Former Springbok Stefan Terblanche has shared his predictions for the upcoming British & Irish Lions tour of South Africa in July.
Terblanche, one of rugby’s greatest finishers, scored 19 tries for the Springboks, including a South African Test record of four tries against Ireland in 1998, bettering that performance by scoring a then SA record five tries against Italy in Durban.
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Sharing his prediction for the upcoming Lions series on his social-media pages, Terblanche was positive overall, despite the Springboks’ long hiatus from the field.
“People always ask me about the result, what do I think,” Terblanche wrote. “It is incredibly hard right now to tell you my prediciton or what the outcome will be. The reason for that is that we haven’t played any international rugby for nearly the last 20 months.
“So we will go into this Test match hugely [as] underdogs, without a doubt. The reason for that is not because we don’t have good players or can’t play good rugby, or because we are not World Champions, because we are. It is purely because we haven’t played rugby as a team together. It will be incredibly hard for the Springboks, Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber, don’t get me wrong.
“I believe we’ve got enough ‘muscle memory’ to bring it all together. If you look at the squad, without a doubt, not one of us will disagree that it contains the best players in South Africa and many of them possibly the world. Rassie and Jacques Nienaber will get the selection together, they will get their game plan spot on and they will be well prepared under the circumstances.
“I genuinely I believe that even though we haven’t played Test match rugby together as a Springbok team since that very memorable World Cup Final in November 2019, we will beat the British and Irish Lions in South Africa. If there’s ever a chance for the British and Irish Lions to win a Test match, it’s the first Test.”
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Watch the video for more in-depth predictions from one of Springbok rugby’s greats:
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