Boks size up Euro-Pumas

Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer is expecting Argentina to stick to a European style of rugby in their Rugby Championship opener at Newlands.

The Pumas represent something of an unkown quantity at the start of a competition in which the other three teams know each other inside out, but Meyer is confident that he knows what to expect from the South American side on Saturday.

The Bok mentor explained that given their traditional strengths in the set-pieces and the fact that the majority of their players ply their trade in Europe, Argentina are likely to play a forward dominated power game.

He said: "We know what to expect, a lot of their players play in France and they play a lot of the mentality of the South African and European players where it is very good in set-pieces.

"They are a very strong scrumming side and they are very good at line-outs, especially mauling, and they are a very good pick and go side because a lot of their players play in Europe."

Meyer said that Argentina's settled coaching staff are unlikely to change their direct approach, especially as they have made such strides in their fitness and discipline in recent times.

"I think the one thing about them is that they have been together for quite some time now. They have got the same coaching staff and usually with the same coaching staff you play more or less the same game.

"They have always been good at scrummaging and mauling and what they have improved lately is their fitness and their defence," he said.

With most of their players based in Europe the bulk of the Pumas squad have been through pre-season training in recent weeks, so Meyer is expecting them to be physically intense and dismissed the idea that Graham Henry's recent visit will have influenced their traditional style.

"You don't change overnight, I think a lot of what Graham Henry has done with them has to do with the mentality and professionalism but they have always been a great side especially at World Cups so there will be slight tweaks but they will not change too much in the way that they play," he said.

The extra week of training has allowed the Bok coach to go into more tactical detail with the players, along with his other main objective of working on their fitness levels.

"I think the great thing for us last week, although we wanted to go really hard and do a lot of repetition, there was also a lot of specific training and a lot of detail that we couldn't put in the first three weeks [against England].

"The great thing is that there is a lot of detail that we didn't get to in the England Test series and a lot of the guys understand the gameplan better so there was much more detailed training and coaching," said Meyer.

There was positive news on the injury front for the Bok coach, as Keegan Daniel was the only player to miss training on Monday. The sharks captain is recovering from a spider bite picked up on the weekend, but he is expected to recover quickly.

Team doctor Craig Roberts said that he was happy with Eben Etzebeth's progress and will make a call on his availability in the next two days.  

"Everyone trained except for Keegan Daniel who picked up quite a nasty spider bite just under his arm over the weekend so out of the blue we had to deal with that.

"He is responding to antibiotics and I am hoping that he will be ok in the next couple of days so he should be available for selection.

"Eben Etzebeth had his first training session today and we are really happy with how he progressed. He did quite a few line-outs and then we pulled him out iof part of our second session which was always our plan," said Roberts.

By Michael de Vries