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Billy Vunipola on the brink as Montpellier finally lose patience
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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.
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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.”
