Hooker Bongi Mbonambi has quietened talk about the favourites tag as South Africa prepare to face Argentina in their Rugby Championship decider in London on Saturday.
The Springboks won last week’s match against Argentina 67-30 in Durban and currently lead the Rugby Championship standings by one point.
But despite winning their last two games with impressive scores — the other being a record 43-10 victory against the All Blacks in Wellington — Mbonambi is expecting a tough outing in London.
“If you watch last week’s game, you’ll see that it was not as easy as the score may suggest,” Mbonambi said.
“It definitely wasn’t a walk in the park in Durban, and over and above that, a lot can happen in a week in rugby, so we need to go out there and give our best on the field to get the result we want.
“We approach each game day by day. When you think you are on top, you can be humbled quickly, so we’ll respect them going into this match.
“They’ll be hurting after last week, so we have a big challenge ahead, but we’ve done our homework, and our preparation has been going well. That said, it’s definitely going to be an arm-wrestle of a match. We expect a proper retaliation from them on Saturday.”
With Jan-Hendrik Wessels and Marnus van der Merwe also getting an opportunity to make their presence felt at hooker this season, along with the experienced Malcolm Marx, Mbonambi was thrilled to get another opportunity to be in the match-day squad.
“It’s always an honour and privilege to be in the team — when one is not in the set-up, you really miss it,” Mbonambi said.
“There is competition in every position, but we love it, and the coaches have shown that if you are good enough, they’ll pick you. The key is that when you get your chance, you have to play as well as you can and do the job on the day.
“It’s been great to see how Jan-Hendrik and Marnus have been growing and developing as players, and the competition between everyone is fantastic.”
