PORT ELIZABETH — The battle of the super-sub props could have a massive bearing on the Rugby Championship clash between the Springboks and the Wallabies at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.
South Africa and Australia possess two of world rugby’s most dynamic props in Steven Kitshoff and Taniela Tupou. Both are extremely powerful operators in the scrum, but they are also explosive with ball in hand and on defence.
Kitshoff started in the Boks’ previous two matches in the competition against the Wallabies in Brisbane and the famous win over the All Blacks in Wellington. He was one of Boks’ key players in Wellington, as he made a lot of dominant hits on defence and some valuable metres with the ball tucked under his right arm.
But on Saturday he is likely to move down to the bench in a switch with the experienced Tendai Mtawarira to try and counter Tupou, the ‘Tongan Thor’, who is slowly but surely establishing himself as one of the fearsome No 3s on the planet.
The Boks would have backed themselves against the Australian scrum in Brisbane, but struggled in patches and a penalty against them helped the Australians close out a hard-fought, but scrappy contest. Tupou played a major part in that scrum.
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Springboks’ prop Steven Kitshoff looks ahead at Saturday’s test against Australia and where South Africa need to improve.
“He [Tupou] is a good tighthead and he has been playing great rugby for the Reds. Each tighthead in the Australian set-up has got his own unique style of scrumming and each one you have to take on with a new set of skills,” Kitshoff said this week.
“Doing our homework this week is going to be important, because we don’t know what the team is going to look like. We need to be ready for everything that they throw at us.
“The Test was just a bit scrappy, and we didn’t really get the scrum going. This week it’s going to be important to stick to our structures and get our game plan going and make it a cleaner and better battle when it comes to set piece.”
Kitshoff’s own little battle with the Beast have been fierce, with the ginger-haired prop ready to take over from the veteran loosehead. So far coach Rassie Erasmus has managed this rivalry well, with both players getting their fair share of starts in the No 1 jersey.
There is a feeling that Kitshoff should be given sole possession of the jersey, but the Stormers prop is happy with his different roles and thankful to learn from the master.
“I’m just happy being in the mix every week. I think the competition between myself and Beast is very healthy and we push each other every week to become better players and scrummers,” Kitshoff said.
“He has been there and done that, he knows the game and the scrum back to front. So, he is someone I look up to when it comes to scrumming inspiration and his workload in the game is second to none. I learn a lot from him and it’s special to have someone like him in the mix.”