Jean De Villiers on coping with Japan defeat
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Jean De Villiers on coping with Japan defeat
South Africa captain Jean de Villiers has opened up on how the squad have coped with their shock loss to Japan last week.
De Villiers’ place and captaincy have both been called into question but Heyneke Meyer has stuck by his man forSaturday’s game.
"We all know how important this game is for our country, the game of rugby. We are a very proud nation. What saddens me is to see how a loss like this can break the country apart.
"That's a responsibility that we to rectify that. Rugby is a game, but in South Africa it has become so much more than just a game and we carry that responsibility with us every single time we enter the field. We disappointed a lot of people last week.
"We need to stand up. We put ourselves in this position and we need to get ourselves out of this position.
"No one died. But from a rugby point of view it has been tough. It took some time to really take in what happened at the weekend, it was a big shock. We all want it to be a global game, we all want the teams to get better, you just don't want it to be you that gets beaten.”
De Villiers’ place and captaincy have both been called into question but Heyneke Meyer has stuck by his man forSaturday’s game.
"We all know how important this game is for our country, the game of rugby. We are a very proud nation. What saddens me is to see how a loss like this can break the country apart.
"That's a responsibility that we to rectify that. Rugby is a game, but in South Africa it has become so much more than just a game and we carry that responsibility with us every single time we enter the field. We disappointed a lot of people last week.
"We need to stand up. We put ourselves in this position and we need to get ourselves out of this position.
"No one died. But from a rugby point of view it has been tough. It took some time to really take in what happened at the weekend, it was a big shock. We all want it to be a global game, we all want the teams to get better, you just don't want it to be you that gets beaten.”
