If Bakkies Botha is the enforcer in the South Africa pack, Bismarck du Plessis is being groomed for the job. The hooker picked a number of confrontations in the first Test, notably with Phil Vickery, whom he twice shoved to the floor, and he later pinned Brian O'Driscoll to the ground, pulling his right arm back before thinking better of it.
The 25-year-old may have a lot to say on the field, but he is taciturn off it. Asked whether he thought the Lions would respond in kind in Saturday's second Test to what they felt were intimidating and provocative acts in Durban, he merely smiled and carefully considered his reply.
"It is not for me to say how the Lions will play, the changes they will make or the attitude they will take," said Du Plessis, who forms an all-Sharks front row for South Africa with John Smit and Tendai Mtawarira. "They played well in the second half in Durban and they had a lot to take from that game."
Asked what he had to say to Vickery and O'Driscoll, he dead-batted again. "What happens on the field stays on the field."
Botha is a self-confessed enforcer who spent much of last Saturday trying to wind up the Lions' scrum-half, Mike Phillips. Did Du Plessis see himself in the same mould?
"My job is to throw the ball straight into the lineout and scrummage hard," he replied. "Both those areas went well for us in Durban, but we know the Lions will be putting in a massive effort there in training this week and we have to get better also. Our scrum was strong at the start, but Matthew Rees and Adam Jones made a difference when they came off the bench and we are not getting carried away by what happened early on.
"Rees is someone who likes the tight phases, but if he is picked that would not necessarily mean the Lions intended to play a tighter game. Every hooker brings something different with him and I have played against the best in the world, but after just 22 caps I am still learning."
Du Plessis had understudied John Smit for two seasons before the South Africa coach, Peter de Villiers, used last season's tour to Europe to switch Smit to tight-head prop because he wanted Du Plessis involved from the start.
De Villiers was widely criticised here, but the way South Africa's scrum went last Saturday, with Smit still getting used to the role he had performed as a teenager, and Mtawarira on the loose-head three years into his conversion from No8, reflected the intense work the Springboks had put in.
"We were scrummaging non-stop for two weeks," said Du Plessis. "We are a new front-row unit with John and the Beast [Mtawarira] still getting used to their positions. While the Lions will undoubtedly improve in that area, so will we. I think the best from our scrum is still a long way away."
South Africa had thought Euan Murray would play at tight-head prop after the way he got on top of Mtawarira playing for Scotland against the Springboks at Murrayfield last November although as Du Plessis pointed out: "I only played five minutes of that match before going off injured and I am not sure what happened.We were surprised when Murray was not picked, but Phil Vickery is an experienced prop and we knew it was not going to be easy."
Instead in the first Test, Du Plessis appeared to get between Vickery and the Lions' hooker, Lee Mears, which, together with the power coming through from Mtawarira and Botha behind him, forced the tight-head upwards or inwards and gave South Africa a number of penalties.
"I am not saying what was going on in the scrum," Du Plessis added. "We had had problems against Vickery before and we just designed ways of getting to him. We had a long time to work on things and it helped that the front row played for the same Super 14 side. We know each other well and we back ourselves. I am not going to say much about Saturday other than it will be a game worth watching."
