Durban — At 9am on Saturday morning nobody will be more glued to the TV than the Springboks as they learn what they have to do later that day against Argentina if they are to win the Rugby Championship title.
Pieter-Steph du Toit, who has been restored on the side of the Bok scrum for the match at Kings Park (Franco Mostert drops to the bench) says the squad will be watching the Bledisloe Cup match in their team room.
“It is a big advantage for us to be playing the late game because we will know exactly what we have got to do to win the Rugby Championship (in terms of log points and points difference),” Du Toit said.
“We know it is likely we will need five log points (a win plus a try-scoring bonus point) and luckily we will know exactly how many (match) points is required as we watch the All Blacks versus Wallabies unfold, but ultimately not a lot is going to change for us in how we approach Argentina.
“Our preparations this week have been to get five points and what happens over in Auckland is unlikely to change that too much.”
In other words, the Boks are preparing to play an attacking game that will result in at least four tries and that means pretty much the ruthless game they played last week in Buenos Aries —minus the second-half comeback by the Pumas.
“The Pumas are a very good side and they were always going to fight back after halftime but from our side, to avoid a repetition of that we must just keep concentrating and avoid slipping into a comfort zone,” Du Toit said.
“We need to keep working hard and stick to the game plan — that is the main thing to work on from last week.”
To be fair to the Boks, the Pumas are no mugs and their forwards have been around the block a few times with most of them having played around 50 Tests each.
“What makes the Pumas dangerous is that they have guys who play to their strengths in that some of them like to do the dirty work like hitting rucks as hard as they can and those guys are not interested in the flashy stuff, while others play more to the ball. They are all happy with their roles, so they complement each other.”