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Jacques Nienaber confirms Springboks' back-up No9 after unorthodox bench call
By Josh Raisey
South Africa head coach Jacques Nienaber has confirmed that winger Cheslin Kolbe will serve as back-up to Faf de Klerk at scrum-half in the World Cup final after choosing to not name a No9 on the bench.
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Nienaber has opted for a 7-1 split on the bench against the All Blacks at the Stade de France, with fullback Willie le Roux being the only back on the bench, meaning he has chosen to forgo a scrum-half reserve. That is a move that is very seldom seen in any form of professional rugby, but Nienaber feels left wing Kolbe can deputise for de Klerk based on his experience as a sweeper playing sevens.
“In our case it will be Cheslin (Kolbe),” Nienaber said after naming his squad. “He played sweeper in sevens which is the equivalent to scrum-half. He has always been a guy who, if we got a yellow card, would be the stand in half-back, not just this week but for a couple of weeks.”
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The starting half-back combination for the quarter-final and semi-final of Cobus Reinach and Manie Libbok are out of the squad entirely, as the Springboks have opted for the 2019 World Cup winning pairing of de Klerk and Handre Pollard.
Fly-half Pollard produced a player of the match winning performance from the bench against England in the semi-final, and has been rewarded with a start. Another player who had a vital role from the bench was tighthead Vincent Koch. However, he has dropped out of the squad entirely, with Trevor Nyakane taking his place on the bench.
Nienaber also explained why the Stade Francais prop missed out. He said: “Vincent Koch couldn’t train on Monday and we have a policy that if you can’t train on a Monday you are not up for selection.
“From a performance point of view, there is not a big gap. As coaches you always mitigate risk by prepping other people.
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The ABs won’t stop harassing Pollard and Faf all game long. Nienaber lives in some sort of weird parallel universe where halfbacks don’t get fatigued and first fives don’t get smashed.
A reasonable chance the Boks will be taking pot shots at goal this weekend with no recognised goal kicker on the field. The ABs will focus hard on smashing Pollard and Faf.
There you go…something you’re right about.
Ok. I'm glad it turned out I was wrong about everything. I will go and rethink my life choices along with any other NH morons who'll join me.
Yeah I sorta lost interest when he kept calling everyone morons.
Meaningless pool games - Ireland have a good 15 players only 11 of whom speak with Irish accents, but even with imports they have no depth - they were never ever winning this tournament. France had a better chance and will be contenders at the next one…but none of the other NH sides show anything that suggests they will be.
Please don’t argue with the “mouth of the south” aka “Kiwiboard Warrior” aka Dave. What he doesn’t know about rugby isn’t worth knowing. Every string he’s there, educating us Northern Hemisphere Neanderthals. Not just rugby; English Grammar and Spelling - he knows it all. If you could imagine an amalgam of Dan Carter, Albert Einstein and The Oxford English Dictionary, well that’s our Dave. Dave we are not worthy. Please forgive us, for we know not what we do.
Ok again, I'm not criticizing SA, you're very defensive. I'm saying this RWC has had some close matches between NH and SH, so much so that both the finalists have lost matches to NH opposition.
Yeah mate - that match was lost when SA were taking pot shots at goal from 55m out with no kicker on the field? Go and re-watch that match - it’s very clear they needed to test some things and were quite okay with losing, given the dominance they had in every single area in that match - if it was a must win they walk over Ireland - did you notice that after the match the odds didn’t change? SA stayed favourites over Ireland, even with Irish bookies…because they watched the game. French game was close but if it wasn’t that charge down SA find another way to win…most importantly if they play that game 10 times, SA win 7. England game was close, but we weren’t lucky - those penalties and try were orchestrated…our bench made a difference because we have a better bench than England…that’s not luck. We put in a poor performance, looked very lethargic, which is understandable given we’ve played 4 of the top 5 teams in the world, but good teams win on an off day.
I mean it's not even really relevant who would have won a hypothetical match. The match that was played SA lost.
France you only won after a charged down conversion and most of your points were scored off soft tries which on another day wouldn't have happened.
England was a very close game indeed for which most Saffas seem to admit they were very lucky to win including Etzebeth.
I'm not doubting SA are a very good side and deserve to be in the final but clearly the NH are very competitive so calling the whole NH useless is a bit disingenuous… clearly rugby in the NH is lagging behind but we're catching up.
One close game yeah…but it wasn’t one close game, 3 out 4 semi finalists, that’s not luck or a coincidence. And if you think Ireland would have beaten SA if that was a play-off game you have a lot to learn.
Well considering SA lost to Ireland and came within a whisker of losing to France and England I think it's a bit premature to write the whole NH off as useless morons.
Proof is in the pudding mate - you were all very loud on here about the NH going into this world cup.
If they're going 7/1 they should have Grant Williams on the bench instead of Willie. No proper 9 is a huge risk. If Faf gets injured in the first half they're in the shit.
Also means Willie or Willemse playing on the wing.
Rassie doesn’t like playing rookies - see Moodie, Handre de Giant, G Will - not blooding these guys more in the pool games makes them unselectable - shame cuz G Will is next-level fast
Unless Kriel goes to the wing
Wow this is the definition of risky. Kolbe is one of the best players on the planet but not a 9. 1 box kick, no problem, 2, probably but consistently performing the role of a 9 for an extended period?
I remember Faf being too fired up and knocking himself out vs NZ in the first 5 minutes.
This is an incredibly risky call and could cost them dearly.
Agreed, I think it's a huge risk.
Ok. Of the starting pack the bok coaches expect one of them to be able to live with the AB's pace.
SA coaching staff dream of scrum penalty glory.
File under failure of the imagination.
TWICKENHAM
15 vs 13 for 60 mins…
Not sure why people get such a warped idea of this. A 7-1 split doesn’t mean it will be a forward dominated game…SA still have the same amount of backs on the field as NZ at any given time…backs don’t get as tired as forwards because they're not as heavy and they have to run less…so if you don’t get injuries, it’s a no-brainer. In fact it would allow teams to play even more of a running game (if they wanted to) because fresh forwards will be able to keep up.
Boks need one back to kick the ball and fast forwards to chase. I can see a book team comprised solely of forwards at the next cup. Don't really need a back just to kick the ball do you?
I’m glad they went for the 7-1 split, do you think the ABs weren’t aware this was going to happen? They’ve been probably practicing for the last week to counter this. It depends on wether they are ahead early. I think the ABs will also change tactics to counter this
So a game for the purists …
Absolutely right, what could be better than this match up with these tactics. Fantastic game for the purists.
7 forwards on the bench and 8 playing, that’s 15 man rugby….just not all at the same time,😀