A ‘big game’ for the Boks, says De Jager, with title on the line

Springbok lock Lood de Jager is eager for the team to step up and make history by becoming the first Bok team to win a complete Rugby Championship when they take on Argentina in their final match of the campaign at Kings Park on Saturday.

The Boks have only won the Rugby Championship once before, back in 2019 when it was just a one-round competition with each team playing each other once, due to it being a World Cup year.

If they can do the business this weekend it will be the first time that they have managed to win a full double-round version of the competition.

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“It is a big game. We haven’t won a full round Rugby Championship, in which we play everybody twice, before. So for us it’s an important game, but it’s also a privilege to be playing in a game like this,” said De Jager.

“It’s a chance for us to win the Rugby Championship and it’s great preparation for us as players to treat this just like a final. So it can only be good preparation for us going into the knockout stages of a World Cup and games like these are how you want to prepare for that.

“So it’s a massive privilege to go out this weekend and hopefully make our country proud.”

Hungry Pumas

De Jager is, however, prepared for a huge challenge from the visitors, who are also still in with a mathematical chance of clinching a first ever Rugby Championship for themselves.

“If Australia beat New Zealand on Saturday morning, Argentina’s got as good a chance as any team to win the Championship,” said De Jager.

“So I think they’re coming here with the mindset that they can make history and be the first Argentinean team to win the Rugby Championship.”

Last week the Boks put in a superb first-half performance before going off the boil in the second half and then finishing strongly, and they will be aiming to maintain a good performance for the full 80 minutes on Saturday.

“I think no rugby team has ever played the perfect game. We certainly had a good first half (against Argentina in Buenos Aires) but there are always things we can improve on and small details that we strive every week to get better at,” said De Jager.

“Especially when you look at the bigger picture which is the World Cup next year. We want to be a more rounded team going into the World Cup. So I think there is always stuff that we try to improve on.”

De Jager is also preparing for another big set-piece battle against the Argentineans in this weekend’s clash.

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“Argentina have always had a good lineout. They have good lineout jumpers and have a good lineout coach, so we expected that to be a big challenge and we expect the same going into this weekend,” said De Jager.

“On the scrum side we have had a look at the scrum. It’s a big part of our game and a big way that we want to put pressure on the opposition and build pressure throughout the game.

“So we have looked at what we did last week and where we can improve going into this weekend and hopefully we can do that on Saturday.”