[1] South African assistant coach Gary Gold speaks during a press conference at the team hotel in Wellington. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Assistant coach Gary Gold says two days out from South Africa's World Cup quarterfinal against Australia, the Springboks players are well aware of the "enormity of the situation."
The Springboks will put their world title on the line in the tournament's knockout rounds and, with it, their ambition to become the first team to win three World Cups and the first to win two in succession.
Gold said the Springboks players are outwardly calm as Sunday's quarterfinal approaches but are still well aware of the weight of expectation of South African fans, and of the significance for their nation.
"I think they're quite calm," Gold said on Friday. "The training sessions have gone well this week. The enormity of the situation is something I think we are all aware of.
"Ever since we got into camp in Johannesburg we've spoken about and understood the responsibility that all of us have got to everyone back home. We know what the strength and the force of the support is back home and it's something that's very important to us."
Gold said the Springboks had been in New Zealand for a month hearing to locals saying how important it is for the All Blacks to win the World Cup, "but it's equally as important for us."
"We've seen how the success on the big stage for our sports teams has been a very strong way of uniting our country," he said. "I think that responsibility is heavy on the shoulders of the players and not in a burden kind of way, in the way that they want to meet the challenge and also in the way that some of these guys are playing at their last World Cup and they want to go out on a high and leave a legacy."
Gold acknowledged the growing media hype around Sunday's match between Tri-Nations rivals and the world's No. 2 and No. 3-ranked rugby nations. He said there was no way of shielding players from that hype.
There was no directive within the Springboks team that players should avoid negative criticism by not watching television, using their computers or reading newspapers. The coaches relied on the players' experience and common sense to assimilate comments being made about the match and their part in it.
"One of the things about having such an experienced group of players is they've been in this situation (before test matches) many times before, many of them 40, 50, 60, 70 times plus," he said. "It would be ridiculous for us to tell them don't turn your TV on, don't turn your computer on and don't read a newspaper. It doesn't work like that.
"I think it's about taking the negative in and taking the positive in and weighing it up. But I think it's more about there's a time to switch off, there's a time to get away from the game during the course of the week and I think our players know where that balance is."
Gold said there was a danger of getting "too hyped too early for these games and that aspect we've spoken about."
The Springboks coaching staff, particularly head coach Peter de Villiers, were conscious of their roles in the knockout stage.
"We understand the ... responsibility that is on our shoulders," Gold said. "In saying that the nice thing about us being together (as coaches) for four years and nearly 50 test matches is that I think it is important that we deem it as another test match because they've all been important to us and I think we have to take it in our stride.
"Unfortunately and what is very often misunderstood when the players take the field inside those four white lines ... there's very little left for us to be able to do. We just have to hope we've prepared the team in the very best way we possibly could have.
"Our time is now and on Sunday it's time for the players to produce the goods."
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