Ken Borland

The Springboks can be forgiven for thinking that ever since they won the World Cup they have had to play their rugby against the grain, but the adaptability and mental toughness they have shown will once again serve them well amidst the chaos in the Rugby Championship scheduling that threatens to overshadow their second Test against Argentina at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.

Following New Zealand’s unilateral withdrawal from their scheduled fixture against Australia in Perth next weekend and their cancellation of South Africa’s matches in Auckland and Dunedin, the whole tournament was thrown into disarray on Friday.

But as Springbok captain Siya Kolisi pointed out, they can only focus on what is in front of them, and that will be a Pumas team out for revenge on Saturday.

“All we can do is concentrate on tomorrow, tomorrow’s match is guaranteed, it will happen and we are really excited for it. We can’t control everything and the rest of the fixtures is something we can’t control. We take it game-by-game and try not to think of the end of the competition and trophies. We put the same effort in whoever we are playing against.

“We go through exactly the same processes and we want to win very game, every competition and every trophy, we don’t want to just compete. The challenges we have faced in these times of a pandemic are never an excuse, when we step on the field we have to be ready and we have to be champions. After missing a whole year of rugby, we just want to play as much as we can,” Kolisi said on Friday.

With quarantine issues meaning New Zealand no longer want to travel to Australia or host games, SA Rugby made sure the opportunity to suggest themselves as hosts of the rest of the Rugby Championship was not passed up on, with the United Kingdom also being mooted as a possible venue.

Springbok assistant coach Mzwandile Stick said South Africa had shown with the successful, albeit troubled, hosting of the British and Irish Lions series that they would be able to safely pull off such a feat.

“If you look at our facilities, we have very good stadiums around Gauteng and we have hosted big events before. You see the success of the Lions tour, they enjoyed our hospitality, staying at a nice golf course. Argentina are down the road from us here in Gqeberha in a very nice hotel on the beachfront. I have no doubt that Australia and New Zealand would enjoy being here as well.

“We have got everything we need to host the rest of the Rugby Championship and it would be great if they decided to come to South Africa, we would welcome them. Our squad will still be staying together until the call is made, but we trust our executive and Director of Rugby to do everything they can to finish the tournament, whether in South Africa or the UK,” Stick said.

For the first time since before winning the World Cup, the Springboks will take on Argentina at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.

Argentina are a well-settled, quality outfit that has only lost to New Zealand since the World Cup, having played the All Blacks, Australia and Wales twice each in that time. All but one of the 23-man squad coach Mario Ledesma announced on Thursday is based overseas.

Who are the players the Springboks have to be especially cautious about?

Pablo Matera

The loose forward is as tenacious and irritating as a mass of blackjacks on your socks, such is his presence all over the field, but particularly at the breakdown. The former Pumas captain is a perpetual nuisance, a massive disruptive force to anything the opposition are trying to achieve. Enormous passion oozes from atera at every turnover he makes, every powerful carry he terrorises the opposition with. He may have been lucky to escape more punishment when discriminatory and xenophobic tweets from 2012 were exposed late last year, but his calibre as a player was shown when the Crusaders signed him for next year.

Jeronimo de la Fuente

When Argentina first beat the Springboks in South Africa, winning 37-25 in Durban in 2015, De la Fuente was at inside centre and looked as comfortable against Damian de Allende and Jean de Villiers as if he was having a stroll along Umhlanga beach. Six years on and the similarities with De Allende are striking. The 30-year-old is exceptionally strong, has great skills and pace and plays with an intensity that lights a fire in those around him. Much like South Africa’s No.12 star, he does the simple things well and is a force on the gainline.

Nicolas Sanchez

The veteran flyhalf has set himself apart with his ability to bounce back from tough times. A player with vision and a genius with the boot, Sanchez turned what was meant to be a chastening Rugby Championship for the Pumas last year into a triumph. With Argentina racked by Covid and the team having played no rugby, Sanchez scored all 25 points as they beat the All Blacks in Sydney in their first match after the 2019 World Cup and then drew twice with Australia.

Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro

Another of the players who made the Springboks look silly at Kings Park in 2015, this time Chaparro will take them on as a loosehead prop, having playing tighthead on that historic day. A formidable scrummager and powerful defender, Chaparro has the experience of 65 Test caps behind him and has the sort of versatile skills demanded of modern-day tight forwards.

Dwaine Pretorius has bent the selectors’ ears his way shortly before a world cup on two previous occasions and the 32-year-old all-rounder will be hoping to do it a third time when the Proteas tour Sri Lanka next month.

South Africa has such a great tradition of all-rounders and competition for those places has been stiff, but Pretorius made the cut for both the 2017 Champions Trophy and the 2019 World Cup. The latter tournament was the last time he played an ODI for South Africa and he finished a wretched tournament for the Proteas as their most economical bowler.

And now the T20 World Cup looms in October/November and Pretorius has one chance to stake his claim for that touring party with his performances in Sri Lanka. That he has left it this late is no fault of his own – he has had terrible luck with injury and then caught Covid, which meant his last match for the Proteas was in February in Pakistan.

