Boks’ Test against Pumas in Santiago like a final — Dixon

Rookie Springbok flanker Ben-Jason Dixon says the team are treating this Saturday’s fifth round Rugby Championship Test against Argentina in Santiago like a final.

A win for the Boks would guarantee them the competition title with a game to play, against the same team in round six in Mbombela next weekend. As things stand the Boks have 18 log points from four wins while Argentina have 10 points. New Zealand (seven) and Australia (four) can’t win the title and play each other twice over the next two weekends.

The Boks have so far picked up two away wins in Australia as well as two home wins against New Zealand.

“Our mindset going into the week will be to treat it like a final, and I’m sure everyone in the squad will zoom into the game that way, so that we can hopefully get the win,” said Dixon, who made his Bok debut this year.

“They obviously like to play with the ball, so we cannot give them anything to pounce on, meaning the keys for us will be to control our possession and play well when we have the ball.”

‘Exciting’

Argentina have had an up and down competition, including wins against New Zealand away and Australia at home.

This is the Stormers man’s first trip to Argentina and he said on Sunday, following the team’s arrival in the country, that he was excited about possibly running out against Los Pumas.

Dixon is one of six loose forwards in the squad in South America.

“It’s amazing and so exciting to be here,” said Dixon.

“A lot of people say it’s quite a hostile feeling playing in a stadium in Argentina where the fans really love their team and make it difficult for the opposition, although not in a bad way, they just won’t make it easy.

“But it’s a privilege to play against them here, and I’m hopefully I’ll get a chance to play.

“Just being here is great because I’ve always wanted to visit South America. We also had a quick stop over in Sao Paulo on our way here, so I’m keen to see a little of Buenos Aires and to get back to training on Monday.”

The hard-running and physical loose forward adapted quite easily to the long journey to Argentina.

“Similarly to the Australia trip – which was also my first experience there – it was not bad. We could sleep a little on the aeroplane and we had a good night’s rest last night (Sunday), so it worked out well.”

The Boks are currently training in Buenos Aires and will travel to Santiago del Estero on Wednesday night. Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus is set to announce his match-23 for the clash on Tuesday.