Springboks look to end ‘most challenging’ season on a high

It has been an incredibly challenging year for the Springboks, who missed the entire 2020 campaign due to the Covid pandemic, and they play their 13th and final game of the year on Saturday against England at Twickenham looking to end their comeback season on a high.

Before July this year, the Boks’ last international match was against this weekend’s hosts in the World Cup final in November 2019, and they were thrown straight back into the deep end with a British and Irish Lions series in SA.

Managing to play just one international against Georgia before Covid tore through the squad, the team then managed to recover and superbly win the Lions series 2-1, following which they went straight into the Rugby Championship.

After a fantastic start against Argentina with two comfortable wins, the Boks then struggled Down Under with three defeats on the bounce before claiming a morale boosting win against the All Blacks in their last game.

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A successful UK tour so far has seen the Boks claim strong wins against Wales and Scotland and they are now looking to bring it to a close with another victory over England.

“This has been arguably the most challenging season for a Springbok team yet due to the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, and to finish off the year with a victory against England would be a fantastic reward for the team,” said Bok coach Jacques Nienaber.

“England have made it clear that they’ll come hard at us in this match, and with a few British and Irish Lions players in their midst, home-ground advantage and a new record of eight wins in a row against Australia adding to their motivation this weekend, we know it will be a hard grind.

“That said, we will enter the match equally motivated, especially with the opportunity to retain our status as the top team in the world for a third successive season and winning all three matches in the outgoing tour for the first time in eight years being a real prospect.”

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Another massive forward battle is expected to be waged this weekend, and while England have suffered an injury to Jamie George and Covid protocols have kept Ellis Genge out of the match, they have received a boost with Joe Marler being available.

“England have traditionally had a strong pack of forwards and backs that can trigger action on attack, but they have a number of new players and coaches this season who will want to make their mark, so there may be a different dynamic in their style of play,” said Nienaber.

“We’ve been doing our homework and we’ve been putting in the hard yards both on and off the field, so we need to make sure we are mentally and physically sharp on Saturday and convert the opportunities we create on attack into points because in a Test match such as this there are generally only a few of them.”