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Nienaber lays bare Pollard and Kolisi's World Cup selection chances

LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 29: Jacques Nienaber (Defence Coach) of South Africa talking to Handre Pollard during the South African national rugby team training session at Latymer Lower School on October 29, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Steve Haag/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Springboks coach Jacques Nienaber is ready to take the key injured pair of captain Siya Kolisi and outside half Handre Pollard to the Rugby World Cup in France even if they are unable to play any part in the warm up matches.

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Nienaber told local media the importance of his captain and the tactical control of Pollard makes them an exception in the build-up to the Springboks defence of the Cup both men helped secure in Japan in 2019. The coach believes that both players have proved in the past they can handle test rugby from a standing start.

He explained: “Hopefully, they’ll make their returns before the World Cup commences, but if there’s a possibility that they might only be available near the end of the tournament, we’ll need to have a discussion again.

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“The thing with Siya and Handre is that they’ve repeatedly shown us what they’re capable of at international level and that’s a fact that counts in their favour when it comes to selection.

“What I’m trying to say here is that you’d probably take those two men to France without them actually having seen any competitive action in the build-up.

“Their respective pedigrees are as such that they’ve proved themselves capable of slotting in immediately.

“What also gives us comfort is the precedent that Siya was in the exact same position in 2019, where he didn’t play until the final warm-up game against Japan.He was then excellent in the World Cup. Handre was the same in the British & Irish Lions series (in 2021) and played an instrumental role in helping us win it. They can start performing immediately.

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“I know that I said that they’d be ready for the warm-up against Wales, but that was based on the initial assumption that they were not going to feature in the Rugby Championship.

“We’re hopeful of that time frame. With rehab, you start a process, but it doesn’t always go according to plan. There might be excessive swelling out of nowhere or a sudden loss of range of movement.

“Whatever reason, if something like that happens, you go a step back in the process. If everything goes well, hopefully, they’ll make the warm-up games.

“I reiterate, hopefully. But you can’t predict and manage these things. The one guarantee I can give is that we won’t rush them or force them to play if they’re not medically cleared.

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“Confidence is also hugely important too, it’s something they’ll need to get out of training sessions. It will be what it will be.”

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3 Comments
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Leonor 488 days ago

Amm is not in form as a centre. Lets see how Kriel perform. Esterhuizen should also feature as a inside centre. Kolisi is a concern. Too long injured. Van Staden and Fourie will not dissapoint. Give Roos a proper chance as well. Few min. Was not enough.

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Greg 488 days ago

Give Evan Roos a start against Argintina

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Silk 489 days ago

Without Pollard the Boks stand no chance. World cups are won with an experienced cool headed flyhalf. The incumbents are talented but lack composure under pressure.

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JW 1 hour ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

This piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.


I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.


Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.


The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.

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