The experienced Bok lock singled out the breakdowns and mauls as areas they particularly needed to step up in when the teams meet at Hollywoodbets Kings Park on Saturday.
The Springboks won the opening match by 27-20 at Loftus Versfeld – South Africa’s first victory over Ireland since 2016 – and will be hunting their second win a row this weekend, and Mostert agreed with this team-mates and coaches that it would take another massive effort from the team.
“We certainly don’t think the win last week was a case of getting the monkey off our back,” said Mostert.
“They are feeling exactly the way we did in the Rugby World Cup, and we saw during the British & Irish Lions tour (in 2021) what that first defeat did for us. So, they’ll come back stronger, and it’s going to be a good test for us.”
Zooming into the game, Mostert expected another massive forward battle: “They did a good job last week at stopping our mauls and they are a team that generally don’t concede a lot of maul tries. So, hopefully we can come up with a few plans this weekend.
“At the breakdowns they put Faf (de Klerk) and Grant (Williams) under pressure, so as a team we have to do improve in that area as well this weekend.”
Mostert was chuffed with the impact the bomb squad made in Pretoria – especially the pushover scrum which earned the Boks a penalty try – and said: “I get goosebumps when I think about that. Coach Daan (Human – scrum coach) puts a lot of hard work in to get the scrums to function well, and it’s great to see the rewards.”
As one of the stalwarts in the squad with 75 Test caps going into the game and two Rugby World Cup medals to his name, Mostert said while it would be fantastic to keep running out in the green and gold, he was realistic about his position in the squad as Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus starts building his squad for the 2027 RWC in Australia.
“Each player has their own personal goals, and personally I plan to take it year by year,” said the hard-working forward. “As long as my body can handle it, I’ll play until I’m no longer selected. But playing in three RWCs would be very special.”
