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The 4 candidates ex-Boks expect to battle for South Africa No10 shirt

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu of the Springboks during the Castle Lager Rugby Championship match between South Africa and New Zealand at Emirates Airline Park on August 31, 2024 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Gordon Arons/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

While the battle for the South Africa No10 jersey has largely been between Handre Pollard and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu in 2024, former Springboks Schalk Burger and Jean de Villiers think the competition is far more than just a two-horse race.

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Pollard started in the most recent win over the All Blacks in Cape Town while Feinberg-Mngomezulu delivered a victory the week before in Johannesburg. Those two appear to be the frontrunners under Rassie Erasmus currently, but, speaking on the latest episode of RugbyPass TV’s The Boks Office, de Villiers threw another name into the ring.

The former centre thinks Stormers No10 Manie Libbok will “probably get a start against Argentina” in round five of the Rugby Championship, and Erasmus appears to agree.

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After selecting Libbok and resting Feinberg-Mngomezulu in South Africa’s 28-man squad to tour Argentina, the Springboks head coach effectively reinforced de Villiers’ prediction.

“Some players, such as Johan Grobbelaar, Manie Libbok, Jaden Hendrikse, and Canan Moodie – to name a few – will benefit immensely from more game time at this level,” he said.

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But Burger went a step further, saying “we forget Damian Willemse at flyhalf,” who is currently sidelined with a finger injury but should be available for the end-of-year tour of the northern hemisphere.

Ultimately, it may come down to horses for courses for the world champions, which Burger described as a “privileged position”.

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“I think we’re in the privileged position to always have Handre in the mix if we feel like it,” he said.

“If we go to Perth and it’s wet and we need someone to control it through the boot – we saw it in the World Cup, in the England semi-final, Manie Libbok starts and he got ripped off after 20 minutes to play the conditions better through Handre.

“So it’s all part of what Rassie feels it has got to be. We used to call it AI, now it’s RI- Rassie Intelligence.

“Our semi-final, without Handre last year we wouldn’t have made it. I think we’re spoiled in that regard. And then you’ve got a guy like Manie.

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De Villiers added: “Damian at flyhalf against England in 2022, he was sublime. Dropkick, created the try for Kurt-Lee [Arendse] to score. He was amazing.”

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Comments

1 Comment
S
SK 71 days ago

What arrogance equating AI with RI with RI being Rassie Intelligence. These pundits perhaps need to avoid being so bullish about the Boks. They may be on a hot streak but as supporters perhaps be a little bit more humble

R
Rocco 71 days ago

The flyhalf debate will only become really interesting when Manie and DW become consistent place-kickers.


Imagine a backline with 10 Manie, 12 Sacha and 15 DW...

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NB 6 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Nice bit if revisioniusm but that's all it is JW.


For your further education, I found the following breakdown of one prominent club's finances in the Top 14 [Clermont].


For Clermont (budget of €29.5 million for 2021-2022) :

- 20% from ticket sales

- 17% from the LNR (includes TV Rights, compensation from producing french internationals and other minor stuff)

- 5% from public collectivities (so you're looking at funds from the city of Clermont, the department of Puy-De-Dôme and the region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes)

- 4% from merchandising and events

- 3% from miscellaneous

- 51 % from sponsorships and partnerships. They've got 550 different partners. The main ones are CGI, Groupama, Limagrain/Jacquet, Omerin, Paprec, Renault and of course Michelin (not surprising since they're actually the founders of the club).


As you can see nothing comes from the FFR at all. The LNR is a separate entitiy to FFR and their aims frequently do not accord.


It is also why the European breakaway plotted by LNR and PR back in 2013 had nothing to do with the governing bodies of either England or France - and it most certainly did not have their blessing https://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/story/_/id/15331030/jean-pierre-lux-anglo-french-cup-detrimental-european-rugby


And from the horse's mouth [ex AB skipper Sean Fitapatrick] about the comp between Top 14 and Super Rugby:


"The Top 14 in France is probably the best rugby competition in the world at the moment, purely for the week-in, week-out.”


“I think the quality of players. They are bigger, they are faster, they are stronger. Which then carries on into the international game.”

Take it from someone who knows JW😅

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