It may be a bit premature, but World Cup winner JP Pietersen has favoured the Springboks to win the Rugby Championship.
Though the Springboks got off to a perfect start with two bonus-point victories in a row against hosts Australia, there’s the little matter of facing the All Blacks still lying ahead.
Hosts New Zealand, however, suffered a shock defeat to Argentina in their opening Rugby Championship clash in Wellington on August 10.
It means the Springboks have 10 points, five ahead of New Zealand and six ahead of Argentina. Australia are last without any points after their two outings.
South Africa's mission in Perth 🇿![CDATA[]]>🇦![CDATA[]]>👇
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Ringing the changes
Looking at the second match the Springboks played, coach Rassie Erasmus made 10 changes to his team and his charges still came away convincing victors by a 30-12 scoreline.
That performance spoke to the depth of South African rugby at the moment, adding credence to the Rugby World Cup titles they won in 2019 and 2023.
“The Springboks played some outstanding rugby, that was the most complete performance in an away game. Rassie still talks about the frustration of the unforced errors and mistakes they made but to look at it from an outside perspective it was really some good rugby to watch,” the former Springbok wing and current Sharks coach Pietersen told SportsBoom.com.
“The Springboks were really physical on defence, scrums and mauls, and to open it up with the flair to move the ball around with guys like Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and connection with the speed on the outside with [Kurt-Lee] Arendse.”
Next up for the Springboks will be two home fixtures against the All Blacks at Ellis Park on August 31 and Cape Town Stadium on September 7.
“New Zealand wont match the Springboks physically, we saw what Argentina did to them,” said Pietersen.
“With the scrum dominance the Springboks have, including two different set of packs. I don’t think New Zealand can take the Springboks physicality in the scrum, set piece and line speed of the defence.”
Finally, South Africa will travel to Argentina to take on Los Pumas in their final two Rugby Championship clashes later in September.