South Africa's conditioning coach Neels Liebel says he has facts to show northern hemisphere rugby was slower than the game played in the southern hemisphere. The Irish Times reports.
"Liebel said the new global positioning system (GPS) the Springboks are using to track the movement of players during games and training had proved those based in Europe were behind the pace of locally-based internationals.
Coach de Villiers has fielded five European-based players this season - props CJ van der Linde (formerly of Leinster) and BJ Botha (Ulster), number eight Joe van Niekerk (Toulon), fullback Francois Steyn (Racing Metro) and outhalf Butch James (Bath).
"This GPS system allows us to do very close monitoring of the players, the distance they run, the pace they are running, and for guys like BJ and CJ, their clubs are also on the system and they have sent us all their data," Liebel said.
"From all this we have seen the players from overseas are playing at about half the intensity of the Super 14 in terms of the speed they play at. It's a slower game there and players from there struggle to keep up with the pace."
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