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Steyn's family all pushing for an Italian win
By Online Editors
Braam Steyn may have once dreamt of pulling on the Springbok jersey but has no regrets as he seeks to help Italy provide the fatal blow to South Africa's Rugby World Cup hopes in their Pool B clash at the Shizuoka Stadium on Friday.
Loose-forward Steyn is a former roommate of Bok lock Eben Etzebeth, and played with the likes of Handre Pollard, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Frans Malherbe and Cheslin Kolbe for the Junior Springboks before leaving for Italy in 2012.
But any former allegiances, or current friendships, will be put aside for 80 minutes as Italy seek the win that will seal their quarter-final berth and relegate one of the pre-tournament favourites to an embarrassing early exit.
Steyn reveals he is something of an accidental Italian and had been set to join French club Perpignan when he left South African shores, but following their relegation from the Top 14 had to change his plans.
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"I never thought it (playing for Italy) would happen, it was never in my plans. I was actually on my way to France but then a few things happened, and I ended up in Italy. But I am very happy and I wouldn't change anything," he said.
Given the significance of Friday's match, there will no doubt be some split family loyalties but Steyn says those immediately close to him are firmly behind an Italy win.
"My parents just support me, my family as well. Obviously if something would happen (an Italy win) it would be bad for them. But I feel Italian so obviously my heart is 100 per cent behind the team.
"My parents are here and it is the first time they are seeing me play live (for Italy)," Steyn said.
Despite being able to converse in Afrikaans, Steyn does not believe he will derive any advantage from being able to hear the Bok calls on the pitch.
"I'll try and catch something, but each team has a system and for me to understand their system will be really difficult," he said.
"We all know what South Africa are about, they are a physical team, they like kicking and they don't mess around in their own half. I need to make sure I bring that same physicality."
Steyn came off the bench in Italy's historic 20-18 win over the Boks in 2016 and started as South Africa romped to a 35-6 victory the following year.
He believes there are lessons to take from the win three years ago.
"In that game we focused on our own performance, not the Springboks. It was about each player being in the right place at the right time and focusing on your job 100 per cent," he said.
South African lock Eben Etzebeth's World Cup campaign could be jeopardised by an upcoming court case:
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Mallia deserves 8 at least. Brains and skills for the comeback. Him, Garcia and Albornoz the core of The Pumas attack. Hope to see them in the 15s against France
Go to commentsYeah nar I pretty much agree with that sentiment, wasn't just about the lineout though.
Yeah, I think it's the future of SR, even TRC. Graham above just now posting about how good a night it was with a dbl header of ENGvSA and NZvFrance, and now I don't want to kick SA or Argentina out of TRC but it would be great if in this next of the woods 2 more top teams could come in to create more of these sort of nights (for rugby's appeal). Often Arg and SA and both travel here and you get those games but more often doesn't work out right.
Obviously a long way off but USA and Japan are the obvious two. First thing we need to do is get Eddie Jones kicked out of Japan so they can start improving again and then get a couple of US teams in SRP (even if one its just a US based and augmented Jaguares).
It will start off the whole conferences are crap debate again (which I will continue to argue vehemently against), but imagine a 6 team Pacific conference, Tokyo Sunwolves (drafted from Tokyo JRLO teams), Tokyo All Stars (made up of best remaining foreign players and overseas drafts), ALL Nihon (best of local non Tokyo based talent, inc China/Korea etc, with mainland Japan), a could of West Coast american franchises and perhaps a second self PI driven Hawai'i based team, or Jagaures. So I see a short NFL like 3 or 4 month comp as fitting best, maybe not even a full round, NZvAUSvPAC, all games taking place within a 6hr window. Model for NZ will definitely still require a competitive and funded NPC!
On the Crusaders, I liked last years ending with Grace on the bench (ovbiously form dependent but thats how it ended) and Lio-Willie at 8. I could have Blackadder trying to be a 7 but think balance will be used with him at 6 and Kellow as 7. Scott Barrett is an international 6 sized player. It is just NZ style/model that pushes him into the tight, I reckon he'd be a great loose player, and saders have Strange and Cahill as bigger players (plus that change could draw someone like Darry back). Same with Haig now, hes not grown yet but Barrett hight and been playing 6, now that the Highlanders have only chosen two locks he'll be playing lock, and that is going to change his growth trajectory massively, rather than seeing him grow like an International 6.
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