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Springboks make three changes to their team to face England
Jacques Nienaber has named a Springboks team to face England this Saturday in London that shows three changes from the XV that defeated Scotland 30-15 last weekend in Edinburgh in the Autumn Nations Series. The match at Twickenham sees Handre Pollard and Lood de Jager come back into the starting line-up in place of Elton Jantjies and Franco Mostert, reversing the selection decisions taken for the Scotland game following the win over Wales in Cardiff on November 6.
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Both those demoted players drop to the bench as does Herschel Jantjies who has lost out as the starting scrum-half to Cobus Reinach, who knows all about the threats England have to offer through his time playing at Northampton in the Gallagher Premiership before his switch to Montpellier in France.
This Saturday’s clash with England is the first against Eddie Jones’ team since the 2019 World Cup final in Yokohama and the starting Springboks line-up contains ten starters from that showpiece decider in Japan. The Springboks head into the rematch having won eight of their twelve matches this year with Nienaber now at the helm and they are currently on a winning run of three following successes against the All Blacks, the Welsh and the Scots.
Victory for the Springboks will not only see the South Africans retain the No1 spot on the world rankings, it would also mark their first unbeaten November tour since 2013. “We built up good momentum in the Tests against Wales and Scotland and it is important for us to transfer that into our final match of the tour against England, so we opted to make only three changes to the starting team for this weekend’s clash,” explained Nienaber.
“England will pose different threats to Scotland and with that in mind we have decided to start with Handre, Cobus and Lood. Elton, Herschel and Franco have shown that they can inject energy and ignite a spark on attack off the bench, which will be handy against an English outfit that we know will be highly charged up for this match.”
"He has saved his side anywhere between 5-10 points per game, which, when you look at how South Africa wins games, has been absolutely vital."
– @bensmithrugby on the omission of Siya Kolisi from the Player of the Year candidates https://t.co/16ZU4aEu20— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 16, 2021
The Springboks have opted for a five-three split on their bench and Nienaber is expecting a fierce battle at Twickenham. “England have made it clear that they will come hard at us in this match. With a few British and Irish Lions players in their midst, home ground advantage and a new record of eight wins in a row against Australia adding to their motivation this weekend, we know it will be a hard grind.
“That said, we will enter the match equally motivated, especially with the opportunity to retain our status as the top team in the world for a third successive season and winning all three matches in the (European) tour for the first time in eight years being a real prospect.
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SPRINGBOKS (vs England, Saturday)
15 – Willie le Roux (Toyota Verblitz) – 71 caps, 60 pts (12t)
14 – Jesse Kriel (Canon Eagles) – 50 caps, 60 pts (12t)
13 – Lukhanyo Am (Cell C Sharks) – 25 caps, 25 pts (5t)
12 – Damian de Allende (Munster) – 57 caps, 35 pts (7t)
11 – Makazole Mapimpi (Cell C Sharks) – 24 caps, 95 pts (19t)
10 – Handré Pollard (Montpellier) – 59 caps, 586 pts (6t, 83c, 126p, 4d)
9 – Cobus Reinach (Montpellier) – 20 caps, 40pts (8t)
8 – Duane Vermeulen (Ulster) – 60 caps, 15 pts (3t)
7 – Kwagga Smith (Yamaha Júbilo) – 18 caps, 5 pts (1t)
6 – Siya Kolisi (captain, Cell C Sharks) – 62 caps, 30 pts (6t)
5 – Lood de Jager (Sale Sharks) – 55 caps, 25 pts (5t)
4 – Eben Etzebeth (Toulon) – 96 caps, 15 pts (3t)
3 – Trevor Nyakane (Vodacom Bulls) – 53 caps, 5pts (1t)
2 – Bongi Mbonambi (Cell C Sharks) – 47 caps, 45 pts (9t)
1 – Ox Nché (Cell C Sharks) – 8 caps, 0pts
Replacements:
16 – Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears) – 45 caps, 50 pts (10t)
17 – Steven Kitshoff (DHL Stormers) – 58 caps, 5pts (1t)
18 – Vincent Koch (Saracens) – 30 caps, 0 pts
19 – Franco Mostert (Honda Heat) – 50 caps, 5pts (1t)
20 – Jasper Wiese (Leicester Tigers) – 10 caps, 0 pts
21 – Herschel Jantjies (DHL Stormers) – 20 caps, 25 pts (5t)
22 – Elton Jantjies (NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes) – 43 caps, 323 pts (2t, 65c, 60p, 1d)
23 – Frans Steyn (Toyota Cheetahs) – 73 caps, 147pts (11t, 7c, 23p, 3d)
Bok fans are raging over the snub ?#Springboks #Bokke #AutumnNationsSeries https://t.co/UCc1O6cIkm
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 15, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments