Springboks locked in on Los Pumas despite Greatest Rivalry buzz
The Springboks are fully focused on their one-off Test against Argentina, despite anticipation building around the blockbuster Greatest Rivalry series against New Zealand.
South Africa will host New Zealand in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry, a four-Test series that kicks off on August 22. It will mark the first full Test series between the two nations since 1996.
The series has dominated headlines on both sides of the world, with many New Zealand pundits describing it as the biggest event on the 2026 rugby calendar.
But Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus insists his attention remains fixed on Los Pumas.
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“I saw the [All Blacks] squad was announced and had a brief look at it,” Erasmus admitted.
“But at this stage we’re all locked in for Argentina next week.”
The Springboks head into the clash in confident form after completing an unbeaten Nations Championship campaign, defeating England (45-21), Scotland (42-28) and Wales (43-0).
Meanwhile Argentina have had a mixed bag of results. They opened their campaign with a defeat to Scotland (38-47) before bouncing back with a 35-21 victory over Wales, following by a narrow loss to England (24-31).
Erasmus confirmed he will name a 26-man touring squad for Argentina on Saturday, while another group of players will remain in South Africa to begin preparations for the All Blacks.
“There will be a group that will stay behind and start focusing on them [the All Blacks] because you can take only so many guys to Argentina. It’s only for a week and we’re only playing one match there.”
The Bok coach also revealed that Ox Nché and Franco Mostert will not travel to Argentina.
“There’s only two guys that won’t be available because of long-term injuries – Kwagga Smith and RG Snyman.
“But the guys that we thought would return this year, Ox and Franco Mostert, won’t be available for next week’s game.
“Apart from that, everybody – Ethan Hooker, Canan Moodie, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Eben Etzebeth, Lood de Jager and Morne van den Berg – everybody’s ready.”
He added: “The game is a really good time for us. And it’s against a quality team. You will quickly see who is ready two weeks after that match to play against New Zealand.
“With that being said, it wasn’t planned with that reason in mind. It was always just us honouring our relationship with Argentina, like we’re going to do with Australia post the New Zealand Test matches.”
Argentina head coach Felipe Contepomi named a 36-man squad on Tuesday featuring 10 uncapped players, but Erasmus expects another fiercely competitive encounter.
“I know Felipe really well – as a friend and as a very good coach,” Erasmus noted.
“Their players play all over the world and they don’t play together in one club competition. While we’re also selecting players from around the world, there’s a core group of players in South Africa that we can always bring into alignment camps.
“They normally don’t have that.
“The last Test against England could have gone either way for them, and you can see they’re building momentum. It’s like that every year with Argentina.
“I’ve seen they’ve picked a squad with 10 rookies, but if you look at their first-choice team – the team we will probably face over there – they’ll definitely have more caps than our players.
“Although they’ve picked a very inexperienced group overall, there are about 15 really experienced players they can fall back on, and those players will form the spine of the team.
“So, yeah, it will be a difficult match.”
