Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber and his selectors are sitting with a helse hoofpyn ahead of next month’s three-match series against Wales.
With newbies in their camp Deon Fourie, Elrigh Louw, Marcell Coetzee, Evan Roos and Jasper Wiese all in great form and challenging the likes of Siya Kolisi, Pieter-
Steph du Toit, Franco Mostert Kwagga Smith, and Rynhardt Elstadt for the the backrow positions, Nienaber is krapping kop big time.
When the Boks played their last game in 2021, skipper Kolisi wore the No.6 jersey, Smith played blindside flank and the injured Duane Vermeulen packed down at the back of the scrum.
Challenging Kolisi for his place are South Africa’s two in-form fetchers at the moment, the Bulls’ Coetzee and the United Rugby Championship (URC) final Man of the Match Fourie.
Du Toit looks a safe bet for the No.7 jersey, but it’s at No.8 where it’s open season.
With Stormer Roos winning the URC Players Player of the Season, the Bulls’ Louw has been on fire too.
Wiese, though, probably has the inside lane – having played for the Boks before and also having won the Man of the Match award in the English Premiership final for Leicester last weekend.
On top of that, former Sevens ace Smith has proven himself to be an option at No.8.
The Boks are currently in camp in Pretoria, from where Nienaber says of his in-form loosies: “It speaks volumes for the depth that we have.
“If you look at the two [Louw and Roos] and Deon Fourie in terms of putting in Man of the Match performance in the final and Jasper [Wiese’s] Man of the Match award in the Premiership, that’s what we discuss...
“Our job as coaching staff, when not in camp, is to make sure that we watch every single player. Every tackle, pass and kick. “I think you can see it as a feather in the cap for the selectors that all the players are in form.
🏉 The Springboks are back in full swing with 1️⃣3️⃣ players bolstering their squad this week and alignment is key for coach Jacques Nienaber ‼️ 🗞 here: https://t.co/6CQoYCSBbA
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“The challenge for us now is to make sure that we align them... some of the guys, although in form, are not used to how Springboks do things – our challenge is to bridge that gap as quickly as possible.”
Asked to comment on Fourie specifically, Nienaber says: “I don’t want to talk about Deon specifically, but we have 43 players here – bar Johan Goosen who is injured – that have played consistently well…
“A guy like Deon sees guys like Elrigh, Evan, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Siya, Marcel, Rynhard – outstanding looseforwards. The big thing is all of them have been consistently good.”
Come July 2 at Loftus Versfeld, only three of these players will be in the run-on XV and one on the bench. Kolisi and Du Toit will be in the mix, who will be the other two?