{"id":710305,"date":"2026-07-25T09:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T09:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/710305\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T09:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T09:54:08","slug":"nick-mallett-why-argentina-is-a-massive-game-for-eben-etzebeth-and-other-springboks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/710305\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Mallett: Why Argentina is a ‘massive game’ for Eben Etzebeth and other Springboks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rassie Erasmus will know whether the clash against Argentina<\/a> and the Springboks\u2019 training intensity will be enough preparation for the returning players ahead of the Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry series against the All Blacks.<\/p>\n

That is according to former head coach Nick Mallett, who believes that the match against Los Pumas will be \u2018massive\u2019 for the 10 players returning from injury ahead of the highly anticipated showdown between South Africa and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Erasmus has already named his 44-man squad for the series and the fixture in South America, which serves not only as a warm-up for the Boks but also an opportunity to get minutes into the legs of those returning from injury.<\/p>\n

The likes of Handre Pollard, Ethan Hooker, Canan Moodie and Andre Esterhuizen turned out for the Boks in their Nations Championship fixtures but all sustained injuries \u2013 which limited them to just a single appearance each. They have all overcome those setbacks to make the squad and are joined by the fit-again Eben Etzebeth, Lood de Jager, Franco Mostert, Siya Kolisi, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Morne van den Berg.<\/p>\n

Springboks\u2019 strength in depth<\/p>\n

The August 8 meeting with Los Pumas in Buenos Aires serves as the Boks\u2019 final match before the Test series commences at Ellis Park 14 days later, and while Mallett believes that Erasmus\u2019 men are in a good space depth-wise, he is wary of the readiness of some of the players.<\/p>\n

He singled out the most-capped Springbok<\/a> of all-time, Etzebeth<\/a>, to prove his point, with the lock playing just one game since last November as he served a ban for eye-gouging, then suffered an injury on his return with the Sharks and a concussion which ruled him out of the July internationals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have tremendous strength in depth and variety of players that we can introduce to the game. What\u2019s important from the squad selected is the freshness, enthusiasm and game-readiness of the group when they play the first Test against New Zealand<\/a>,\u201d Mallett said on the Talking Boks podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cA guy like Eben Etzebeth, who has taken such a long time to get back in the mix, you\u2019ve got to question whether one game versus Argentina and the intensity in camp is going to be enough for him to go into an All Blacks game. Rassie will have an answer to that question; he will know it far better than us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springboks: Nick Mallett\u2019s verdict on Siya Kolisi versus Paul de Villiers debate<\/a><\/p>\n

All Blacks bolter to crack Dave Rennie\u2019s touring squad and what it means for Ardie Savea<\/a><\/p>\n

Massive game versus Argentina<\/p>\n

Another remark from Erasmus caught Mallett\u2019s eye which the ex-Boks boss believes will factor into his selection plans for the four Tests against the All Blacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite interesting; he did mention that he has been part of Springboks teams that look great on paper, but the guys haven\u2019t been able to train every session in the week,\u201d he continued<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the guys are able to play on Saturday, but they are still recovering from the game the previous Saturday, and he said that you are never able to perform well if you are not physically able to handle the workload of a hard week and then go into the game on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo this Argentina game is a massive game for so many of our players.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Sir Steve Hansen\u2019s \u2018think outside the square\u2019 All Blacks plan to negate huge Springboks strength and leave them \u2018frustrated\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rassie Erasmus will know whether the clash against Argentina and the Springboks\u2019 training intensity will be enough preparation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[348,3482,134497,620,50,91534,5903,4247,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-710305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-nations-championship","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-nick-mallett","tag-rugby","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}