Moore on Breaking the Hoodoo
August 28, 2008 - 11:55am
Story by: ARU
Qantas Wallabies hooker Stephen Moore had more reason than most to revel in the Wallabies first win in South Africa in 8 years, after the Men of Gold downed the Springboks 27-15 in Durban on Saturday.
For Moore, playing in the Republic has been nothing short of excruciating at both Test and Super 14 level in recent years, including that nightmarish 92-3 humiliation at the hands of the Bulls in 2007.
In fact, the 25-year-old rake had never won in South Africa at either level, after making his provincial debut in 2003 against the Bulls in Pretoria.
But fast-forward to 23 August 2008, and with the Men of Gold holding a comfortable 12-point lead over the Springboks with only minutes to play in Durban, Moore finally could see the top of the summit.
"It only dawned on me at the end," said Moore.
"I've had a couple of draws over here, but never a win. I just had goose bumps in the last few minutes of the game when we realised we had won it. It was a pretty special feeling."
Moore, partly credits the influence of new coach Robbie Deans for the transformation in attitude and belief within the Qantas Wallabies, which included not dwelling on past results.
"That's something we have avoided this time, which has worked I think," he said.
"We haven't mentioned once how difficult it is to play here.
"Robbie mentioned in the change room that he was really happy with how the boys used their down time through the week to get out there and enjoy the place and use it as a tour as opposed to a chore, which I think a lot of teams that come here sort of think 'oh, we have to go to South Africa for two games' and really look at it as a chore ather than an experience. That's been a big turnaround for us."
"Once you get over that thing of playing in South Africa and now the guys have felt what it is like to win here, I think that could be important for the group."
The big Queenslander said that one of the aims of the Wallabies was to take a particularly parochial Durban crowd out of the game by scoring early.
"If you can start well over here, it really takes the crowd out of it as a factor," said Moore.
"I know the Springboks use that to their advantage when they get a good start so we tried to do the opposite and it worked for us."
