Ken Borland

Key battles in the second Rugby Championship Test between the Springboks & Argentina in PE on Saturday

The midfield battle

While Argentina coach Mario Ledesma has made eight changes to his starting line-up, the midfield of Jeronimo de la Fuente and Santiago Chocobares are not the ones footing the blame for last weekend’s loss as they have been retained. The Pumas dropped the ball – both literally and figuratively – a few times on attack in that 32-12 defeat and they will be under even more pressure to stick to their game-plan on Saturday as they come up against Damian de Allende and Lukhanyo Am. That duo were a major part of the success against the British and Irish Lions and, after a week’s break, they are bound to pitch up at their best at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.

The loose trios

Springbok eighthman Jasper Wiese will be looking for an encore after his man of the match display last weekend, and this time he has the indefatigable Franco Mostert and a fully fit Siya Kolisi (he was battling a stomach bug in the first game) alongside him. One can bet good money though that there will be a fiery response from the Argentina loose trio after they were so badly outplayed last weekend. Guido Petti, a tough, physical, powerful and experienced player has moved from lock to join Pablo Matera and Rodrigo Bruni in the back row.

Cheslin Kolbe & Makazole Mapimpi versus the defence

South Africa’s brilliant wingers have gobbled up tries quite relentlessly since being paired together. They are ruthless when it comes to spotting and exploiting the slightest opportunity. The Pumas cannot afford any signs of weakness out wide and they need to keep the defensive door firmly shut against the Springboks’ lethal marauders.

Trevor Nyakane versus Francisco Gomez Kodela

The grinning Limpopo powerhouse starts at loosehead prop at Saturday and watching him dismantle Argentina’s 36-year-old tighthead prop Francisco Gomez Kodela at the first scrum will be just the thing to get the gees going around the braai. Nyakane had the measure of the best scrummagers the British and Irish Lions could throw at him and South Africa’s set-piece dominance lays the platform for so much else of their pressure game. But Gomez Kodela is a very clever scrummager technically, and he will be looking to man up in his last game for Argentina before he returns to club duty with Olympique Lyon.

Phepsi Buthelezi will return as captain for the Sharks in their Currie Cup rugby match against the Lions at Ellis Park on Saturday and he said a meeting with one of the leading referees had clarified for the squad that they have to improve their discipline and be better advertisers for a freeflowing game.

The Sharks will be looking to maintain their grip on second place against the last-placed Lions, following their victory over the Free State Cheetahs in Durban last weekend. But although the Cheetahs played with 14 men for most of the second half due to a red card, the Sharks kept them in the game with their own rampant ill-discipline, conceding far too many penalties and two yellow cards of their own in the tense closing stages.

That has to change, according to Buthelezi.

“We had Stuart Berry, who refereed our match against the Cheetahs, come chat to us and give us feedback. He told us that the way they are refereeing is to promote running rugby, which will be good for the product when people come back to stadiums. So that puts the defending team under the pump, but the biggest thing is our discipline, we can’t get sucked into silly errors.

“That just gave the Cheetahs life last weekend. So our main focus this week has been on keeping the number of penalties lower, that’s been a huge problem for us. It’s definitely a massive issue, something we’re constantly working on. We can’t afford to give away so many penalties, that made it hard for ourselves. The discipline issue is massive,” Buthelezi stressed.

Along with the in-form eighthman, halfbacks Grant Williams and Lionel Cronje, who played so well in the win over the Bulls two weeks ago, return to the starting line-up. Workhorse lock Le Roux Roets is going to take a break, allowing Gerbrandt Grobler to come in for his debut and Sharks coach Sean Everitt has rotated his hookers, with Dan Jooste starting and Kerron van Vuuren on the bench.

Although the Lions are out of contention for the semifinals, Buthelezi knows his team are going to have to put in a big effort to maintain their challenge for home-ground advantage in the playoffs.

“The Lions are obviously going to be desperate, they are a quality team who have just been unfortunate in terms of results, things just haven’t gone their way. We’re expecting them to have some main players back and they’ve been kicking a lot less lately, so that means lots of running and tackles. We are going to need to execute our game-plan, especially on attack, to put them under pressure,” Buthelezi said.

Sharks team – Anthony Volmink, Yaw Penxe, Jeremy Ward, Marius Louw, Thaakir Abrahams, Lionel Cronje, Grant Williams, Phepsi Buthelezi (c), Henco Venter, Dylan Richardson, Emile van Heerden, Gerbrandt Grobler, Lourens Adriaanse, Dan Jooste, Khwezi Mona. Bench: Kerron van Vuuren, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Wiehahn Herbst, Thembelani Bholi, Jeandre Labuschagne, Sanele Nohamba, Boeta Chamberlain, Murray Koster.

