Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos hopes a little of the Springboks’ stardust will rub off on his players when they face Ivory Coast in a high-profile friendly match in Abidjan on Tuesday night.
The Boks reached the semifinals of the Rugby World Cup with a bruising 29-28 victory over hosts France on Sunday, and following their lacklustre 0-0 draw with Eswatini in a friendly on Friday, Broos hopes his side will take inspiration.
“I want to congratulate our rugby team on making the semifinals of the World Cup by beating France. I saw a team with a lot of passion, with a big mentality, a team with a great spirit and great quality, and I hope they will inspire us in the match against Ivory Coast,” Broos said.
But he acknowledges his side are up against a mighty opponent in 2023 Africa Cup of Nations hosts Ivory Coast, who he has tipped as one of the favourites to lift the trophy in February.
“Ivory Coast is a very good team with very good players, for me it is one of the candidates to win Afcon next year,” he said. “It will be a great experience for us and we need such games in preparation for Afcon.
“It will be also a very good experience for us to play in a full stadium, we are not used to that. I think we had 200 spectators last Friday (against Eswatini), in this game there will be 40 000 I am sure. It will be a great experience.”
Striker Lebo Mothiba echoed those words and says he is looking forward to the challenge.
“Ivory Coast is a very big team with very good players, most of who play in Europe,” the Strasbourg forward said. “It will be a very good test for us, they are a candidate to win the Afcon next year, so it is a very good test to see where we are and where we need to improve.”