Boks will want to bury 2016 bogey

Just how far the Springbok rugby team have come since their lows of 2016 will be revealed this afternoon.

South Africa host Argentina in their 2017 Rugby Championship opener in Port Elizabeth on the back of a 3-0 whitewash of France earlier this year.

While the Boks were worthy winners against the French, the visitors never really tested the home side in the June Tests.

Argentina, who came within minutes of stunning the Springboks in Nelspruit last year and then went one step further to beat Allister Coetzee’s men 26-24 a week later in Salta, should provide a sterner challenge.

The Boks are then off to Salta to face the Pumas the following weekend before locking horns with the big guns, New Zealand and Australia.

In five years of Rugby Championship competition, the All Blacks have only lost two matches in 27 Tests. That’s an incredible record. They will also be keen to show their drawn Test series result against the British and Irish Lions is a thing of the past.

Australia will also be no walkovers as the Wallabies always put out a strong national team despite their franchise’s horrible showing in Super Rugby this year. Coetzee has repeatedly said the Boks have turned the corner after a disastrous 2016, where they won just four of 12 Tests.

Today will go a long way to convincing the country’s die-hard supporters.