A box for Springboks to tick at the ‘home of rugby’
Tourists desperate to put their best foot forward against strong England scrum
Highly decorated they may be, but Springboks Damian de Allende, Malcolm Marx and Thomas du Toit are yet to taste success against England at Twickenham.
They know another defeat at what the locals call the home of rugby will be a particularly bitter pill to swallow as they wind down the season leading into a World Cup year.
“It is a massive opportunity,” Du Toit said with a characteristic smile about Saturday’s game.
“It will be the last time we will be together as a group for six, seven months. You want that in the back of your mind that you played a good game and hopefully got the result,” said the prop, who will be on the bench on Saturday.
De Allende said beating England at home would be incredible.
“It is always a tough encounter. They are also a great team but they have also been up and down the past few games. We were close in 2018 and last year,” he said about the onepoint defeats.
De Allende, who has been restored to his more familiar inside centre role, believes the Springboks need to eliminate the silly errors that blighted their performance at Twickenham last year.
“Last year we played well in patches but not consistently enough. Hopefully, we will be a lot more consistent this weekend.
“We had a few moments last year where we had a chance to win the game. We gave away a soft try from a lineout and we gave away a few silly penalties in the last five minutes and a yellow card that was a bit of a harsh call.”
The midfielder said they perhaps pressed too hard in the last 10 minutes and their eagerness to overturn possession at the ruck instead of showing patience in defence might have cost them the game.
He wants the Boks to show more composure this weekend.
“We have spoken about it and hopefully we can get it right on Saturday,” the muscular centre said.
One of the areas in which the Boks will need to find stability and thus consistency is the scrums.
“They have an outstanding scrum at the moment,” noted Du Toit. “They get penalties. They definitely have a big, heavy pack.
“They are well-prepared but in the same breath we are also big and strong. We also get scrum penalties. It is a good match-up. Maybe that is the area one team will gain an advantage.”
He warned that England loosehead prop Ellis Genge may be “a guy to look out for”.
He may not blip on the radar in the way Genge does, but in scrum coach Matthew Proudfoot, England have a man who may have some destabilising insights into the Bok scrum.
He was the Bok forwards coach until he was garlanded with a World Cup winner’s medal. He may know the Boks, but the world champions know him too.
“We know how good England’s pack is,” Marx said. “We know it will be a great challenge at set piece. It is a benefit for them him knowing us, but the same applies to us about him.
“He was in this environment for quite a while so he knows what makes these guys tick. That doesn’t mean it has remained the same since he was here. Everyone has moved forward. We are well prepared.”