Competition for Bok places a healthy boost for team, says Marvin Orie

The competition for places in the Springbok team is elevating the players to new heights, according to lock Marvin Orie, ahead of their final end-of-year-tour match against England at Twickenham on Saturday.

With the game falling outside of the international window, the Boks are without their French and England based players, which means a couple of players outside the match 23 will be getting a look in this weekend.

ALSO READ: Opinion – Emergence of Arendse, Libbok a big Bok boost ahead of 2023 World Cup

The Bok lock position is an extremely competitive one, with Eben Etzebeth, Lood de Jager and Franco Mostert the top three choices, but with De Jager unavailable, it looks like Orie is set for another start after he played over the past weekend against Italy.

“It is a big privilege and honour to be involved with the national team. I think the competition at lock in the Springboks is very strong, as well as in many other positions,” admitted Orie.

“To my mind that (competition) can do one of two things, either make a team much stronger and increase the level of all the players competing, or it can go the other way.

“For us mentality-wise and in training it has definitely increased the level of performance from everyone involved. So I think the competition has been a great thing, it has been really healthy for our team and I think we are lucky to have that.”

Massive forward battle

Looking at the England match, Orie says the team is well aware of the challenge that they will face and that it is up to them to prepare as well as they can for the game.

They will be aiming to build on their brilliant performance against Italy that saw them run in nine tries and rack up a massive 63-21 win, and they will need to be prepared for a massive forward battle, with the maul set to play an important part.

“We are all excited for the match. Or preparations start today and will be set out by the coaches and players that are involved in the various departments. I think we can always improve in all aspects of the game,” said Orie.

“I think the rolling maul is a technical and dynamic thing with many factors that can influence it. So like with the scrum, the breakdown and everything that we do, we always want to improve and we will definitely look to improve from last weekend’s performance.

“England will be a different threat. They bring different challenges, so we will try and prepare well in the week and hopefully do a good job on Saturday.”