After an opening day of the Rugby Championship during which New Zealand and South Africa made a strong impression, day two sees these two title contenders face off in Auckland on Saturday. This year, the flagship competition of the main nations of the southern hemisphere presents a tighter version, proximity to the World Cup (September 8 – October 28) obliges.
A week ago, the All Blacks and Springboks both mastered their entry into the competition, in ‘copy and paste’ mode as they beat Argentina 41-12 and Australia 43-12 respectively. Two almost identical scores, for matches that are no less so, with six tries on the South African side and seven on the New Zealand side, a scenario already known at half-time (17-5 for South Africa at Pretoria, 31-0 for New Zealand in Mendoza) and a similar feeling of ease.
But beware, these victories are still to be put into perspective. Thus, the All Blacks were relatively transparent in the second period, leaving the Pumas to stand up to them, while the Springboks largely benefited from Australian indiscipline, taking advantage in particular of two penalty tries. Suffice to say that the meeting scheduled for Saturday (9:05 a.m.) in Auckland is more than enticing, with a taste of the World Cup, less than two months from the event in France, where the Springboks will defend their title won in 2019 at the Japan. If the two nations are not placed in the same pool (A for New Zealand, B for South Africa), they could find themselves in the quarters.
For this shock, New Zealand coach Ian Foster made five changes, starting Crusaders No.10 Richie Mo’unga in place of Chiefs opener Damian McKenzie, excellent against the Pumas. On the side of the Boks, the second line Eben Etzebeth, back from injury and appointed captain in the absence of Siya Kolisi, injured, will finally play despite the death of his father this week.
For this match at the top, Jacques Nienaber, who had lined up an “almost bis” team against the Wallabies, this time called on his best elements, including world champions Faf de Klerk in N.9, hooker Bongi Mbonambi, wingers Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe, full-back Willie Le Roux. The second meeting of this second day, between Australians and Argentines in Sydney (11:45 am), the two losers of the opening matches, could suddenly seem very bland.
Nevertheless, he will still be closely scrutinized, at least by their future opponents at the World Cup, poured into pool C (Wales, Fiji, Georgia and Portugal) for the Wallabies, and in pool D (England , Japan, Samoa and Chile) for the Pumas. For this meeting, Eddie Jones, the Australian coach, made five changes, while Michael Cheika, his counterpart at the Pumas, changed four players compared to the starting XV against the Blacks.
