Springboks prop Ox Nche has warned his team to be fully prepared for the Pumas ahead of their Rugby Championship clash in Buenos Aires on Saturday.
The meeting at Estadio José Amalfitani will complete Round Five of the competition, with Australia set to have already faced New Zealand on Thursday.
The All Blacks currently top the standings on 10 points with the Wallabies, Springboks and Argentina locked on nine points apiece with two rounds left.
And loosehead prop Nche is under no illusions about the challenge facing his team as they prepare for a must-win clash in the race to lift the silverware.
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Need to be ready for Pumas
“We have to impose ourselves on them,” he told the Springboks’ website.
“The main thing for us is that we know they always come up with something different and special, and especially in front of their home crowd, so we need to be ready for that.”
Nche admits that the set-piece battle will be key on Saturday and has been impressed by what he’s seen from the Pumas’ pack in the 2022 tournament.
“Argentina retained most of their ball in the scrum during the Castle Lager Rugby Championship, and we saw that they had a plan to counter the New Zealand scrum, so it’s important that we prepare well in that department,” he said.
Of the mauls, Nche added: “It will be a good battle against them. They disrupted New Zealand’s mauls and they also did well in loose play against Australia, so they certainly plan well in terms of how they stop mauls. We’ll have to find a way to counter that.”
Good win over Wallabies
Last time out, against the Wallabies, the Springboks were excellent and Nche admits they must replicate that form if they are to come away victorious.
“For us it’s not about the underdogs tag, it is about what we want to achieve and how we want to achieve it,” the front-row said when asked if being dubbed favourites for a game can hinder their performance.
Springboks head coach Jacques Nienaber is set to name his team to take on Los Pumas on Tuesday as this fascinating tournament nears its conclusion.