Expert
Will Rassie Erasmus’ “Pooper” gamble of playing two opensiders with a link man and a classic fetcher on the bench pay off? Will Argentina return to form with the World Cup looming ever closer?
Join The Roar for a live blog of the match between the Springboks and Argentina in the first week of the 2018 Rugby Championship at Kings Park Stadium on Sunday morning (AEST), starting from 1:05am.
Both sides have deep knowledge of all opposing players, because they play in the very same Super Rugby conference.
History favours the Boks, who have only lost two tests to Los Punas ever, but lately, the Latin Americans have played the Boks very well.
Erasmus is using a much closer-to-coalface shape in his forward attack plan, which creates very quick two-cleaner ball for Faf de Klerk to allow Willie le Roux and Handré Pollard to find wider channels in which the Boks’ superior speed should pose the Pumas problems.
But it also puts young wings on lonely islands, as Eddie Jones found in the first halves of the England series.
But Argentina will bring a stiff challenge to the Boks: dangerous on the counter and always sniffing the turnover.
The set piece battle is probably a Bok edge. Fit-again Eben Etzebeth renews his big-boy battle with Tomás Levanini, and Steven Kitshoff will probably pose problems for the visitors’ scrum in the later stages. Malcolm Marx and Gus Creevy are two of the very best rakes.
The backlines are even with finishers and class, with a few matadors on both teams.
So it’s the back row where the game is in the balance.
I’ll tip the Boks because Francois Louw is all class.
Springboks by 7.
Join The Roar for a live blog of the match between the Springboks and Argentina in the first week of the 2018 Rugby Championship at Kings Park Stadium on Sunday morning (AEST), starting from 1:05am.