Springboks desperate to taste success in front of home fans — Stick

The Springboks are desperate to taste success in front of their home fans as they chase the Rugby Championship title in the final game of the competition against Argentina at Kings Park on Saturday night (kick-off 5:05pm).

Assistant coach Mzwandile Stick was reflective of the success of the current group of Boks, since coming together under the guidance of Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber in 2018, but admitted that they were keen to achieve some success in front of a packed home crowd.

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“You must remember what we have achieved as a team. We have won the World Cup, but it was in Japan. We have won the Rugby Championship, but did it in Argentina. We won the British and Irish Lions series, but supporters weren’t allowed to come to the stadium,” explained Stick.

“Even though we have had these great moments and successes for our country, I’ll be honest with you, we were a bit lonely in the sense that we couldn’t celebrate with our supporters.

“Now we have a great opportunity in front of a packed stadium to win the Rugby Championship and celebrate with our people. That is a very special thing about the opportunity that we have this weekend.”

Frans Steyn

How well the Boks do in the game could boil down to how well veteran utility back Frans Steyn does, as he makes his first start of the international season, at flyhalf where he hasn’t played internationally since 2008.

“The situation with Frans Steyn is similar to that with Damian Willemse. He has always been in our system and he has always been a back-up when it comes to playing at 10, 12 and 15,” explained Stick.

“With that experience it made it easy for us as a coaching staff to put him at flyhalf with Damian being injured. Frans has been with us, he understands how to play the game, he understands our system very well and he is a very good player.

“You don’t play for almost 15 years at Test match level and there is nothing special about you. He is a very special player and we trust him with everything that he has got.”

If the All Blacks beat the Wallabies with a bonus point in the morning (9:05am SA time) match, the Boks could be chasing a big points difference win to clinch the Rugby Championship, meaning they would have to produce a near perfect game, which is something that they have been chasing.

“We are still building towards playing the perfect game. I’ve seen about one or two games where I felt like we were in control,” said Stick.

“If you look at the game at the Mbombela Stadium against the All Blacks I felt like we were in control for 80 minutes in that game, and also the second game against Australia (in Sydney) was one of our best games this season.

“So we are trying to build on those results. To be able claim back to back wins against Australia and Argentina away from home, which is very tough was great. Our goal now is to make it three in a row because we have been guilty of inconsistency this season.”