Boks in limbo in Gqeberha awaiting travel plans after All Blacks cancellation

The Springboks will remain in limbo until Tuesday or Wednesday in Gqeberha awaiting fresh travel plans after their scheduled Rugby Championship matches against the All Blacks were cancelled.

Before the change, the Boks had been scheduled to share a biosecure aircraft with Argentina for a flight to Australia less than 48 hours after clashing with Los Pumas on Saturday.

Thanks to tries from wing Makazole Mapimpi and hooker Malcolm Marx, the Boks secured a 29-10 win over Argentina in their second match in the Rugby Championship at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.

“The one thing we have learnt through Covid-19 is that things change rapidly,” SA head coach Jacques Nienaber said. “In terms of what our plans are, we probably have six plans loaded for different scenarios.

“So if we stay in SA, and we hear that quite early, there is one plan loaded for that. I think we are going to stay here in Gqeberha until Tuesday or Wednesday and if we have to travel then there is another plan.

“If we have to go to Brisbane it will be different plan. And there are other plans if we go to France, the UK or even the US.

“So wherever they send us we will just adapt. Honestly, I don’t know what will happen but we have six options loaded and ready to go. Whatever one they give us we will operate and work from that.”

Nienaber praised his players after completing a run of matches that he described as six Tests. He linked the SA A match and three Tests against the British & Irish Lions, and the two Rugby Championship matches against Argentina as a single run of Tests.

Those games produced five victories and a defeat in the first Lions Test.

“I’m unbelievably proud of the squad of players,” he said. “This was a massive Test match for us. Not bigger than a World Cup or a British & Irish Lions series match, but it was huge for us internally.

“If you take the perspective of the SA A match against the Lions and then three Test matches against them and then two really tough Tests against Argentina, it was six Test matches in a row and at the end of it I can just say well done to the guys.”

Bok captain Siya Kolisi said the emotional Pumas had posed a big threat to his team. “We’re very similar in many ways and we love playing against them. They play for the people of Argentina like we play for the people of SA and we knew we would have our backs against the wall.

“We knew they were going to come, and they did. Argentina are a very passionate team, and we knew they would bring everything,” he said.

“But we stuck to our game plan and we built on the scoreboard. I wish we could have capitalised on the opportunities we created. But we made mistakes in lineouts and they defended well and they were a very different team to the one we played last week.”

The Boks needed to score three or more tries than Argentina to claim the bonus point but ended up conceding a try in the final moments. It was only the third they had conceded in six Tests in 2021, including the season opener against Georgia.

“We weren’t disappointed to concede the try,” Nienaber said. “Maybe 10 years ago I wouldn’t have said that, but we were going for the bonus point try and we told the guys to go for the big defensive reads and take chances.

“If we had got the bonus point try it would have been worth it. We were in a position where we could go for it, so it wasn’t a risk.”