and to have 58 per cent territory and 52 per cent possession against them at home is a great effort. Unfortunately, we just didn’t get the points.”
South Africa will name their team today.
