De Allende, Marx eager to clinch first win over England

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Mandatory Credit: Photo by Morgan Treacy/INPHO/Shutterstock/BackpagePix (13609955av) Ireland vs South Africa. Ireland's Stuart McCloskey with Damian de Allende of South Africa 2022 Bank of Ireland Nations Series, Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland - 05 Nov 2022
  • Post published:November 24, 2022

Springbok duo Damian de Allende and Malcolm Marx say they are relishing the chance to claim their first win over England at Twickenham on Saturday.

In the last two meetings between the two teams, the Boks suffered two defeats against England, with their last victory against them coming in 2014.

South Africa will now be hoping for a different outcome when they face off at the Twickenham Stadium in London on Saturday.

Dr Allende, who was included in World Rugby’s 2022 Dream Team this past weekend, is hoping his side can maintain their consistency heading into the encounter.

“It would be incredible (to win this weekend),” said De Allende.

“I haven’t been part of a team that beat them at home. But that said, they are a great team and it’s going to be a tough encounter, especially since they have also been up and down in the last few games.

“When we played against them last season we tried to force things a bit too much in the last five or 10 minutes, but we learned from it and we spoke about it as a group, and hopefully we can turn things around on Saturday.

“One can never can never write them off. We all saw the last few minutes of their clash against the All Blacks last week.

“We always give them the respect they deserve, and hopefully we’ll pitch up on Saturday and deliver a consistent performance.”

Meanwhile, Springbok hooker Malcolm Marx spoke equally about England heading into the encounter in London.

“We gave our best in every Test we played on tour and there were results that went our way and others that didn’t, but we are all excited and very keen to get out there against England,” said the Springbok hooker.

“We haven’t won here in a while, and I’ve never won against them at home, so as a team we are looking forward to this match.

“No team like losing,” he said. “Every time you go onto the field, you want to give your best. Both us and England want to win this game to finish the season on a positive note.

“We’ve obviously seen how good and dominant they’ve been, so we know it’s going to be a great challenge for us in the set pieces. We’ve been working really hard all this week and hopefully we can improve on our performances up front in the previous games.”

Photo by Treacy/INPHO/Shutterstock/BackpagePix