‘The whole of South Africa is our fortress’: Springbok hooker Malcolm Marx

Springbok Malcolm Marx is against the idea of singling out a particular venue as a fortress for the national side against visiting teams — he sees the entire country as a stronghold.

The hooker, whose 27 tries is the most by a Bok forward and ranks him fifth overall, was addressing a press conference in Johannesburg ahead of the first Test at Ellis Park.

“I think the whole of South Africa is our fortress, to be honest.

“It doesn’t matter where we play, who we’re playing against, like I said before, we prepare the best that we can and we know we’re not just representing ourselves and our families, we’ve got 64-, 65-million people that we’re trying to represent and represent them the best that we can on the day.”

The series will move to Cape Town Stadium the following Saturday and then to FNB Stadium on September 5 before they head to Baltimore in the US for the fourth and final contest a week later.

Of the three local stadiums being used, the Boks have their highest percentage win in the Mother City at 83.3% (five out of six), then Ellis Park at 69.6% (39/56) and FNB Stadium at 33.3% (1/3).

The two defeats at the Calabash were both against New Zealand.

Marx said the Boks had been working hard on the breakdown, one of the strong points of the All Blacks.

“We’re doing a lot of analysis and seeing where we can be better from previous games and seeing the threats that they bring in that aspect of the game.

“So working really hard at the things that we need to improve on and bearing in mind the small things that they do around the breakdown and looking at this opportunity for us as well.”

The word coming out of the Springbok camp is that the Kiwis used shoulders going into rucks in their three opening matches against the Stormers, Sharks and Bulls.

But Marx, a veteran of 89 Tests, dismissed the notion that the Springboks would dominate the scrums simply because of their historic 43-10 victory in their last encounter in Wellington.

“We know the All Blacks will obviously come after us at the scrums and we’re working extremely hard at it and so we can’t rely on what’s happened in the past to take us through this game.

“We’ve got to make sure we’ve done the work throughout the last couple of weeks in order to give us the best chance at the weekend.”

Marx, who is five tries behind fourth-placed Jaque Fourie on the all-time list, said he held his opposite number, Codie Taylor, in high regard.

I like the way that he plays the game, he’s extremely physical, good at set pieces.

—  Malcolm Marx on Codie Taylor

“I’ve obviously played against him for a good number of years now, at the Crusaders and the All Blacks.

“I’ve got the most respect for him and he’s a great, great rugby player. I like the way that he plays the game, he’s extremely physical, good at set pieces. So ja, we have a bit of a laugh and a beer after the game, but we obviously both know on the day we’ve both got a job to do.”

Marx said facing the All Black haka was a special moment.

“I stand in front of it and respect it and obviously look at one player and … also think about what’s going to happen after that. There’s going to be a kickoff either way, think about your first job at hand obviously after the haka is done.

“I do look at one specific player, I think you can probably guess who it is,” he added.