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Jacques Nienaber expects Springboks’ semi to come down to ‘small margins’

The players of South Africa celebrate victory at full-time following the Rugby World Cup France 2023 Quarter Final match between France and South Africa at Stade de France on October 15, 2023 in Paris, France. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)

With the quarter-finals having come and gone at the Rugby World Cup, the focus has already begun to shift to next week. Following on from South Africa’s thrilling win over France, head coach Jacques Nienaber was asked about their semi-final opponents England.

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England were written off by many coming into this World Cup, but Steve Borthwick’s men have overcome each and every obstacle so far on the sport’s biggest stage.

Led by fly-half George Ford, a 14-man England outfit blitzed Argentina in Marseille to open their campaign. England went on to finish pool play with four wins from as many games which saw them book a spot in the knockouts against Fiji.

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It was close, tense and everything that quarter-final rugby should be. The Test was all square with 10 minutes to play but England pulled away to win 30-24 in Marseille.

Nienaber was following the England game ahead of the Springboks’ own date with destiny against tournament hosts Frace in Paris. The England game, just like their own and the All Blacks’ win last night, came down to “small margins.”

“Massive. I think it’s going to be a nice challenge,” Nienaber said when asked about England.

“In knockouts anything can happen, like tonight I followed the England game when we were on the bus here. Also they (England) had a healthy lead and then Fiji came back and then they also pushed it right to the end.

“I think knockouts are going to be small margins right to the end.”

Knockout

New Zealand
South Africa
11 - 12
Final
Argentina
New Zealand
6 - 44
SF1
England
South Africa
15 - 16
SF2
Wales
Argentina
17 - 29
QF1
Ireland
New Zealand
24 - 28
QF2
England
Fiji
30 - 24
QF3
France
South Africa
28 - 29
QF4

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Playing in an all-time classic Rugby World Cup quarter-final on Sunday evening, the Springboks came from behind to knock the tournament hosts earlier than many expected.

Lock Eben Etzebeth scored a crucial try with just over 10 minutes to play which saw the Boks take the lead, and the defending World Cup winners showed their class to hold on in the dying stages.

South Africa burst into a frenzy as referee Ben O’Keeffe blew his whistle for full-time as the Springboks emerged victorious by the barest of margins, winning 29-28.

“Credit to the French first of all. We knew it was going to be this tight. I think everybody knew it was going to be a big battle,” Nienaber mentioned. “Two good teams and unfortunately, or fortunately for us, we were on the right side of things.

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“There was one point that separated it. I think the margins were marginal but no, credit to our players, they stuck in it to the end.”

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Comments

4 Comments
N
Nigel 435 days ago

Even without their MOM (B O'Keeffe) against France SA will beat us in the semis (not that difgicult if the truth be told) but NZ will lift the RWC this year.

L
Louis 435 days ago

South Africa should treat England with the same intensity as this weekend vs France. England might pitch up like in 2019 vs NZ and play their “final”. If SA match them with intensity, then at least it will come down to small margins. If SA completely bulldoze the English, at least we show we were much better. One game at a time.

M
Mark 435 days ago

It definately won’t come down to small margins

m
mjp89 436 days ago

It will come down to the small margin of South Africa being an infinitely better team than England.

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JW 4 hours ago
'Let's not sugarcoat it': Former All Black's urgent call to protect eligibility rules

Yep, no one knows what will happen. Thing is I think (this is me arguing a point here not a random debate with this one) they're better off trialing it now in a controlled environment than waiting to open it up in a knee jerk style reaction to a crumbling organtization and team. They can always stop it again.


The principle idea is that why would players leave just because the door is ajar?


BBBR decides to go but is not good enough to retain the jersey after doing it. NZ no longer need to do what I suggest by paying him to get back upto speed. That is solely a concept of a body that needs to do what I call pick and stick wth players. NZR can't hold onto everyone so they have to choose their BBBRs and if that player comes back from a sabbatical under par it's a priority to get him upto speed as fast as possible because half of his competition has been let go overseas because they can't hold onto them all. Changing eligibility removes that dilemma, if a BBBR isn't playing well you can be assured that someone else is (well the idea is that you can be more assured than if you only selected from domestic players).


So if someone decides they want to go overseas, they better do it with an org than is going to help improve them, otherwise theyre still basically as ineligible as if they would have been scorning a NZ Super side that would have given them the best chance to be an All Black.

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