Twickenham cold could freeze Boks
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Adapting to the Northern Hemisphere weather conditions will be a massive challenge for the Springboks says Bulls-bound loose forward Duane Vermeulen.
The Springbok No.8, who missed the historic win against the All Blacks in Wellington during the Rugby Championship, recently signed a contract with Super Rugby side the Blue Bulls.
The veteran played a vital role during South Africa’s 2-1 Series win back in June. But unfortunately for the Springboks, their inability to adjust their tactics at a cold and wet Newlands stadium saw them suffer a 10-25 test defeat to the Eddie Jones’ side and blunder a chance of a clean sweep.
This weekend the weather will be very similar at Twickenham with the temperature barely getting above 15 degrees – a factor that will be an advantage for the English warns Vermeulen ahead of their fourth international meeting in 2018.
“The weather played a big part in Cape Town [at Newlands],” Vermeulen reminisced on the last time the sides met, adding: “England are used to playing in those conditions.
“It’s going to be a bit difficult for us, coming to play in the northern hemisphere – it’s a different game plan for us,”
https://soundcloud.com/user-645352503/springbok-coach-rassie-erasmus-ahead-of-facing-england-at-twickenham
The loose forward has identified the breakdown and the exit strategy as the areas that the Springboks need to focus on ahead of the opening November Test series.
“They [England] put us under a lot of pressure at the breakdown [during the third test at Newlands] and our exits weren’t great. That’s some of the stuff we’ve worked on.
“Think if you don’t win your set piece, you’re going to struggle – that’s definitely one of the areas we need to improve.
“Obviously, we will stick to a few things that worked in the recent Rugby Championship but will also have to take the conditions and how the game is played up here [in the north] into consideration.
“They use to a certain style of play so we need to adapt and we’ll see how it pans out on Saturday,”
Trevor and Duane trying to stop Malcolm during Tuesday’s early afternoon Springbok training run in London. #boksontour #LoveRugby pic.twitter.com/gcXmTFQej4
— South African Rugby (@Springboks) October 30, 2018
