De Allende thrives on unleashing outside backs

The Springboks will be looking to get the ball into the wide channels once again when they take on England in their final end-of-year tour match at Twickenham on Saturday night.

Over their last two games, against France and Italy, the Boks have looked to run the ball a lot more than usual, and it paid off despite the loss against the

French, but it was a big trump card in the thumping win over the Italians.

Bok inside centre Damian de Allende, who shifted to outside centre for the Italian game, said they have enjoyed giving their outside backs more space with the ball and hoped to do it again this weekend.

“I don’t really mind playing at 12 or 13, but it was nice playing 13. There is a bit more space in the wider channels and I think this past weekend against Italy we managed to get the ball there quite a bit which was nice,” said De Allende.

“That was our plan for the (Italy) game and if things go well for us this week hopefully we can get the ball to the wider channels again against England.

“It’s nice to see guys like KurtLee (Arendse) given space to run and hopefully we can get (Makazole) Mapimpi into space because when they are running at full tilt it is nice to watch. So we want to get the ball to the wider channels.”

“It would be incredible to get a win over England at Twickenham. It is always a tough encounter and they are a great team. Like us, they have also been up and down, so it is going to be a close match,” said De Allende.

“In 2018 we were very close, last year we were very close and hopefully this time we can turn things around.”