Springboks brace for titanic scrum battle in Buenos Aires

A titanic battle for scrum dominance is expected when the Springboks pack down against Argentina in Buenos Aires on Saturday, says SA prop Ox Nche.

With the race for the Rugby Championship title challenge finely balanced, the game at Estadio José Amalfitani (9.10pm SA time) is a must-win encounter for the Boks.

SA, Australia and Argentina are level on nine points and New Zealand lead the pack on 10, so every point will count in the last two rounds of the competition.

With Argentina having beaten the All Blacks away from home and Australia in South America, Nche says a big challenge awaits the Boks.

“We have to impose ourselves on them,” he said.

“The main thing for us is that we know they always come up with something different and special, and especially in front of their home crowd, so we need to be ready for that.

“Argentina retained most of their ball in the scrum during the Rugby Championship, and we saw that they had a plan to counter the New Zealand scrum. It is important that we prepare well in that department.

“It will be a good battle against them in the mauls. They disrupted New Zealand’s mauls and they also did well in loose play against Australia, so they certainly plan well in terms of how they stop mauls.

“For us, it’s not about the ‘underdogs’ tag, it is about what we want to achieve and how we want to achieve it.”

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber is expected to announce his squad to face Argentina on Tuesday.

“As a team, we try to look for different combinations and we train that way too, so when a team is selected it is about getting the combinations right for that specific game and for the front rows to adapt in the match,” Nche said.

Wing Makazole Mapimpi said the Boks have to be clinical in their finishing as they chase bonus point wins in their final two Rugby Championship outings.

“It was really great for us as a team to bounce back [with a win in Sydney] from the previous game against the Wallabies [a defeat in Adelaide],” he said.

“It was a good thing to be able to do what we enjoy doing, and especially to score tries when we had the opportunities. It is vital to score tries when we have the opportunity to play.

“Argentina are a good team with quality players and they have several experienced players, some of whom we have been playing against for a few years.

“We know the intensity and physicality with which the All Blacks play. Argentina were on the same level against them in their first Test match.”

The final round clash between the Boks and Pumas is at Kings Park in Durban on September 24 (5.05pm).