Matfield targets world dominance

Victor Matfield today revealed the Springboks real target for 2008 and the future. Put simply, it can be spelled out in two words: world dominance.

The stand-in Springbok captain led his team to Australia this week, still smiling at their historic first ever win over the All Blacks in Dunedin after 87 years of trying. But Matfield already has his eyes on grander targets, on ambitions that would make South Africa the virtual leaders of world rugby going forward.

“You need to go on from here, there’s no doubt about that” he said. “I think we have got the players, the coaches and we have got everything in South Africa to do that. Hopefully we can go from strength to strength but saying that, there is still a long way to go before we can lead the world.

“All you can do is take small steps and the first step for us is to have another great game this week.”

On that front, as the Springboks and Wallabies prepared for Saturday night’s Tri-Nations encounter in Perth, Matfield warned his men to be ready. “We have not achieved anything yet. Our aim is to win the Tri-Nations but what happened in Dunedin is only one game. There are four more to go in this competition.

“Dunedin was a great win for us and we will take it but we have to move on now. Now, it’s back to work. We have got a tough game coming up on Saturday so we need to keep focused and keep playing good rugby. We must aim to get better every week.”

If last Saturday and a chance to lay the New Zealand bogey was important, this coming weekend could hold the key to the whole 2008 Philips Tri-Nations Championship, believes Matfield. If the Springboks won in Perth, he said, it could put them in pole position for the tournament.

“That is why this Saturday is so important. Therefore, we have to plan again and work out our preparation all over again. It is a very important game for this whole competition.”

Matfield was a colossus at Carisbrook but he admitted he was most pleased for the under pressure Springbok coach Peter de Villiers. He praised the new coach, saying “He was under a lot of pressure the whole week but he never said any bad word about any player.

“He just stuck to his guns and led from the front.”

Which was pretty much what Matfield did himself out on the field. Had the captaincy inspired him to re-discover his best form? “I enjoy the job but the whole team was up for the challenge in Dunedin. We really wanted to rectify the previous loss; we weren’t happy about the game we played in Wellington and the guys came out and showed their character. I could feel everyone was buzzing and I really enjoyed it.

“Everyone said after the World Cup last year, you didn’t beat Australia, you didn’t beat New Zealand. So for us it was great to beat one of them last Saturday on their own ground and now we want to beat the other.”

In other words, unfinished business from the World Cup all those months ago.

Interesting? Click here to explore further