Victorious Boks shift their focus to England challenge

After making it two wins from two in their end-of-year tour with an impressive 30-15 victory over Scotland at the weekend, the Springboks now shift their focus to the final game of the tour against England at Twickenham on Saturday.

Having started with a tight 23-18 win over Wales a week before, the Boks stepped it up with a powerful second-half showing to dispatch the Scots, and they will now head into their match against England full of confidence.

It is set to be a grand finish to their UK tour, with this being the first meeting between the two sides since the 2019 World Cup final when the Boks thumped England in style, and that will surely still be playing in the minds of the England players and coaching staff.

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The Boks are also building towards the 2023 World Cup, and along with giving a few players a chance to play, they also want to finish the tour unbeaten and take that momentum into next year.

“We want to build momentum going into 2022 along with changing a few things, giving guys opportunities and getting experience into some of the younger guys,” said Bok coach Jacques Nienaber.

“So we want to build momentum and I said to the players after the game that this is going to be a big week for us. I think that playing against England at a packed Twickenham is going to be a nice challenge for us and we must do everything in our power to have a good build-up to the game.”

Key to South Africa’s wins so far on their tour has been a fantastic platform laid by the two front rows of Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi and Trevor Nyakane and Steven Kitshoff, Malcolm Marx and Vincent Koch, who have split the duties in both games and put in huge performances.

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That work put in by the two front threes in both games has tired out the Welsh and Scottish teams and allowed the Boks to bide their time and then strike in the closing stages.

“We are fortunate that we have two quality front rows and they work in tandem. I thought the guys who started laid the foundation and then the guys coming on have a specific role to fulfil, and I felt they built nicely on that foundation that was laid by the guys who started,” Nienaber said.

“Scotland have been the best defensive side in the Northern Hemisphere since the World Cup, so we knew it was going to be tough to break them down. You saw in the first 15 minutes we had all the possession and all the territory and it just shows the quality how they kept us out.

“But we knew if we kept knocking and knocking, that takes energy, and we just hoped we would get opportunities in the back end which happened for us.”