Pienaar wants to be No.1 nine
Oct 04,2012
Ruan Pienaar is determined to keep hold of the Springbok number nine jersey for an extended spell of time.
Pienaar has taken his chance well in the green and gold and started the last three games for his country, moving his international caps up to 59.
And the Ulster scrum-half, who is looking very comfortable in the spot, is eager to make the most of his time at the base for South Africa.
"I've competed against some good nines in South Africa in the past and it is great for me to get an opportunity now," said Pienaar..
"I've really enjoyed the three Tests that I started now and hopefully I can continue in that vein and try to play as well as possible and be in contention for that jersey for the next couple of years if possible."
Pienaar took over from Francois Hougaard - who shifted to wing - and the 28-year-old is relishing the responsibilities, not least off the tee.
"I take the responsibility and it is something I enjoy, obviously it didn't go as well as I'd liked to on Saturday," he said.
"But I haven't kicked in that pressure situation since my season ended back at Ulster in the Heineken Cup.
"So I need to get back in again and take the responsibility and hopefully do it well as possible.
"I've had a good season with the boot in the Northern Hemisphere and I'd like to continue in that way but I still need to train hard and tweak a couple of things here and there."
He added: "We need to take our opportunities, it was something we lacked in New Zealand where we created two or three opportunities and didn't finish it.
"In Test match rugby you only get two or three opportunities, especially against the All Blacks, so it is about being accurate, being patient and playing the right area.
"The games on tour, I thought we created a lot of opportunities that could have put us in a winning situation but we made one or two errors and that probably cost us the game."
Comments (6)
Oct 04, 2012 at 19:38:35
He is a better passer,, I will give credit where it's due,, but even tho we won well on Saturday he put in some pretty aimless kicks at times,, he should only kick when he needs to,, not just for the sake of it,, he is a good player but I still got that Scotland game on my mind man,,
Oct 04, 2012 at 19:56:37
Ja I don't know hes decent enough but its still way below what Fourie du Preez gave us. Having said that nobody will ever give us what Fourie gave us at his best, I'm one of those still hoping for him to come back and actually be as good as he was!
Oct 04, 2012 at 22:51:43
Got to agree I will go one further and say Fourie was perhaps even better than joost, those 2 were our best ever scrummys
Oct 05, 2012 at 10:08:13
Atleast he is showing some heart and desire on the pitch. Finally. Looking good. I think if he digs deap he is going to rip some defenses open. That set up for Habana was like the birth of the Phoenix.
Oct 05, 2012 at 10:09:08
Ripping through the defense and laying off great commitment and execution well done.
Oct 04, 2012 at 17:10:41
Boks are so much better with him back there instead of Hougaard. Now we need JP on the wing for EOY tour