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South Africa hero Ox Nche's act of class spotted during final whistle brawl
By Josh Raisey
Handre Pollard may have been named player of the match in South Africa’s 16-15 World Cup semi-final win over England on Saturday, but Ox Nche ran him very close indeed.
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The fly-half may have kicked the match winning points, but it was loosehead prop Nche and his front-row teammates that were winning the penalties with their second-half domination of the England scrum. It must have come down to a flip of a coin as to who should be named the player of the match.
Both players came of the bench to completely turn the game around for the Springboks, and are rightfully being praised for doing so. But Nche went above and beyond simply winning the match for South Africa, and showed his class after the final whistle.
While a fairly ugly brawl erupted between the South Africa and England players as referee Ben O’Keeffe blew his final whistle, Nche could be seen approaching the referee and shaking his hands all while his teammates are involved in this melee.
SuperSport shared a photo of that moment:
???????????????? '??' ???? 🤯
Comes off the bench! 🪑
Dominates the scrum! 💯
Shakes the ref's hand while chaos ensues! 🤝#RWC2023 pic.twitter.com/MXTfOOhKz4— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) October 21, 2023
Nche is already a popular figure in South African rugby due to his scrummaging prowess, but this has only made him more popular. His coach Deon Davids has even said in the wake of the victory what an “inspiring feeling” it is to have seen Nche develop as a player and a person.
“When you look at how these players operate and how much hard work they put in, [it is] how they react with the things that we share with them, trying to track their performance at their franchises, the response of the players towards that to become better,” the Springboks assistant coach said.
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“And when they come in to camp, to work harder whether they are selected or not, the desire to be part of the squad and perform for their country, to put up a performance like he [Nche] did last night, I think that is tremendous. We have been working with him from school, through the under-20s, and now being part of the Springboks team, so to see that development from him as a player and as a person is tremendous and such an inspiring feeling from a coaching perspective.”
In my humble opinion, I hate the thought that we would possibly ever lose to England. They, to me, do not feel like an honourable team. So I am so glad we got to wipe the smug look off of Owen Farrell's face. But the thought of beating New Zealand in a RWC is such a prospect I am happy to be a part of. Last time these two teams met in a final with 1995.
However, if for whatever reason, ABs win the final, it will have been an honour playing against such a formidable team. I love the ABs team dynamic. You can see they play for their country and are really good at what they do. Of course I would prefer we beat them and retain the World Cup. Be the first team to get it 4 times, be the only team to have a 50% success rate, and be the first SA team to retain the World Cup. Also and lastly keep our 100% win record in RWC finals and also against New Zealand.
Hopefully our guys can dig deep like they have done these last two weeks.
He won the game for them almost single handed and it was amazing to see. I also noted him helping one of the England props? up after a breakdown late in the game.
I am very pleased to be witness the the entire nation of NZ finally being behind Fozzie, Cane and the team. At long last. They have rebuilt faith in our team and we can only wish them well in the final against our most respected foe. SA are a formidable team at the moment who know exactly what they are about. With great coaches and inspired leaders. We love their never say die attitude and how they play for their nation. As do our boys. Huge respect to them.
The quarter finals should be determined by the respective teams’ ranking at the start of the RWC. This way you ensure that rankings are important and relevant until the start of the tournament. This will also provide a better semi and final.
Example. If the rankings of 8 teams to top pools are as follows:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11.
QF:
Match A: 1 v 11
B: 2 v 9
C: 3 v 8
D: 4 v 5
Semis
Winner A v Winner D
Winner B v Winner C
Pelle don't know who will play in QF's before tournament anyway.
I understand England’s grief at being denied once again by South Africa in a RWC. But objectively they cannot get up there even when they have the favour of a very soft draw and a Northern Hemisphere venue for the cup. The final is being contested by the ABs and Boks, who could quite easily have succumbed to Ireland and France respectively. Those four sides have played the best, most intense games we have seen in modern times, the Boks and ABs winning by narrowest of margins. By those standards only the draw allowed, the interlopers, England to get an undeserved sniff of a final.
The real reason was that he knew he’d be out of breath waddling to the melee so decided to shake Ben’s hand instead of embarrassing himself.