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Twickenham cold could freeze Boks

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.

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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

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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.

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“They use to a certain style of play so we need to adapt and we’ll see how it pans out on Saturday,”

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