Early arrival in Argentina was key to Bok success, says Nienaber

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber believes their early arrival in Buenos Aires ahead of their bonus point Rugby Championship win over hosts Argentina played a massive role in the team’s success at the weekend.

The Boks decided to fly straight from Sydney, after their second match against the Wallabies, to Argentina where they spent almost two weeks before the match.

This allowed the team to acclimatise, take some time off and then prepare for what was a vitally important game, and they responded by claiming an impressive 36-20 win to keep themselves firmly in the running for the title.

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“It was a good thing for us to come early, especially to get used to the heat. It is quite hot and humid over here after what we experienced in South Africa and Australia. So that helped us a lot,” explained Nienaber.

“Getting over the jet lag was also important. I think everyone struggled a bit when we got here. So it was nice to almost get that adjustment to your clock in an off week.

“When we got here the players were off for two days and we really had some good time bonding on a social level, where we didn’t have to focus on rugby, before starting training on Wednesday.

“We then had a good 10 days to prepare for this Test match which we saw as a semifinal, so that was really good.”

Know what is needed

With the All Blacks in action against the Wallabies this coming Saturday morning (South African time), the Boks will know exactly what they need to do against Argentina in their late afternoon game in Durban, if they want to win the Rugby Championship.

With some injured Bok players expected to be fit for the final game, it will be interesting to see whether the management will decide to back the players that have helped them win their last two matches in the competition, or if they will make any changes.

However, Nienaber admits that both teams will be in the same boat in what is set to be a short week for them after they arrive in SA.

“We have to do some assessments from an injury point of view before we name who we will be bringing back into the squad. Then we will make a decision in terms of that. It is going to be a short week as we only arrive in SA early on Monday morning,” said Nienaber.

“But we are going to have a level playing field, like it was for us here in Argentina. We (both teams) were on the same flight traveling here and we will be on the same flight traveling to South Africa. So the playing field will be level.”