Head-to-head: Jantjies versus Biggar
SPOTLIGHT: The main act of the Loftus Versfeld play is South Africa versus Wales. Some of the sideshows could be more entertaining.
By the nature of their positions and roles in the teams, the face-off between flyhalves is always pivotal to the outcome of the game.
Elton Thomas Jantjies and Daniel Rhys Biggar will be a special worth the entry fee for the sell-out 52,000 Loftus crowd.
Jantjies, 312, is in fifth place on the all-time list of Springbok scorers (326 points) and he needs 10 points to pass Bryan Habana (335 points) in fourth.
His 44 Tests puts him just outside the top 50 of the most capped Boks.
In contrast, Biggar, 32, played his 100th Test for his country in a Six Nations encounter with Scotland back in February.
The two No.10s have clashed on a few occasions.
Biggar said Jantjies has ‘all the tricks’ of the trade and they are fully aware of what he brings, as opposed to Pollard.
“What Handre [Pollard] brings are control and a territory-based game,” the Welsh captain said.
“He makes very few mistakes,” he said of Pollard.
“Elton has a pretty decent pack in front of him.
“We have to create problems for their forwards and then we can make his life a lot more difficult.”
Biggar said the same would apply to creating pressure for scrumhalf Francois de Klerk.
However, if the Welsh pack doesn’t get the upperhand or at least ‘stem the flow of possession’, the Bok halfbacks will have a ball at Loftus.
The Springboks were equally complimentary of the rivals’ No.10.
Bok skipper Siyamthanda Kolisi described Dan Biggar as a “very vocal” player, who gets the team behind him.
“If he is on sing, he gets the team behind him and he has captained Wales, so it is nothing new for them,” Kolisi said.
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In the head-to-head between the two teams, the Springboks’ record is far superior to that of the Welsh Dragons.
Of the 37 encounters, the Boks won 30, Wales six and only one was drawn.
South Africa has scored 945 and conceded 586, a match aggregate of 26-16.
SA scored 111 tries and conceded 48, a three-one try count.
The Boks’ highest score was 96 and the biggest win by 83 points – a 96-13 win at Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria, in June 1998.
Saturday’s Test will only be the fourth Test match at Loftus Versfeld between the two countries – with a 21-37 loss in 2008 the narrowest of margins in Pretoria.
The total Test caps for the Springbok starting line-up is 603.
There are 222 caps in the backline with 381 caps amongst the forwards. On the bench, there are a further 342 caps.
The average caps per player in the backline are 24, the forwards 42, and the players on the bench average 31.
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