Springboks Rookie Makes Blunt Admission as They Set For Los Pumas Showdown
Although South Africa are on course to winning this year’s Rugby Championship, they are taking nothing for granted and are not underestimating Argentina ahead of Saturday’s clash in Santiago del Estero.
That was the word from rookie Springboks flanker Ben-Jason Dixon after the world champions arrived in Buenos Aires on Saturday night.
The Boks head into their clash with Argentina sitting pretty atop the Rugby Championship table with 18 points amassed after notching four victories in as many games, while Argentina are in second place on 10 points, followed by New Zealand (seven) and Australia (four).
It’s an exciting period for Dixon as it’s his first visit to Argentina and he is looking forward to the challenge against Los Pumas, who have already clinched victories against the All Blacks and Wallabies this year.
Looking forward to Los Pumas challenge
“It’s amazing and so exciting to be here,” he said. “A lot of people say it’s quite a hostile feeling playing in a stadium in Argentina where the fans really love their team and make it difficult for the opposition, although not in a bad way, they just won’t make it easy.
“But it’s a privilege to play against them here, and I’m hopefully I’ll get a chance to play. Just being here is great because I’ve always wanted to visit South America.
The hard-working and physical back-rower adapted quite easily to the long journey to Argentina and said: “Similarly to the Australia trip – which was also my first experience there – it was not bad.
“We could sleep a little on the aeroplane and we had a good night’s rest last night, so it worked out well.”
Regarding Saturday’s clash at at Estadio Unico Madre Ciudades, Dixon admitted that the Boks are determined to secure a victory – and hopefully the Rugby Championship title -which means the teams’ rematch in Nelspruit on September 28 will be a dead rubber.
“Our mindset going into the week will be to treat it like a final, and I’m sure everyone in the squad will zoom into the game that way, so that we can hopefully get the win,” said Dixon.
“They obviously like to play with the ball, so we cannot give them anything to pounce on, meaning the keys for us will be to control our possession and play well when we have the ball.”
The world champions will begin their preparations for the clash in Buenos Aires on Monday before travelling to Santiago del Estero on Wednesday night.
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus will announce his matchday 23 for the highly anticipated encounter on Tuesday.
