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Springboks explain the latest non-selection of Jaden Hendrikse

(Photo by Darren Stewart/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

The name Jaden Hendrikse is almost certain to appear on the team sheet when Springboks coach Jacques Nienaber announces his Rugby World Cup squad next week Tuesday.

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Hendrikse is one of a few players that have not featured in The Rugby Championship and won’t play in the warm-up match against Argentina in Buenos Aires this coming Saturday.

The others – like captain Siya Kolisi and fly-half Handre Pollard – are still busy with their rehabilitation programmes and are likely to get a run in the warm-up matches later this month against Wales and New Zealand.

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WATCH Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber explaining the selection of the ‘odd couple’ – Deon Fourie and Franco Mostert on the flanks for the Test against Los Pumas in Buenos Aires

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    WATCH Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber explaining the selection of the ‘odd couple’ – Deon Fourie and Franco Mostert on the flanks for the Test against Los Pumas in Buenos Aires

    However, the situation for Hendrikse is different. He is fit but won’t play this week. Having been through a vigorous rehabilitation programme following shoulder surgery, it means he has not played since April 1.

    The situation was further complicated when the father of the Hendrikse brothers, Jaden and Jordan, passed away in late June – meaning he lost out on the opportunity to feature in the early rounds of the Rugby Championship.

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    Hendrikse, first-choice Faf de Klerk, Grant Williams, Cobus Reinach and Herschel Jantjies are competing for what is presumed will be three (or four) scrum-half berths.

    “Jaden would have played, was it not for the unfortunate family tragedy,” Nienaber said of the untimely death of Brian Hendrikse on June 29.

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    However, the plan of which players will feature in which of the games – the three Rugby Championship games and this coming Saturday’s World Cup warm-up outing – was put in place and revealed to the players when the squad first got together back in April.

    “We told them there might be adjustments,” Nienaber said, adding: “It was plotted way in advance.” The coach said it is easier for the management to decide on the 23-year-old, 12-cap Springbok.

    “We know him. We know what he can do. We see him at training. We know what he did for us last year.”

    Nienaber pointed to the Rugby Championship Test in Nelspruit in August last year when he replaced de Klerk (who left the field with a concussion) in the opening minute and played a key role in the Springboks’ 26-10 triumph.

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    “He was a No9 – with very little Test experience [four previous caps] – that could help drive the pack forward. We know what is in Jaden. There is nothing you can read into that,” he said of Hendrikse’s current lack of game time.

    “We wanted to give Cobus another go this weekend and we also wanted to give Herschel a go. The first opportunity for Herschel is in this game (against Argentina in Buenos Aires).

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    “Jaden would have had his opportunities earlier (in the season). Due to very tragic circumstances, out of our control, he didn’t get his chance. Don’t read anything into it.”

    Hooker Bongi Mbonambi will skipper the national team for the first time on Saturday. The team shows 13 changes to the starting line-up, while the bench includes uncapped prop Gerhard Steenekamp.

    Mbonambi – who will earn his 60th Test cap – takes over the captain’s responsibilities in the absence of the regular captain Kolisi, who is making encouraging progress following knee surgery, and stand-in captains Eben Etzebeth and Duane Vermeulen, who remained in South Africa with a group of players in a conditioning camp.

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    Comments on RugbyPass

    J
    JW 2 hours ago
    Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

    In another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.


    First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.


    They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.


    Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.


    Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.


    That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup

    207 Go to comments
    J
    JW 8 hours ago
    Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

    I had a look at the wiki article again, it's all terribly old data (not that I'd see reason for much change in the case of SA).

    Number Of Clubs:

    1526

    Registered+Unregistered Players:

    651146

    Number of Referees:

    3460

    Pre-teen Male Players:

    320842

    Pre-teen Female Player:

    4522

    Teen Male Player:

    199213

    Teen Female Player:

    4906

    Senior Male Player:

    113174

    Senior Female Player:

    8489

    Total Male Player:

    633229

    Total Female Player:

    17917


    So looking for something new as were more concerned with adults specifically, so I had a look at their EOY Financial Review.

    The total number of clubs remains consistent, with a marginal increase of 1% from 1,161 to 1,167. 8.1.

    A comparative analysis of verified data for 2022 and 2023 highlights a marginal decline of 1% in the number of female players, declining from 6,801 to 6,723. Additionally, the total number of players demonstrates an 8% decrease, dropping from 96,172 to 88,828.

    So 80k+ adult males (down from 113k), but I'm not really sure when youth are involved with SAn clubs, or if that data is for some reason not being referenced/included. 300k male students however (200k in old wiki data).


    https://resources.world.rugby/worldrugby/document/2020/07/28/212ed9cf-cd61-4fa3-b9d4-9f0d5fb61116/P56-57-Participation-Map_v3.pdf has France at 250k registered but https://presse-europe1-fr.translate.goog/exclu-europe-1-le-top-10-des-sports-les-plus-pratiques-en-france-en-2022/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp has them back up at 300k registered.


    The French number likely Students + Club, but everyone collects data different I reckon. In that WR pdf for instance a lot of the major nations have a heavily registered setup, were as a nation like England can penetrate into a lot more schools to run camps and include them in the reach of rugby. For instance the SARU release says only 29% of schools are reached by proper rugby programs, where as the 2million English number would be through a much much higer penetration I'd imagine. Which is thanks to schools having the ability to involve themselves in programs more than anything.


    In any case, I don't think you need to be concerned with the numbers, whether they are 300 or 88k, there is obviously a big enough following for their pro scenes already to have enough quality players for a 10/12 team competition. They appear ibgger than France but I don't really by the lower English numbers going around.

    207 Go to comments
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