Wannies: South Africa surpassing expectations

Commenting on his regular IRBblog, Wannies says that victories against Kazakhstan and Scotland away from home surpassed expectations.

I have to be honest and admit that when we lined up these four fixtures I didn't expect we would win all four, especially as we were looking at giving new players an opportunity to show their abilities and playing around with a couple of game plans.

Now the challenge is to maintain the momentum that we've build up until the World Cup kicks off in literally a month's time. There is a big difference between training and playing and that is why we need to make sure that we maintain as much as possible of that momentum.

In their most recent games South Africa beat Scotland 27-8 in the first test and then 41-17 in the second in two wins that show that the wont be a pushover in their tough pool at the World Cup.

We had not experienced a victory away from home before we beat Kazakhstan in Dubai back in April and to have won four matches in a row, all of them on the road, has had a clear impact on my players, they are just so much more confident about the game and the way we want to play as well as about themselves and their abilities.

Wannies also says remarked on some of the teams his side will face in London.

I see that New Zealand, our first opponents, have named a very experienced squad with lots of World Cup winning experience in it, while Wales have combined youth with experience.

I was never expecting anything different from them and I also see defending champions who will be determined to retain their status as world champions and I think we all know the Welsh to be a passionate and proud rugby nations ... they will come with all of that to show what they are capable of.