The Springboks kick off their Rugby World Cup title defence against Scotland at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille on Sunday at 5.45pm.
And veteran replacement prop Trevor Nyakane has called on his teammates to hit the ground running by giving the Scots a pak slae in every facet of the game.
Feared for the brutality and intensity with which their forwards play the game, Nyakane says ahead of the Pool B encounter: “As a team and a pack, we want to be dominant in all facets of the game, but one of the key elements is to plant the seed in the scrum.
Trevor Nyakane: "Once you get the taste of it, you just want to keep going" - more here: https://t.co/3K2YkzdvrW 🤝#Springboks #StrongerTogether #RWC2023 pic.twitter.com/BAgpZprpCm
— Springboks (@Springboks) September 7, 2023
“That said, they have a very good pack and they’ll be well prepared for us. At a tournament like this, everyone is well prepared, so we’ll do our homework on their pack and see how we can impose our physicality on them.”
Coach Gregor Townsend’s Scots last beat South Africa in 2010, but in flyhalf Finn Russell and big South African-born winger Duhan van der Merwe they have two players who can turn the game around for their team.
Also playing off a strong forwards base, the tussle for front-foot ball will be key.
As the Boks look to give scrumhalf Faf de Klerk some good go-forward ball in his 50th Test cap, lock RG Snyman warns: “Scotland will bring some big ball carries and it will be interesting to defend some of their lineouts because they are a quality lineout side.”
Both Nyakane and Snyman will form part of SA’s much-feared Bomb Squad, which also includes the likes of Bongi Mbonambi, Duane Vermeulen and Willie le Roux.
Springboks: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Cheslin Kolbe, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Steven Kitshoff. Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Ox Nche, 18 Trevor Nyakane, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Marco van Staden, 21 Duane Vermeulen, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Willie le Roux.
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