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15 stats and facts: Springboks v Argentina

Cape Town - Fifteen stats and facts ahead of Saturday's Springboks v Argentina Rugby Championship clash at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit.

• The total Test caps in the starting line-up is 420, which consist of 153 caps in the backline and 267 among the forwards. The combined Test caps of those on the bench are 45. The average caps per player in the match-23 is 20.

Adriaan Strauss will be captaining the side for the fourth time in his 58th Test.

• The youngest player in the 23 man squad is Jesse Kriel (22y, 5m) while the oldest member of the team is Bryan Habana (33y, 2m).

• The following players will play in their fourth consecutive match in the starting XV under Alister Coetzee: Lionel Mapoe, Damian de Allende, Faf de Klerk, Francois Louw, Eben Etzebeth, Adriaan Strauss and Tendai Mtawarira.

Milestones:

Bryan Habana needs one try to extend his own tournament career record to 20, which will equal 100 tournament career points. One try will also extend his own world record for most Test tries as a wing to 65. He needs three appearances in this tournament to reach 50 tournament appearances.

Eben Etzebeth will play in his 25th consecutive Test match.

Francois Louw will play in his 20th Rugby Championship Test.

• Rugby Championship debuts: Ruan Combrinck, Faf de Klerk and Julian Redelinghuys. Also Steven Kitshoff, Jaco Kriel, Bongi Mbonambi and Rudy Paige, should they be used off the bench.

Adriaan Straus will be the 13th Springbok captain in the competition.

Head-to-head:

• South Africa and Argentina played their first Test in the Rugby Championship four years ago, almost to the day, on 18 August, 2012. Saturday’s Test will be the eighth Rugby Championship match between the two countries. Of the previous seven, South Africa won five with one match drawn and a loss in Durban last year, the first ever loss against Argentina since their first Test in 1993.

• The Springboks’ record is as follows: Played 7, Won 5, Lost 1, Drawn 1, Points for 209, Points against 126, Tries for 21, Tries against 11, Average score 30-18.

Match officials:

• The match officials for this match are: Referee - Glen Jackson (New Zealand); Assistant referees - Jérôme Garcès (France) and Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand) with the TMO George Ayoub (Australia).

• It will be Jackson’s fourth appearance as referee in Test matches involving South Africa. The Springboks were victorious in all three previous Tests where the New Zealander refereed.

The stadium:

• Mbombela Stadium’s seating capacity is 40 929.

• The Springbok record at the stadium is: Played 2, Won 2, Points for 61, Points against 47, Tries for 7, Tries against 5, Average score 31-24.

The Springbok record holders for a match at the stadium are:

Most conversions: 4 by Morné Steyn against Wales in 2014

Most penalty goals: 2 by Morné Steyn against Scotland in 2013

Most tries: In the previous two Tests three penalty tries were awarded to South Africa (one against Scotland and two against Wales). The remaining four tries were scored by JJ Engelbrecht, Jan Serfontein, Cornal Hendricks and Willie le Roux.

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