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Smit: Teams fell into England's trap
(Rugby News Service) Friday 19 October 2007



  England trap: Smit hopes South Africa will play their game in the final

PARIS, 19 October - South Africa captain John Smit believes England have defeated teams by luring them into the trap of "not playing rugby".

Smit said the Springboks had been doing as much analysis of England's matches as possible and a trend had emerged.

"I think to hit the nail on the head that they (England's opposition) fell a little bit into their trap of not playing rugby and I think tomorrow it really is up to us to make sure that we are clinical and use the pill (ball) as effectively as we have done in the last couple of weeks."

He said the teams had different styles but South Africa had become more clinical in the past two months.

"We've certainly been more accurate in terms of our attack with the backs, with line-outs, with scrums.

"Possibly we weren't as abrasive as we were in 2004, 2005 and 2006 and I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that Eddie Jones (technical adviser) has joined us and tweaked one or two things here and there and gave our backs a lot of confidence as well."

England coach Brian Ashton, though, rejected criticism of his side's style of play.

"I'm really not interested in it. I don't care what anybody says about England, it has nothing to do with me."

And Ashton indicated he had some surprises up his sleeve.

"It's been a question of fine-tuning a few things, talking to the players about how they want to approach South Africa. It's the same as the last four weeks, it's a joint effort to work out what we want to do. I've got one or two changes which I'll keep to myself for now, but you'll hopefully see it tomorrow (Saturday) night."