Springboks add six as Koch and co return to French, English clubs
Jacques Nienaber has confirmed that six players have been called up to his South Africa squad ahead as next Saturday's clash with England falls out of the international Test window governing player release. The French-based quartet of Vincent Koch, Trevor Nyakane, Cobus Reinach and Cheslin Kolbe along with the English-based pair Jasper Wiese and Andre Esterhuizen have all returned to their clubs following Saturday’s Springboks win over Italy.
In their place, the Springboks have brought in five players who were part of the South Africa A team that lost recent matches at Munster and Bristol and another, Canan Moodie, who has recovered from injury.
A statement read: “Springboks coach Jacques Nienaber called up six players to his squad for Saturday's final tour Test against England, as a few players left camp to join up with their French and UK clubs following the match against Italy in Genoa.
“South Africa A team captain Thomas du Toit, Ntuthuko Mchunu (both props), Marco van Staden (flanker), Johan Goosen (fly-half) and Grant Williams (scrum-half) will all join the Springboks, while Vodacom Bulls wing Canan Moodie has recovered from the hamstring injury that ruled him out of the tour and will also join up with the team in London.
“Vincent Koch, Trevor Nyakane, Jasper Wiese, Cobus Reinach, Cheslin Kolbe and Andre Esterhuizen have all returned to their clubs as Saturday's Springboks clash falls out of the international Test window.”
Nienaber explained: “The players who will join us from the SA A team all put up their hands in the midweek games and we are delighted to have them in the mix this week, while Canan has shown what he can do at Test level and I am sure he will be delighted to be back in the squad. Some of the players were with us on tour until after the Ireland Test and it was always the plan to recall them at the conclusion of the SA A matches.
"As we said from the outset we wanted as many players as possible to get game time on this tour as we look ahead to the Rugby World Cup next year and we believe the players and the team will benefit from this in the next few months.”
Regarding the prospect of facing England, Nienaber added: “We know it is going to be a tough challenge and as coaches, we have already started turning our attention to that match. There are a lot of positives we can take from the Tests against Italy, France and Ireland, but England will pose a completely different challenge and we need to be ready for that.
“We really want to build momentum and finish the tour on a positive note, so we will work as hard as we can this week to achieve that.”
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Spot on Ben. Dead right. Havili looked great at 10. Easily the highest rugby IQ of any NZ player these days. Getting a kick charged down is a result of getting used to adjusting your depth to the line at 10, which he will sort out with time. But other than that it was an outstanding first effort in that position this year. I think the NZ media has misunderstood this directive from Razor. Havili might rank behind B Barrett this year, but Beuden is 33 this month and won't last much longer. DMaC is great but flaky and not really a test match animal (his efforts in Dunedin versus Aus last year for example). If Razor can't have Mounga, DMaC is too unstructured for Razor (and is just too small for test rugby). Havili will end up our first choice first five, and in partnership with Jodie will be excellent. Two triple threat operators in tandem, and big bodies and tough tacklers to boot. Jordoe will be the ABs goal kicker. I am an Aucklander and Blues (and Warriors) fan, but Havili at 10 is going to be sensational in time… he can be the best first five in the world by the end of this year. No question.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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