Kitsie: Boks will be looking for blood

Steven Kitshoff expects an angry response from the Springboks in Dublin following their 21-19 defeat to France in Paris.

The world champions face Ireland at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday in the final round of the Nations Championship ahead of the finals weekend at Twickenham on 27-29 November.

The All Blacks suffered a shock defeat to Wales in Cardiff but are one point ahead of the Boks on the southern hemisphere log ahead of their clash with England at Twickenham.

To reach the final, the Boks must beat Ireland and hope England do them a favour.

“I don’t think it’s going to be an easy week,” Kitshoff said on the For the Love of Rugby podcast, with former England scrumhalf Ben Youngs. “If you think about what Rassie [Erasmus] said post-match, it just feels there’s nothing positive to look at.

“The way that the Springbok team handles tough losses, I think there’s going to be a massive uproar within the Springbok camp and I think they’re going to come out looking for blood and try and cut down the Irish as quickly as possible.

“So, also expecting a big set-piece battle first of all, taking away their legs, and then from there defensively just trying to shut down as much of their structured play as possible, but it’s going to be brutal.”

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The former Bok prop pointed to two areas Erasmus’ side needs to fix.

The first is discipline at scrum time. He felt the Boks allowed Les Bleus to get away with collapsing scrums late in the match, despite their clear dominance.

“You need to be whiter than white to make sure that if a call comes from the referee, you’re in favour,” he said.

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The second is defence close to the breakdown, where he believes the Boks have been exposed at times during this year’s competition.

“From a Springbok defensive effort point of view, where we got cut twice close to the breakdown, that is maybe a real issue that needs to be dealt with,” Kitshoff said.

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