Wallace moves back to a more familiar role

DAVID WALLACE is delighted to be playing his second match in a week. A late replacement for the injured Andy Powell, he lined out at number eight in the victory against the Royal XV and now moves back to the more familiar remit of openside flanker for the game against the Golden Lions at Ellis Park tomorrow night.

On Saturday in Rustenburg there were one or two issues with regard to control at the base of the scrum and Wallace did not prowl with his customary elegance in defence and attack. There was mitigation in the manner in which he had to quickly learn lineout calls and also did not get an opportunity to train with Scottish scrumhalf Mike Blair.

“I suppose it was the morning of the game that it was confirmed but I was aware of the fact that I might have to play the previous day. I hadn’t really practised a great deal (at eight), more so at seven. They kept the lineouts pretty simple at the start so there wasn’t too much to learn off. It was great to get a chance there but I was relishing playing seven.

“When you are playing in a different scrum everyone is finding their feet at the same time as such. I had a couple of balls there that I didn’t control properly. It was a learning experience in terms of those teething issues. Everyone is trying to get calls and things don’t run as smoothly as say they might with a club team where you have that familiarity with one another.

“It takes time to absorb and figure out the calls when you are under that little bit of extra pressure (in a match). It was great to get a game early on and now a second chance straight away.”

Quite apart from trying to gel with new team-mates, the heat of the day and the fact the Rustenburg match took place on the high veldt introduced other variables.

“We have done a lot of pattern work, different moves and different calls but it is about putting it all together. I suppose we made a lot of mistakes, many more than we would have wanted. Hopefully that is out of our system and we can move on, improve our game.

“The altitude was a bit of a factor in the first 20-25 minutes of the game. Guys adapted (after that) or at least that was the general feeling. Certainly training today was a bit easier so we’re obviously getting used to it. There seemed to be a lot of kicking in the game so there wasn’t a lot of close quarter contact stuff. In that sense I didn’t feel it was a huge ordeal physically.

“You’ll have a team vibe and you will have a personal vibe. For me I probably made a lot more mistakes than I wanted and was disappointed from that side of things. We were happy to get the win and finish the way we did; it spoke volumes about the team. Hopefully we won’t make as many mistakes in the rest of the games. I’m relishing the chance to get the chance to go back out.”

Another Irishman desperate to don the red shirt for the first time is Stephen Ferris. He was due to be on the bench at the weekend but suffered a mild calf strain in unusual circumstances. Suitably chastised he’s treading more carefully and is again named in the replacements for tomorrow’s game.

He smiled: “I just actually jumped off a bloody bus and thought I’d actually gotten bitten by an insect or something. I started training but felt my calf was at me.”

Management insisted he sit out the session but he has been training without pain since. “Training’s starting to get louder and louder and that’s always good to see and hear, and you know we’ll just have to work on that and if I get on, I’ll try and make an impact. I need to get a bit of rugby under my belt and hopefully I’ll get a bit on Wednesday and a bit more on Saturday.

“We’ve got some cracking runners on our team. Ugo Monye on the wing will probably be the fastest man on the pitch. Any loose balls that are floating about those guys will pounce on them, they’re world-class players. But you know, we’re prepared for it and whatever they throw at us hopefully we’ll be able to cope with it.”