Springboks eye championship win against Argentina

The Springboks are seeking a historic victory against Argentina on Saturday in an attempt to retain the Castle Lager Rugby Championship for the first time.

As things stand, the Boks are top of the log with 15 points, followed by New Zealand with 14, Australia with 11, and Argentina with nine.

This follows a scintillating performance by the South Africans in the first leg against Argentina, which saw several of the youngsters step up and secure a 67-30 victory in Durban.

As a result, head coach Rassie Erasmus has only made one change to the starting lineup for Saturday’s match at the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham.

“There are minimal personnel changes, with the bulk of the team having done the job for us last week against the Pumas in Durban and our other Castle Lager Rugby Championship matches,” Erasmus said.

“Argentina may be out of the title race, but they have beaten the All Blacks, Wallabies, and British & Irish Lions this season, and it would be a big target for them to defeat us as well, so it’s going to be another hard grind.”

Ox Nche, who was supposed to start but withdrew before last week’s match due to a niggle, will be starting at loosehead prop and is the sole change.

Malcolm Marx and Thomas du Toit will join Nche in the front row, and Eben Etzebeth, who will extend his Springbok Test cap record to 138, and Ruan Nortje will be starting at lock.

Captain Siya Kolisi, Pieter-Steph du Toit, and Jasper Wiese will make up the loose forwards for the contest.

Fans will be delighted to see that wonderkid Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu will again be wearing the number 10 jersey after scoring three tries and a total of 37 points against the Pumas last week.

He will be partnered with Stormers teammate Cobus Reinach, who starts at scrumhalf.

Backline veteran Damian de Allende will play inside centre, again joined by Canan Moodie, who will wear the number 13 jersey.

Ethan hooker and Cheslin Kolbe will be positioned on the right and left flanks of the backline, respectively, with Damian Willemse starting at fullback.

Lineups

Bench

• Bongi Mbonambi
• Jan-Hendrik Wessels
• Wilco Louw
• RG Snyman
• Kwagga Smith
• Grant Williams
• Manie Libbok
• Jesse Kriel

Bench

• Ignacio Ruiz
• Boris Wenger
• Francisco Coria Marchetti
• Franco Molina
• Juan Martin Gonzalez
• Joaquin Oviedo
• Agustin Moyano
• Rodrigo Isgro

Coaches weigh in

Erasmus stated during a press conference earlier in the week that he is confident his team can secure a historic victory.

“The focus for us is on what we have to do to try to win the competition twice in a row for the first time, so the stakes are high for us, and we know what we are capable of if we remain within our structures and play for the full 80 minutes,” he said.

“We’ll be in the fortunate position to know exactly what we need to do in the match to win the competition before we take the field as Australia and New Zealand face one another before our match, but we still need to go out there and deliver against a quality outfit.”

Argentina coach Felipe Contepomi said that although he has brought in replacements with little experience, such as fly-half Geronimo Prisciantelli, who will make his full debut, he has complete confidence in his team.

“They’ve got good energy, they are up for the challenge, and mentally, physically and technically they are ready for it,” the Argentine coach said.

“Hopefully, we are up to standard and we can give a good performance and be up there to be competitive against the best team in the world.”

Contemponi said that it will be a momentous occasion playing the World Champions at one of the best stadiums in the world.

“There will be a lot of South Africans and there will be Argentines as well, it doesn’t matter the numbers, they will be very noisy.”

Why Twickenham?

While the competition is between the best rugby nations in the Southern Hemisphere, South Africa will be taking on the Pumas at Allianz Stadium in Twickenham, London on Saturday afternoon.

Given that the first leg against the two nations was hosted in Durban last week, Argentina Rugby Union (UAR) had the opportunity to host the return leg on home turf.

However, they have opted against a home advantage and will be hosting the match in the UK instead.

According to RugbyWorld, hosting the match at Twickenham Stadium will prove far more lucrative for the union than if it were to be played in Argentina.

This is because the UAR can charge more for the fixture in London, and Twickenham’s capacity of 82,000 is significantly more than that of Estadio Mario Alberto Kempes in Córdoba and José Amalfitani Stadium in Buenos Aires, which can host 57,000 and 48,000, respectively.

There were only nine sections of the 138 within the stadium that still had available tickets at the time of writing.