Is there antivenom for SA’s 'slow poison'?
SPOTLIGHT: Will England have some antivenom for the Springboks’ slow poison when they meet at Twickenham this coming weekend?
That is the question most pundits will be asking, after the Boks pummelled Scotland into submission in the scrums this past weekend.
The front row trio of Trevor Nyakane, Mbongeni Mbonambi and Retshegofaditswe Nché got things rolling before Malcolm Marx, Steven Kitshoff and Vincent Koch came on just before the break to continue the destruction their teammates started.
The Boks won the match 30-15 at Murrayfield and Springbok head coach Jacques Nienaber once against had plenty of praise for his quality front rows.
“I said from the start that we are fortunate that we have two quality front rows,” said Nienaber.
“They work in tandem.
“I thought the guys who started, laid the foundation and then obviously the guys coming on have a specific role to fulfil.
“I thought they built nicely on that foundation that was created by the guys who started.”
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England head coach Eddie Jones and his coaching staff will surely be hard at work this week trying to come up with solutions to counter the Springboks’ unique way of destroying their opponents slowly.
Nienaber will be asking his front rows to do more of the same at Twickenham this weekend.
“It is almost like when a snake bites and the venom starts going through your body,” Nienaber explained.
“You don’t die immediately. You will die a little bit later.
“It’s what they [the front rows] are doing currently for us.
“Like in the British and Irish Lions series we started Kitsie [Kitshoff] and Malcolm and then Trevor came on.
“In that last match in the series, in that crucial scrum, the B&I Lions were five metres from our tryline and the guys who were on got a penalty for us.
“I don’t want to sound clever here, but we pretty much look at what the game is going to deliver.
“We get it wrong a lot of times, but I thought we got it right in terms of starting Trevor, Ox [Retshegofaditswe Nché] and Bongi [aganst Scotland].”
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