New Wallabies skipper plans to stick to his strengths
Melissa Woods |
Star flanker Fraser McReight says he’ll still be “head down, bum up” despite his elevation to the Wallabies captaincy for their second Rugby Championship Test against South Africa.
McReight takes over the reins from injured roommate Harry Wilson for the Cape Town match on Sunday (0110 AEST), becoming the 91st player to skipper his country.
“I feel very privileged and honoured to get the nod of captain this week and first and foremost I’d probably say I’d much rather be playing with Harry and for him to be leading us out, but I also feel very proud to be part of a special club,” the 26-year-old said on Friday.
Having shocked the world champions with a come-from-behind 38-22 win in Johannesburg, the Australians are looking to go back-to-back against the Springboks in South Africa for the first time since 1963.
McReight said he wouldn’t change his usual game and intended to continue his role as a “pest”.
“It probably won’t change too much from what I’d be doing if Harry (Wilson) was playing – let the game drivers do their thing, and I’ll let my game do most of the talking, try to get to the ref when I can, but just do what I normally do, not much changes,” he said.
“My role … as a number seven, is be a good defender, be a pest, have a high work rate, that’s what I try to do.
“We’ve got such great leaders in this team … typically, I try to stay quiet, head down and bum up.”
Fuming Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus made 10 changes after their second-half implosion at Ellis Park, however that has been reduced to nine with fullback Willie le Roux suffering an injury at training.
Aphelele Fassi has returned to the line-up to cover the Test centurion.
McReight said the sweeping changes had hardly been mentioned in the Wallabies camp, with his side more focused on how they fix their sloppy start that allowed the hosts to race to an early 22-0 lead.
“It’s not really dominated too much, to be honest,” the Queenslander said.
“We know that the Springboks have a lot of quality players, and they tend to use them all – even last week, we didn’t know who they were going to play because of the depth.
“That first 20 (minutes) we played, it was pretty poor and we want to try to rectify that.
“For us, it’s a lot about us, we’re looking in the mirror, what can we do better throughout the week?Â
“We have plans and an idea of what they’re going to try to do, but we could plan for that and then on the weekend, they do something completely different so I think that’s why a lot of the focus is on us and controlling what we can control.”
While his best mate Wilson is on the sidelines after suffering a knee injury while scoring his second try at Ellis Park, McReight says Rob Valetini makes a great replacement.
Valetini has been Australia’s best performer on the Test stage in recent seasons but he has been limited to a single half this year against the touring Lions due to a calf injury.
With the Springboks declaring their intentions to step up the physicality, Valetini will be in the thick of the action.
“Definitely, he’s (Valetini) someone that everyone thoroughly loves playing with, he’s physical, he’s a great person to have on the team,” McReight said.
“Look at the depth we’ve got in the backrow at the moment, our captain ‘Wilso’ being out and Bobby (Valetini) steps in, so couldn’t ask for a better replacement there.
“I reckon he’s roaring to go having missed the previous few Tests, so yeah he’s going to be good out there.”
AAP
