Bouyant Bongi Mbonambi relishing being back in the Bok mix

Mbonambi missed out on the Boks' record-breaking tour to New Zealand as he was attending to "personal matters" in South Africa. The veteran hasn't been on the park since the Wallabies' brilliant win over the Springboks at Ellis Park in Round 1 of the Rugby Championship.

In that time, Jan-Hendrik Wessels and Marnus van der Merwe - together with stalwart Malcolm Marx - have been swapping out at hooker. Now, Mbonambi returns for the swansong of the campaign and is very aware of the youngsters nipping at his heels.

"It's always an honour and privilege to be in the team - when one is not in the set-up, you really miss it," said the 34-year-old, who has been named on the bench.

"There is competition in every position, but we love it, and the coaches have shown that if you are good enough, they'll pick you. The key is that when you get your chance, you have to play as well as you can and do the job on the day.

"It's been great to see how Jan-Hendrik and Marnus have been growing and developing as players, and the competition between everyone is fantastic."

Mbonambi is under no illusions as to the challenge posed by a wounded Los Pumas side at Twickenham.

"If you watch last week's game, you'll see that it was not as easy as the score may suggest," added the Sharks star.

"It definitely wasn't a walk in the park in Durban, and over and above that, a lot can happen in a week in rugby, so we need to go out there and give our best on the field to get the result we want.

"We don't focus on those opinions, we approach each game day by day. When you think you are on top, you can be humbled quickly, so we'll respect them going into this match.

"They'll be hurting after last week, so we have a big challenge ahead, but we've done our homework, and our preparation has been going well. That said, it's definitely going to be an arm-wrestle of a match. We expect a proper retaliation from them on Saturday."