South Africa are primed to host the British and Irish Lions in the first Test in Cape Town.
A tour so far clouded by Covid problems and a lack of form for the Springboks due to such few playing opportunities, the real action begins for head coach Warren Gatland and his men.
The Lions may have lost to the ‘A’ side but they produced a dominant set-piece showing in a 17-13 loss in the build-up to this first Test, though Gatland’s side bounced back with a Luke Cowan-Dickie inspired win over the Stormers. Springboks assistant coach Mzwandile Stick rejecting Gatland’s “mind games” ahead of the series opener, though he also vowed the hosts would prove their point in deed not word.
“From my side I won’t go deep on that one,” said Stick. “We were happy as a Springbok team; if you look at the most important stat in the game, which is the final score. We won the game so I’m not too sure what it is that they dented. I’m not going to fall into that trick of playing the mind games, I’m not a mind games person. The game is going to be played between four lines. If Gatland is talking about the egos, he doesn’t really know much about us as South Africans.
“So I’m not going to go deep on that. Let’s wait and see after the game tomorrow. Hopefully we can give the people a good show of rugby. We know they are going to be tough, we know they are going to be physical. So once again, when it comes the ego, we’ll see the egos between the four lines.”
