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Nienaber explains his latest Bok replacements bench surprise
South Africa head coach Jacques Nianaber has explained an apparent return to normality on the Springboks replacement bench for their Rugby World Cup quarter-final with France on Sunday, as the 7-1 split experiment gets shelved – for the time being at least.
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The Boks have gone for a traditional 5-3 split instead of the more unorthodox 6-2 and 7-1 split that they’ve been using of late.
Nienaber didn’t expand too much on his thinking, despite being quizzed on the arrangement at a Springboks press conference in Paris.
“If it’s 8-0, 7-1, 6-2, 5-3, it falls under team selection. We have selected a team, irrespective of the bench, that we think will give us the best opportunity of a victory on Sunday,” said Nienaber, who has chosen to bench Faf de Klerk in favour of Cobus Reinach, who starts at scrumhalf.
“If we select Cobus [Reinach] or Faf [de Klerk], I don’t think there would be a lot of raised eyebrows. France have got a very interesting kicking game and we feel using those two guys will give us the best opportunity. For this specific game, we feel Duane [Vermeulen] is the guy we will need, but that doesn’t mean Jasper [Wiese] won’t play in the semi-final. It is based on what we feel we need to get a victory on Sunday.
“If you look at a guy like Cobus, he is playing exceptional rugby, and Faf for that matter. It’s the same with Manie [Libbok]. Handre [Pollard] is a bit different, when you look at the cumulative number of minutes he has played for us this year. It is probably one game altogether, so he is slowly building up his minutes. And Manie is probably our in-form fly-half. I think we have lost one game this year when he has started at 10. The team performs when he starts at 10, it is as simple as that.
“The whole team selection was quite tough. If you look at the squad and the way we have managed the load over the last few games and the 10 tests we have played this season, the majority of our group has had between four and six games of exposure. The World Cup is spread over two months so we need to manage the squad so they go into knockout stages as fresh as possible.
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“The beauty of our squad is we had the ability to rotate and rest and manage their load. Hopefully that will carry us through. Lukhanyo [Am] has not had much exposure because of his injury, but he looks good in training. It’s the same with Jasper [Wiese], there is no reason why they might not get selected in a semi-final. We believe we have a team to match the strengths and expose the weaknesses of France, although there are not a lot of weaknesses there.
“I know Handre came back and kicked 100% in the last game, but I think Manie did too. Any player can have an off day but when you play knockout games, you are not going to get many opportunities. So when we get them, we must use them.
“Since we started in 2020, our aim was to win the World Cup. Otherwise, why are you in it? Our aim was always to do that. Since the draw was made, we knew the quarter-final would probably boil down to France or New Zealand. It didn’t matter which team we played. It will be a tough quarter-final, the same with Ireland and New Zealand. I think all the quarter-finals will be really close. All the teams are preparing to be in the semi-finals and we go on from there.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
Think it was a great defensive performance by Northampton. They didn't have stage fright in the first half, the Nienaber defense smothered them. They limited Leinster to 15-3 in the first half. It could have been over by then. A great try from Leinster in the start of the second half looked to have sealed it. But Byrne missed another conversion. Northampton started trying little kicks behind the Leinster wingers. Leinster messed one and Smith brilliantly made the conversion. Leinster decided to tighten the game after Byrne missed a straight forward penalty. A few errors got NH into the 22 and they scored and converted with a few minutes left. Another brilliant steal from Lawes saw NH have a final attack which was turned over by Conan. A classic semi final. World record attendance of 82,300. Leinsters 3 week preparation warranted for this one.
1 Go to commentsJust came back from the game and the atmosphere was amazing. Players stayed afterwards for more than a hour to sign stuff and take photos with fans. Great day out.
5 Go to commentsA great game. The Sharks without Etsebeth are a shadow of the team compared to when he plays. The limitations of Some of the expensive Sharks players are being exposed. Credit to Clermont for some exhilaration play at times.
5 Go to comments100% Mr Owens. But who would want to be a referee.? It must be the most difficult job on earth.
1 Go to commentsStarts to be overdone and oversold this systematic SA narrative…which nevertheless has the merit in this case to recognise blatant refereeing mistakes in their favor
5 Go to commentsNice article. Shades of Steinbeck. They can win the final if they take the game seriously; but only if they take it seriously.
5 Go to commentsWhat a sad way to end a glittering career. Somebody should tell him to delete his social media accounts and face the consequences of what he's done. Then he should slip away quietly into obscurity. This isn't likely to happen, something tells me he'll be back in The Sun / Daily Mail sooner rather than later.
3 Go to commentsguys its fine! he understands why he did what he did and has taken accountability for it; why should he have to be accountable to a court? after all he did was abuse people in person - its not as if he was engaging in _online_ abuse!
3 Go to commentsChiefs flanker Kaylum Boshier yellow-carded for collapsing the scrum as it rolled towards the line. It was a maul….
1 Go to commentsyou know, i’m a leinster fan so I want Northampton to lose and it is gonna be tuff with Cortney lawes, Alex michell and the other guys🏉 lets go leinster🏉
1 Go to commentsWelcome to the Pro ranks. Those hard teams of old do hit the sole better though. its a dog fight at the top.
6 Go to commentsCan someone fill me in please, I've read a number of Ben Smith articles now and it seems he's got something again South Africa? Surely, this game was over and done with 7 months ago. Can't we have something a bit more interesting and relevant, or is this the calibre of journalist on this site?
237 Go to commentsNot sure what the Welsh are moaning about. They’ve had far more players off England, than England have had off Wales. Guys like Josh Hathaway and Kane James will play for Wales in the end. And they’ll be fsr better players for having played in the Gallagher Premiership, than they ever would have been had they stayed mired in the shambles that is Welsh rugby.
4 Go to commentsThis is all being blown totally out of proportion. First of all, since half the Irish team isn’t Irish - it’s very likely that none of the Irish players said that at all and, thus, we’re not being arrogant. Second, since half the Irish team is Kiwi - it’s very likely the Kiwi players were predicting a NZ SA World Cup final. Which they got spot on. Good on them!
163 Go to commentsAha. An Irishman with logic! Follow the flow: - Ireland peaks with a >80% win record between 2020 and 2023. And then… - crashes out of another QF at the WC; - Beat a poor French Team; - Beat 6N wooden spoonists Italy; - Play shite against eventual wooden spoonists Wales; - Lose against the most boring, “the worst English team ever” , a team widely regarded as unable to attack; - scrape through against Scotland. This article, No - Trimble, is on the money! Except for one glaring statement: _The Springboks have a few aces in the hole in this debate being the reigning world champions and official world number ones_ There is no debate, boys and girls. There it is. In black and white. “Reigning World Champions and OFFICIAL world number ones”. Come July, the overrated Andy Farrell and this overhyped team are going to enter into a world of hurt.
90 Go to commentsI’d like to know what homoerotic events Daniel enjoyed at 8th man. I clearly missed out!
20 Go to commentsThis article is missing some detail, like some actual context or info about what led to him abusing the ref.
2 Go to comments*They used to say that football is a gentleman sport watched by hooligans and rugby is a hooligan sport watched by gentlemen. How times have changed.*
3 Go to commentsexcept ot wasnt late wasnt late at all so dont know why you all saying its late he commits early and its your fault fir not paying attention
30 Go to commentsNot sure the Bulls need another average utility back in their ranks. Chamberlain has been ok for the Sharks but is by no means an X-Factor player. Bulls bought several utility backs which they barely use. A typical example would be Henry Immelman who plays mostly Fullback. The Bulls however have rarely played him this year and he has played wing or centre. Bulls want to build depth but seems like they have too many surplus players
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