“The last six months have been the most frustrating of my career ever. First I broke my ribs taking a catch and then the night before flying to the West Indies I tested positive for Covid. Missing that one flight meant I missed two tours, to both the Caribbean and Ireland, so it was a shocker. Covid has brought a lot of new challenges, bubbles aren’t easy and there’s no leeway.

“So it’s been a tough one, but I just have to get over it and deal with it. It’s the third time I’m going through this sort of pressure, it was the same in 2017 and the 2019. I just take it game-to-game and focus on what’s in front of me now. I will try and play my brand of cricket that I believe can add value to the team,” Pretorius told The Citizen on Thursday.

The T20 World Cup is also being played on the subcontinent and Pretorius has bowled cannily in those conditions before and he strikes the ball strongly in the lower middle-order. He is a really valuable white-ball cricketer.

Andile Phehlukwayo has been left out of the T20 squad for Sri Lanka and that leaves Pretorius, Wiaan Mulder and spinner George Linde to fight for probably two all-round places in the XI.

“If I try and do a role that is not me, then the chances of success are so much less. I know I can do the fifth/sixth bowler role and I have the power with the bat to finish innings. I will just try and prove that again and hopefully the selectors will decide I am the type of player they want in the World Cup squad.

“It’s a fight-or-flight situation and you just have to back what makes you you. I can score boundaries from ball one, but it’s risky and I could get out for less than 10 every time and then I will miss the World Cup,” a philosophical Pretorius said.

Opener Janneman Malan has also been left out of the T20 squad and Lungi Ngidi (personal reasons), Quinton de Kock (resting) and David Miller (hamstring injury) will miss the ODIs in Sri Lanka. Fast bowler Junior Dala returns to the Proteas squad, having also last played in Pakistan in February, and he will boost the wicket-taking capability of the attack.

Proteas squads

ODI – Janneman Malan, Aiden Markram, Reeza Hendricks, Temba Bavuma (captain), Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verreynne, Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius, George Linde, Wiaan Mulder, Andile Phehlukwayo, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi, Junior Dala, Beuran Hendricks, Lizaad Williams.

T20 – Temba Bavuma (captain), Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius, George Linde, Wiaan Mulder, Bjorn Fortuin, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi, Beuran Hendricks, Sisanda Magala, Lizaad Williams.

A top-class British and Irish Lions side that can play in a variety of ways awaits the Springboks at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday.

A World Cup winning Springboks side that has a simple, but highly effective game-plan awaits the British and Irish Lions at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday.

So who is going to win what should be a gripping encounter? Either way, it is surely going to be a Test that keeps everyone on the edge of their seats.

A lack of international rugby since winning the World Cup has been held against the Springboks’ chances, but perhaps a team that has a simple, more focused strategy is going to be able to deal better with what will be a high-pressure game full of intensity.

The Lions seem intent on playing a high-tempo game that stretches the Springboks in the wide channels, but having so many options at their disposal could actually be a negative. Running around like excited puppies is not going to win the tourists the first Test, especially against a side that relishes defending as vigorously as South Africa do. The defeat to the SA A side showed the Lions that they too are human and costly errors were made under pressure.

Obviously having great depth in playing resources is a positive, but the other side of that coin is that there may be a lack of certainty in exactly what the Lions are planning to do on Saturday. Coach Warren Gatland made a great deal of how he and his coaching staff all had different selections when it came to the 23 for the first Test.

Eventually the team was chosen by consensus, but the possibility of horse-trading exists and this could lead to a lack of a united, singular vision for the Lions.

So what are the potential weaknesses of the Springboks?

Their backline all played and shone in that World Cup final win over England in 2019, but key players in Handre Pollard, Damian de Allende and Makazole Mapimpi could be a little short of rugby.

But, as in all closely-contested Test matches, it is all going to come down to the forwards. The selection of the two players who did not feature in the World Cup – loosehead prop Ox Nche and eighthman Kwagga Smith – would seem to be all about mobility and being able to defend in those wide channels the Lions have used so effectively.

While Nche is a wonderful ball-playing prop, and a strong defender, all eyes – and possibly even the outcome of the match – are going to be on his scrum battle with Tadhg Furlong, who many consider to be the best tighthead in the world.

Smith made his name in the Green and Gold colours of the Springbok Sevens team and he is a wonderful athlete and potent with ball in hand. He will have a key role at the breakdown and in defending the wide channels with Pieter-Steph du Toit. But Smith lacks the physicality of his predecessor, the injured Duane Vermeulen, which could make a difference when it comes to the key gainline battles which South Africa need to dominate.

Re the gainline battle, it is going to be interesting to see how the Lions cope with the likes of Steven Kitshoff, Malcolm Marx and Rynhardt Elstadt coming off the bench in the second half to back up the mighty Eben Etzebeth and Franco Mostert.

The fact that the phonelines have been buzzing between the Lions camp and WorldRugby over a South African TMO being appointed and Rassie Erasmus acting as a waterboy on the side of the field suggests the tourists are feeling the pressure.

In many ways they are the favourites, which has allowed Jacques Nienaber and the Springboks to go into the match a little more under the radar.

An epic test awaits, but what a pity there won’t be 55 000 fans cheering on in the ears of the players.