Not content with clinching historic back-to-back Rugby Championship titles, the Springboks are planning to end their season with an even bigger bang when they embark on a five-match European tour in November, hooker Malcolm Marx says.
After beating Argentina 29-27 in their final Rugby Championship clash at Twickenham in London on Saturday, the Boks are looking ahead to their next block of work.
Marx said the world champions had no intention of resting on their laurels, despite their recent run of successes.
The dynamic hooker was one of the heroes in the Bok side in London, scoring two tries to help his team over the finishing line against the Pumas.
The Boks will enjoy a short break before their end-of-season European tour, where they will face Japan (at Wembley Stadium in London), France, Italy, Ireland and Wales.
“Winning the Rugby Championship feels a bit surreal, to be honest,” Marx said.
“I’m just extremely grateful for everything that has happened over the past few weeks, the lessons learnt, victories that we’ve had.
“What we’ve achieved will probably sink in over the next few days. But there’s still a lot of hard work ahead to improve ourselves. We just tried to focus on ourselves and obviously give the best performance we could.
“There were errors and areas where we can be better, but we’ll definitely take the victory and enjoy it.
“Winning this trophy is very humbling, but there are still a lot of things we can get better at.
“To be honest, I am lost for words and extremely grateful for the support from fans who came out from far and wide to support us in London. No matter where we play, we have fans supporting us.
“There were highs and lows in this tournament, but we stuck together and got through it.”
Marx gave credit to Argentina for the way they bounced back in London after suffering a heavy defeat in the opening game in Durban.
“We definitely expected them to come out like that,” he said.
“They’re a great nation and a proud rugby side. It was tough, as you could see by the scoreline.
“Last year, they beat us when we played away, and to beat them twice in a row is obviously something special for us.”
“It’s unreal, we spoke about lifting the trophy the whole week.
“We had not won it back-to-back before.”
Bok scrumhalf Cobus Reinach, who was named man of the match, said Argentina had provided stiff opposition in the final match.
“The Boks still have a lot of improvements to make, but we are getting there,” he said.
“We knew we would not just run out here and roll over them.
“It takes teams 60 or 70 minutes to break the opposition down, and Argentina are unreal. They have a lot of dog in them; they keep fighting.
“Just to win is an unreal feeling and knowing we have done it back to back, I don’t really know how to explain that feeling.
“This is really a tough competition and Argentina showed that today and anything could have happened, and any team could have won.
“Looking at where Argentina come from and their country, we knew they would come out fighting.
“That is what we saw and there were times we had to chase a few tails and shadows, and they are an unreal team.
“In this tournament, we won a game and then lost one and rugby is a strange game. We have a lot of work to do and we are ready for that.
“Winning the Rugby Championship title is up there with my best experiences.”
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