Boks not paying too much attention to Proudfoot factor

SPOTLIGHT: Springbok prop Steven Kitshoff says his team is not paying too much attention to the Matthew Proudfoot factor ahead of Saturday’s clash against England at Twickenham.

Proudfoot is a former Springbok forwards coach and helped the team to World Cup glory two years ago.

He is now serving as England’s scrum coach and Kitshoff said although he has intricate knowledge of the Bok forwards, the team has grown since 2019.

“Matt played a similarly big role to the other coaches in the team winning the Rugby World Cup in 2019,” said Kitshoff.

“Obviously having worked with some of us from a young age [at the Stormers and later at the Springboks] he knows us very well,” said Kitshoff.

“But that said, we’ve grown as a team in the last few years and we’ll be doing our homework just as they will going into this game, so we’ll go out there and do and do our best.”

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Zooming into what England could offer in Saturday’s match, Kitshoff said: “They are a physical side, they can play with ball in hand, and they have a good kicking game as well as set pieces.

“We know what we need to do and we want to tick all the boxes we need to tick going into this match.”

Springbok assistant coach Deon Davids, who reported a clean bill of health within the squad, added: “England are a quality side and they have a good coach in Eddie Jones.

“It’s going to be a challenging game, and as a team, we’d like to build on the lessons learned in the Tests against Wales and Scotland.

“We know we have to be focused and task orientated this week, and we will place a big emphasis on our structures and systems.

“England will present unique challenges in different areas of the game, but we know where we need to improve, and we’d like to build on the momentum we achieved in the last two games.”