Rejuvenated Springboks turn attention to Argentina

The Springboks got back to business on the training field in Buenos Aires on Wednesday to prepare for the big task of attempting to win their two remaining Rugby Championship matches following their 24-8 victory against Australia last weekend.

The Boks made the journey from Australia to Buenos Aires via Auckland on Sunday, travelling with the Pumas to the Argentinean capital for next Saturday’s encounter at Estadio José Amalfitani.

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With a two-week turn-around from their last match, Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber opted to give the players two days off to rest and recuperate following their arrival in Argentina before wrapping up their campaign with back-to-back matches against the Pumas.

With New Zealand at the top of the log with 10 points, followed by South Africa, Australia and Argentina – who are all tied on nine points – the Boks need to win both their remaining matches, possibly with bonus points, to keep alive their hopes of winning the tournament.

“The players have been working hard for the last two weeks and we come off two physically demanding matches against Australia, so we decided to give the players time off to recover physically and freshen up mentally with two vital games coming up,” said Nienaber.

“We need to win both our remaining matches to keep alive our Castle Lager Rugby Championship title hopes, so it’s important that the players are as fresh as possible and ready to put in the hard yards at training for what we anticipate will be another two extremely testing matches.

“Argentina are a passionate team and a force to be reckoned with, especially at home, and they proved this with their comprehensive 48-17 win against Australia. They also beat New Zealand 25-18 away from home, so we are under no illusions about the challenge ahead.”

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The team had a gym and training session on Wednesday following a review of their match against Australia, which will be followed by another two training sessions on Thursday and Friday respectively.

“We looked back at our match against Australia in Sydney this morning and we are now ready to turn our attention to the next match against Argentina,” said Nienaber.

“With this technically being a slower week as we are not playing on Saturday, we will get back into the swing of things with a few gym and training sessions this week and then slot back into a full Test week programme next week.”

The Springboks are still in the hunt for the Rugby Championship title

Meanwhile, a look at the Rugby Championship log suddenly shows the All Blacks leading the way with 10 log points, while Australia, South Africa and Argentina are just one point behind.

Interestingly, though, it’s the Boks who might suddenly fancy their chances of claiming back-to-back wins over the Pumas, with the final game in Durban certainly presenting a possible chance for a bonus-point victory.

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Australia will host New Zealand in Melbourne before travelling to Eden Park for a rematch, and it really wouldn’t be all that surprising to see these games being very closely contested.

Ultimately there is everything to play for in the final two rounds of Rugby Championship fixtures, but after the Boks fell to the bottom of the log last weekend, they will suddenly be feeling a lot more optimistic about their chances.