Springboks determined to correct mistakes against All Blacks in Cape Town

Springboks prop Thomas du Toit says South Africa have put their opening defeat by New Zealand behind them and are focused on correcting their errors in the second Test of the Greatest Rivalry series in Cape Town on Saturday.

South Africa arrived in Cape Town on Wednesday evening after completing their main training session in Johannesburg earlier that day. The squad had Thursday off to recover and prepare for the match, with the captain’s run scheduled for Friday.

“The important thing was to park that game and take the learnings as quickly as we could,” Du Toit told reporters on Thursday.

“I think we’ve done an incredible job over the last couple of years putting each game in its own box and not looking back at what went wrong the whole week, but rather trying to rectify as much as we can and fix things as quickly as possible.

“By Monday afternoon we had a proper review, and we worked on the things that went wrong on the training field this week.”

Du Toit has been selected among the replacements, alongside Deon Fourie and Gerhard Steenekamp, and is expected to provide impact from the bench. Although South Africa enjoyed periods of dominance in the scrum during last week’s match, he believes both forward packs face another demanding contest at DHL Stadium.

“It (the scrum battle) is going to be interesting, like every other week,” said Du Toit.

“We trained hard this week, and I’m sure the All Blacks have too, and everyone will try to bring their A-game on Saturday.

“Look at the Lions game (against the All Blacks), you could definitely see they’ve been working on it, and it’s going well for them, so we’ll do our best, but it’s something both teams pride themselves on.”

Du Toit said the replacements would have to raise the intensity rather than simply maintain the level established by the starting players.

“Things can change so quickly within a week, so coming off the bench it’s not just about staying at the same tempo that the starting guys deliver, it’s about trying to lift that and increase it. Those players did very well last week, but that doesn’t count for anything this week.

“We need to rectify the mistakes we made and try to build on that dominance, knowing that it starts from the ground up. No points are carried over. It starts all over again.”

The match will also mark important milestones for two South Africa forwards. Ox Nche is set to win his 50th Test cap, while utility forward Pieter-Steph du Toit will become only the 11th Springbok in history to reach 100 Test appearances.

Thomas du Toit said he hoped the team could deliver a memorable occasion for both players.

“I’m incredibly grateful for him (Ox) as a player and as a person, and I’m very proud of him earning his 50th – hopefully we can do the job to make it a memorable one for him and Pieter-Steph,” he said.

Regular captain Siya Kolisi is returning to the starting XV after recovering from injury. Du Toit praised Kolisi’s approach during his rehabilitation, saying the flanker had been prepared to delay his return whenever he did not feel fully fit.

“It’s great to have Siya back. He worked really hard on his rehab to get back as quickly as he could, and every time he didn’t feel 100% he was big enough to say he wasn’t ready, and take an extra week for the medical team to look after him properly.

“That was a very responsible call, not only for the team but for himself too. He’s very vocal, especially at training, and that helps a lot because it gives confidence to the younger guys and the entire team.”

Kick-off is at 17:10 on Saturday.