Ellis Park is hell on earth for visiting teams

Not my words. John Smit says so, as he eloquently explained in his autobiography:

“Ellis Park is such a special place for the Boks and hell on earth for the visiting teams. It’s no secret that they feel like they are stepping into a lost valley in hillbilly country. Opponents have told us over a beer how they get a sinking feeling as the bus gets further away from the comfort of their Sandton hotel and passes through the dodgy, run-down areas surrounding the stadium. We’ve heard of fans spitting and banging on their bus as it enters the ground.

“Inside, the stadium is so well designed that the crowd sits on top of you and gets totally involved in the game. The fans really let rip and at the risk of sounding snobbish, there’s something scary about a lot of them. The Aussies reckon Ellis Park is straight out of The Jerry Springer Show and that the fans look almost capable of murder.”

The laager

The Boks tend to play best when their backs are against the wall.

The old laager mentality sets in and they become fiendishly difficult to beat. They will have been stung by the criticism from their poor display at Newlands last week. It’s time to batten down the hatches.

Round up the oxen, fellas.

Dear old Ireland

In the 52 years since Ireland first visited South Africa, they had never enjoyed victory in SA.

Until last week’s shemozzle.

Ireland are a useful bunch at home, but they have no right to expect to win a series in South Africa. Before last week, all seven of their efforts to win a match in SA had ended in defeat – and that’s how it should have stayed.

This isn’t to diminish their efforts – they were magnificent – but to point out the obvious: there won’t be a repeat at Ellis Park.

Ellis Park is the Boks’ fortress. Failure tomorrow would be catastrophic.

Boks by 7-10.