Five years ago a young Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg made the brave choice to leave his mom and dad behind in Pretoria and move to France. Now he is back in South Africa and poised to make his Springbok debut off the bench in the second Rugby Championship Test against Argentina at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.

In three years at the Bulls between 2014 and 2016, he had only played five Super Rugby matches. It was Jake White, ever the sharp eye for talent, who made contact as he was then coaching Montpellier.

Janse van Rensburg’s leap of faith has certainly paid off and White this week fondly remembered the kid who arrived at Montpellier and how much he has now grown.

“I’m very proud and happy for him, he’s gone a different route. He hadn’t really put his hand up here yet, in his age-group there were so many unbelievable locks, so he decided to go away from South Africa and he has really grown up. He made some massive sacrifices along the way, leaving his parents behind, and he first of all just joined the Montpellier Academy as a 21-year-old prospect. He still had to qualify to play senior rugby.

“I still remember when he arrived at Montpellier, this little blond-haired boy from Affies, very quiet and reserved. Now he’s married with a kid. Having been through all that, he did not coast to where he is now, he’s tougher and wiser and I have no doubt he will cope at international level,” White, ironically now coaching the Bulls, said.

Both White and veteran Springbok lock Lood de Jager, who will play his 50^th Test on Saturday and is likely to partner Janse van Rensburg in the second row in the second half, pointed to the two-metre tall, 115kg, 27-year-old’s ability to organise the lineout as being a key strength.

“His point of difference is that he can play lock and No.7, and he calls the lineouts. He’s a hard worker, he’s been playing in a tough league, with and against some of the best players in the world,” White pointed out.

“Nicolaas has been in France for a few years and is now one of Montpellier’s key players, he runs the lineout there. He works hard in training and off the field he does a lot of analysis on the opposition’s lineouts as well,” De Jager, who would have crossed swords with Janse van Rensburg when the Sale Sharks met the French club in European competition, said.

The Lions’ adventure in the 2021 Currie Cup is almost certainly going to come to an end at the weekend after they were beaten 35-13 by Western Province at Newlands on Wednesday night.

The defeat leaves the Lions last in the log, four points off fourth place and with just one match remaining, against the second-placed Sharks. The teams above them on the log all have two games left to play.

Wet and blustery conditions in Cape Town made it difficult for either side to play with too much ambition, but both teams were guilty of several lapses on concentration that led to unforced errors.

Western Province led 16-13 at halftime and then played with the wind at their backs in the second half, but as befits a side struggling to make the semi-finals, they were never able to stamp control on the game, due to soft mistakes, especially when it came to receiving the restarts.

Wide-ranging eighthman Evan Roos scored two tries in the second half to settle the outcome in favour of Western Province.

Nelspruit was the place to be for adventurous rugby on Wednesday as the Bulls saw off the Pumas 33-26 in a thrilling game.

It was transparent in the first quarter that the Pumas were going to put up stiff resistance against the defending champons as they played with attacking ambition and tore into the breakdowns, leading 10-0 after the first quarter.

The Bulls fought back to 14-16 at halftime, but it almost seemed like it was not going to be their day as they started the second half hard on attack, only for wing Stravino Jacobs to let the ball slip through his hands with a one-on-one seven metres from the Pumas line, allowing opposite number Sebastian de Klerk to sprint away for a 90-metre try. The 14-point swing saw the Pumas leading 23-14.

The Pumas were strong on passion, efficiency and positivity, but they were as thin as chiffon in the set-pieces and that is what ultimately cost them the game. Outstanding Bulls tighthead Mornay Smith earned penalties at the scrum that relieved the pressure for the Bulls and led to a penalty try in the 66^th minute to level the scores at 26-26. He also won the turnover that led to substitute hooker Jan-Hendrik Wessels’ rolling maul try six minutes earlier, and Smith then scored the matchwinning try with eight minutes remaining.

The Bulls also won some crucial lineouts against the throw, mostly through Janko Swanepoel.

*In Bloemfontein, the Free State Cheetahs ensured they are still hanging on tenaciously to some hope of making the semifinals as they came from 32-19 down heading into the final quarter to beat Griquas 33-32 with a crucial bonus point.

Prop Conraad van Vuuren, toeing ahead a loose ball and diving on it, and flank Junior Pokomela scored the crucial last two tries for the Cheetahs, with Ruan Pienaar, who shifted to flyhalf, kicking two clutch conversions for the win.