WP Nel: 'South Africans don't care who is in front of them'
EXCLUSIVE: Former Edinburgh and Scotland prop WP Nel chatted to Rugby365 ahead of his former team’s Nations Championship showdown against the Boks at Loftus Versfeld this weekend.
South African-born Nel represented his adopted nation on 61 occasions and faced the Boks several times, the last being in the 2023 World Cup in their opening pool game.
Nel spoke about what he does in life after rugby, his experience playing against South Africa and what he expects from Scotland for this weekend’s game.
“I took a year away from rugby just to get my head clear after retiring from the game.
“I’m now focussing on kids developing scrum skills and the technical side of it. That’s something I always wanted to do to give back.
“We’ll see how far that will go, but that’s what I’m focussing on at the moment.
“It’s in Scotland, but we’ve done it a bit in South Africa as well.”
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On Saturday’s showdown, Nel said Scotland’s backs will be key to unlocking the Boks’ defence, but it will come down to their pack’s ability.
“I think we can expect similarly from what we saw against Argentina.
“We had a chat before the Los Pumas game, and it all comes down to being able to take the opposition on up front and stay in the fight, which will give opportunities for the backs to attack.
“We know Scotland’s backs are really good with go-forward ball. There’s a lot of x-factor in there, so if you give them front-foot ball, they can do a lot of damage.
“We saw that against Los Pumas. If you give them space and opportunities, they will hammer you.
“Similarly for this weekend…we know the Boks are No.1 in the world and why they are in that position.
“It’s not just their pack that’s amazing, the Boks have a firing backline.
“It will be a tough one, but if Scotland can somehow live with South Africa’s pack and provide opportunities for their backs, I think we’ll see some exciting rugby.”
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He added that Scotland can hold their own up front against the Boks, but is concerned about his former team’s bench replacements, where the game could be decided.
“As I know Pieter de Villiers, he will have something up his sleeve. There would definitely be something.
“I know him and Daan [Human] are good friends as well.
“Can Scotland hold up for 80 minutes against the Boks? I think we can start well, but we might be a bit thin on the bench.
“But I think we can live with the Boks. As we’ve seen this weekend, there’s definitely something, but again, it’s in Pretoria.
“I want to say yes, we can live with the Boks for some time, but the [Bok] bench will be the difference.”
Regarding his experience playing against the Boks, he outlined what makes South Africa such a tough opponent.
“South Africans have the attitude of not caring who is in front of them.
“If you line up for a scrum, you see who is in front of you.
“I know the South Africans…if Eben [Etzebeth] or RG [Snyman] tells Ox [Nche] ‘just keep your back straight, I’ll push you through the guy in front of you, don’t you worry’, you look back at your teammates and ask them if you heard what they said, you need to be ready.
“It’s the attitude and that mentality of ‘we don’t care who is in front of us, it’s all about us’.
“You firstly play against that kind of attitude, and that’s 80 percent of the game. The other 20 percent is just talent.
“That’s the hard bit playing against the Boks – you know what’s coming and you know you’re in for a battle.”
Nel concluded that he would like to back Scotland for the win, but the Boks will be too strong and emerge as winners.
“I would like to say Scotland will win, obviously, but I’ll go with a 35-26 win for South Africa.”
