Legendary South Africa captain Francois Pienaar has backed the Springboks to recover from their recent difficulties in time for next year’s World Cup in Japan.
The 51-year-old – who led South Africa to arguably the most iconic World Cup triumph in the competition’s history in 1995 – insists that there is still time to turn things around.
“It’s a rebuilding phase,” said Pienaar, speaking to Sports Mole.
“The last two years that we want to forget but it will stay with us. So there’s hopefully a bit of a regime change.
“There’s wonderful talent and hopefully putting it together, this year will be our year and leading up to the World Cup next year,”
“The World Cup is always a four-month project. Everybody always says it takes four years – it doesn’t, it’s four months because you don’t know who’s going to be fit.
“There are new stars coming through. You have to change your game, not to be predictable. So I’ve always said the World Cup is a four to five-month project.”
The legendary scrum-half won 29 caps for South Africa between 1993 and 1996.
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