Boks not favourites but pressure is on

• Lukhanyo Am says the World Cup in France will be wide open with top five teams on a par

Defending champions the Springboks will head to the 2023 Rugby World Cup not wearing the favourites tag, but centre Lukhanyo Am says that does not reduce the pressure on them.

The World Cup in France from September 8 promises to be a wide open contest, with a number of national teams appearing to be in good shape ahead of the showpiece.

Among the teams touted as contenders are top-ranked Ireland, hosts and second-ranked France and third-placed New Zealand. Scotland, fifth place in the rankings after the fourthplaced Boks, have been in excellent shape.

Speaking at an event for malt-flavoured drink DanUp at Maponya Mall in Johannesburg, Am said he believed rugby enthusiasts were in store for an exciting tournament.

“It will really be interesting when we are starting the World Cup this time around [because] we don’t really have favourites,” he said. “I think any team in the top five can beat any side. So it will really be a good World Cup to watch.”

Am, though, feels the Springboks will still be under pressure, both to defend their title and from the expectations of the SA public. “The pressure will always be there. I think just purely from our people, South Africans, there will always be pressure,” he said. “[As for pressure] from the rest of the world, we don’t really look deeply into that, but the pressure will still be there.”

Am takes confidence from the Boks being in a good place compared to their 2019 World Cup triumph in Japan, when they underwent coaching changes a year before the tournament. Director of rugby Rassie Erasmus took over the coaching reins from the sacked Allister Coetzee in 2018.

“Four years ago we were definitely one of the underdogs and I think this year we are one of the teams that are out there,” Am said. “We are still the champs and going there to defend the world title. But the biggest difference is we’ve got more of an experienced group than we had four years ago.”

The Boks have completed a camp in Durban and will go into another in the coming days as they prepare for the start of the Rugby Championship in July.

“The camp was really good, I think we got some sort of introduction to how things will be for the rest of the year,” Am said.

“We worked on the rugby stuff and the conditioning side of things. I think we are in a good spot as a team. The coaches have their plans in place on how we are going to tackle this year.”

Am is a favourite to captain the Boks in the Rugby Championship should skipper Siya Kolisi not recover from surgery for a knee injury.