Boks well prepared, assures Strauss

Cape Town - Springbok captain Adriaan Strauss feels they are well prepared ahead of Saturday’s Rugby Championship Test against Argentina.

The Boks struggled for large parts during last weekend’s 30-23 win over Los Pumas in Nelspruit, where they had to overturn a 23-13 deficit heading into the final 10 minutes.

This weekend’s duel in hostile Salta is sure to be an even sterner test for the South Africans, as the Argentinians will be banking on the support of a vociferous home crowd.

“We travelled quite well and we’ve had a great week of preparation, good training sessions on the field, we’ve sorted out details in the video and technical sessions as well, so I feel we’re very well prepared,” Strauss said.

“I’m very excited about the weekend and if we’re honest we just need to be better in everything we do, and lift the standards even more.”

Gone are the days that Argentina can be seen as a minnow rugby nation, Strauss warned.

“The Argentinians have been semi-finalists in Rugby World Cups for a couple of times. They’re a rugby force, not a building nation anymore,” he said.

“It’s a massive Test match against them, away from home. We know they’re a passionate nation and they’ll come with a backlash as well. But like I said, we want to be better, we prepared quite well and we’re ready for a great Test on Saturday (kick-off 21:40 SA time).”

Teams:

Argentina

15 Joaquín Tuculet, 14 Santiago Cordero, 13 Matías Orlando, 12 Juan Martín Hernández, 11 Manuel Montero, 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 9 Martín Landajo, 8 Facundo Isa, 7 Juan Manuel Leguizamón, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Tomás Lavanini, 4 Matías Alemanno, 3 Ramiro Herrera, 2 Agustín Creevy (captain), 1 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro

Substitutes: 16 Julian Montoya, 17 Felipe Arregui, 18 Enrique Pieretto, 19 Guido Petti, 20 Javier Ortega Desio, 21 Tomas Cubelli, 22 Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias, 23 Lucas González Amorosino

South Africa

15 Johan Goosen, 14 Ruan Combrinck, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Warren Whiteley, 7 Oupa Mohoje, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Adriaan Strauss (captain), 1 Tendai Mtawarira

Substitutes: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Lourens Adriaanse, 19 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 20 Jaco Kriel, 21 Rudy Paige, 22 Morne Steyn, 23, Jesse Kriel