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Nienaber make wholesale changes to Springboks for Argentina after Lions victory


Jacques Nienaber (PA)
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Bordeaux-Bègles hooker Joseph Dweba is set to make his South Africa debut this Saturday against Argentina in the Rugby Championship as head coach Jacques Nienaber has made ten changes to the starting XV that triumphed over the British & Irish Lions last weekend.

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The 25-year-old Dweba started for South Africa A against the Lions in July, but is set to make his full debut this Saturday at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.

Siya Kolisi, Eben Etzebeth, Lood de Jager, Jasper Wiese and Cobus Reinach are the five that have been retained from the XV that beat the Lions in Cape Town to secure the series victory, as Nienaber has also reverted back to a 6-2 split on the bench.

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“It is a long season, so it’s important that we manage the players well and rotate our squad to ensure that everyone gets sufficient game time and rest,” said Nienaber.

“We have a talented squad, and we are excited to see some of the players get a chance to show what they can do against a tough Argentinean outfit.

“Most of the players in this matchday squad have been with us since our conditioning camp in Bloemfontein in June, and they’ve been working hard at training and deserve this opportunity to take the field.

“This is a big game for us, and we are looking forward to seeing what these player combinations will deliver as we begin our Castle Lager Rugby Championship campaign.”

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“Argentina are very physical, so we need to stand up to that challenge in every contest.

“Their forward pack is renowned for making their presence felt, so our set pieces need to be spot-on and it will be important to dominate at the contact points.

“All-in-all we need to deliver an accurate performance all around and it is vital that we capitalise on the opportunities we have to score points.”

South Africa team to face Argentina in the Castle Lager Rugby Championship:
15 – Damian Willemse
14 – Sbu Nkosi
13 – Jesse Kriel
12 – Frans Steyn
11 – Aphelele Fassi
10 – Elton Jantjies (vice-captain)
9 – Cobus Reinach
8 – Jasper Wiese
7 – Kwagga Smith
6 – Siya Kolisi (captain)
5 – Lood de Jager
4 – Eben Etzebeth
3 – Wilco Louw
2 – Joseph Dweba
1 – Ox Nché

Replacements:
16 – Malcolm Marx
17 – Trevor Nyakane
18 – Vincent Koch
19 – Marvin Orie
20 – Marco van Staden
21 – Dan du Preez
22 – Herschel Jantjies
23 – Morné Steyn

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TL 51 minutes ago
Joe Schmidt bows out on a high - but can the Wallabies escape 'the twilight zone'?

All of that seems fair enough, aside from the 10 criticism: Lynagh was injured so not up for selection this year + missed most of SR, Noah went to Japan league 2, maybe an argument for bringing him back in early, but we had Carter. Dono and Meredith (who looks decent enough). Definitely not a straightforward call. Edmed was an experiment that didn’t bear fruit, I’m happy to forgive him that one though, because he did what Cheik and Rennie didn’t do, which was consistently look to develop young 10s in the face of criticism (Rennie’s chopping and changing wasn’t great for Noah, and it was back to the future too often for Cheik, which hurt our development pathways e.g. Mack Mason, Jack Maddocks, and too often gambling on people out of position—more than Joe!). Tane is one specific failed experiment. l just wish we had a more scrupulous punditry when it comes to the recent past (your obvs not in the crosshairs here, it’s the Aussie media). TBH, I worry about the identity piece: feel it should be the salt on the meal, rather than the meal. The Reds are full of Aussie identity but they play the most hairpulling rugby at times and the identity seems to excuse this, while the Brums with less talent and less of an identity in the Australian mould over perform. To be optimistic, maybe it does look a little like the Ireland transition with Les coming in a bit like Farrell, seemingly more of a emotive, man motivator type than the technician Joe. What would have been fantastic and helped everything also was for RA not to burn bridges with Lancaster and be able to get him back and have the Tahs cooking, that is one big piece of the puzzle (the Tahs) that will make our national coach’s job a lot easier.

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