A player was sacked by Rassie Erasmus
Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus fired a player who tried to
Head coach Jacques Nienaber of the Springboks thinks that his team’s kicking problems weren’t the only thing that contributed to their Rugby World Cup Pool B defeat to Ireland.
The top-ranked team in the world overcame South Africa 13–8 in an exciting game in Paris.
Kickers Manie Libbok and Faf de Klerk together missed 11 points from the tee in the tightly contested game; the former was off with a penalty and a conversion, while the latter missed two.
Springboks fall short of expectations
Even with the appalling 20 percent success rate, Nienaber refused to attribute the defeat to the kicking tee’s errors.
Following the game, Nienaber said, “Hats off to Ireland; they were better than us on the day.”
“I wouldn’t say that’s the only reason we didn’t cross the line; we missed a few points off the tee.
“We dropped two balls on the try line in the first half alone, and we had two more chances later on, so that’s four opportunities plus those points off the tee, but I won’t claim it is solely goal-kicking,” the player said.
Handre Pollard was called up to the team to replace the injured Malcolm Marx, and fans and analysts are clamoring for him to start against Tonga because of Libbok and De Klerk’s inconsistencies.
The World Cup winner in 2019 was not selected for this match, despite the expectations of many. But will he be a factor in the future?
Nienaber said, “We [coaches] will have to talk.”
The choice of a team involves several factors. After 24 to 48 hours, we will get the medical status, and we will proceed with the regular team selection procedure.
Ireland’s brilliant collapse
While he witnessed many improvements for his charges, Nienaber feels that Ireland’s collapse played a significant role in his team’s loss.
Regarding Ireland’s collapse, he said, “I believe that’s one area where Ireland were extraordinary tonight.”
That’s most likely one of the main causes of our lack of momentum.
“We’ll simply put in more training and improve.” It was inevitable; it is what they do.
“We believed we could counter their defensive breakdown techniques with some of the strategies we developed over the week, but it clearly didn’t work consistently.”
We will learn several things from this game. We’ll need to come up with fresh strategies for handling it more effectively.
Dupont and France
Assuming Ireland defeats Scotland and the Boks triumph against Tonga, South Africa is expected to come second in Pool B.
A quarterfinal matchup with France would probably result from that, but Nienaber is not planning that far ahead.
“France has not yet been analyzed,” he said.
“Tonga is up next. We’d be getting ahead of ourselves if we began considering France. For now, we will simply concentrate on Tonga. The next week is off for us, so we can get ready for whomever we play in the quarterfinal.
The captain of Les Bleus, Antoine Dupont, is dubious for the remainder of the competition. The Bok manager did express sympathy for him.
“Dupont’s injury is similar to us losing Malcolm Marx; it is a loss for them, but I think he may return at the conclusion of the competition,” he said.
“You want the top players participating in a World Cup, so I hope he is.”
