Springboks stick to winning formula for Twickenham title decider

Tried and tested combinations must work for the Springboks on Saturday as they look to seal back-to-back Rugby Championship titles for the first time ever.

Head coach Rassie Erasmus made only one change to the starting XV for the return duel at Twickenham against Argentina, with Ox Nché stepping into his familiar loosehead prop position. The minimal changes, with three more on the replacement bench, show the intent of the Boks as they look to seal the title in style following this past Saturday’s 67-30 victory over Los Pumas.

Nché will add extra firepower in the scrums, and he will be frothing at the mouth to stamp his authority in the set-piece after missing the previous game with a niggle. Erasmus also confirmed a clean bill of health for players like fullback Damian Willemse and wingers Cheslin Kolbe and Ethan Hooker, who picked up knocks at Kings Park.

The duo remains the starting wingers in a backline packed with experience and creative ability. If the forwards and backs can complement each other like they did on Saturday, Twickenham will be the stadium where South Africa make history and defend their Rugby Championship title.

Erasmus said that with only a couple of days of training sessions, they opted not to disrupt the team too much, despite wanting to give other players like flyhalf Handré Pollard, scrumhalf Faf de Klerk and winger Makazole Mapimpi a run.

In the same breath, he warned that the Pumas will come out looking to avenge their heavy defeat, despite being out of the running to win the Championship title.

“We will be playing against an Argentinian team who will be hurting, and we know when we’ve been hurting how we pitch up the next week,” Erasmus explained.

“It helps that we have plenty of experienced guys like Siya (Kolisi, captain), Eben (Etzebeth) and Ox (Nché), so we won’t fall into the trap of thinking we have the perfect side. It was far from a perfect game (last week), there were brilliant performances.

“But if we lose this game, it would not be because we think we are the business. We will make sure that is not the case. This is not our first-choice side, we only have two days of training on Tuesday and Wednesday (and Friday’s captain’s run). This is definitely not our strongest team.”

In Durban, the world champions had to grind it out in the first half before turning on the magic in the second forty to seal the emphatic win. Twickenham will present different conditions, although Erasmus explained they have been tested in different weather the entire season.

The Boks will look to adapt to what is asked of them as soon as possible on Saturday. They struck the perfect balance of structured and running rugby at Kings Park, and how

they replicate this on Saturday will be crucial.

“Whatever the weather is, we played in rain in Cape Town against the Barbarians and in Auckland when we were 14-0 down and it started raining. We try to play the situation and scoreboard. Argentina is fantastic in the air, and I think they won the aerial battle hands down in the first half.

“Only in the second half did we start mastering that. We kicked about 15 more kicks than them, but it resulted in tries. We don’t plan to kick more come Saturday.”

Springboks team v Argentina at Twickenham

Starting XV: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Ethan Hooker, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Ruan Nortjé, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nché; Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Kwagga Smith, 21 Grant Williams, 22 Manie Libbok, 23 Jesse Kriel