The Springboks made a clear choice in selecting a squad of 33 players that were all “fit and ready to play on Saturday” - including captain Siya Kolisi and prop Ox Nche - when they selected the World Cup squad for the tournament in France next month.
The shock of losing World Cup winners Lukhanyo Am, Handre Pollard and Lood de Jager may still not have subsided but coach Jacques Nienaber made it clear afterwards that in selecting the team, they wanted to have a squad who all were fit and ready.
Nienaber referenced previous World Cups where players were named who were not 100 per cent fit for the tournament, and the Boks carried injuries into the tournament to their own detriment. In preparing for the defence of their World Cup title, this Bok team wanted all players to be fit and ready.
LINE IN THE SAND
And in drawing a line in the sand they made it abundantly clear that there would be no passengers, and only fit players earned the right to go to the showpiece tournament.
The clear decision has had massive ramifications - it seems Am’s injury may be two to four weeks - meaning he would be fit and ready a week or two into the tournament, while Pollard is also expected to be ready by the opening game of the World Cup.
So why not name them and take them with?
Well, the easiest explanation is that the Boks wanted the squad to all be fit and ready, with no question-marks hanging over any player.
In Pollard’s case, he hasn’t kicked a ball since his calf injury and while he is expected to be ready, he hasn’t trained with the team either. The time limit that was obviously self-imposed had run out and the Bok management kept to their guns that if a player wasn’t ready by a certain date, then the next player would step in.
TRICKY SELECTIONS EASIER
It meant that it made some tricky selections a lot easier - think the choice between Canan Moodie and Makazole Mapimpi for instance, the role of Andre Esterhuizen in the squad and the decision to take four scrumhalves. Even the lock decision between Jean Kleyn and Marvin Orie was a no brainer. With the three stalwarts out, all these tricky issues were bypassed and all the players made the squad.
Nienaber explained the injuries, but left the door open that Am and Pollard, once recovered, could join the squad if there was to be an injury in the camp.
De Jager’s situation looks to be more serious, as all the Bok camp would say was that he has a “chest injury” but refused to divulge any more details. There have been rumours swirling that the giant lock’s condition is a bit more serious than first thought.
“Two new injuries in Lood and Lukhanyo. Lukhanyo got injured during the weekend and Lood in the week. Lukhanyo has a knee injury and Lood has a chest injury,” Nienaber said.
“Handre is different to them, but in a sense that he is almost in his return to play, getting back to full fitness. He hasn’t had a training session with us yet.
“Maybe it is a good thing to explain - what is the difference between a guy like Siya (Kolisi), Ox (Nche) and a guy like Handre? Siya and Ox have done training with us, have done the volume and intensity that they must handle in a test week - they have done stuff like that. I don’t want to get too scientific - but a guy like Handre has not had a training session with us yet.
“But he will probably start training with us THIS WEEK .”
INJURIES COULD SEE AM, POLLARD RETURN
“Obviously if there are injuries but this is the World Cup squad. If there is an injury - that’s the obvious one - or if a player does something to deselect himself, something weird, which is in their hands, which I don’t think will happen.”
Nienaber said it wasn’t ideal to lose three experienced players like that before a World Cup but that the management were taking a “glass half full” approach.
“It is probably - if you asked me three months ago - it wouldn’t be ideal. But that is the great thing about us as a coaching group - if someone didn’t get injured, Siya wouldn’t have been here. I look at it from a positive point of view - although injuries are never positive. And it is unfortunate - but we like to look at it as the glass half full - and the next guy needs to step in. And if you think - we always said from 2018, we planned for 2023 and if you look at the quality and depth of the squad that was built over six years, that is what makes the team selection so difficult.
“Even the nine guys who didn’t make the squad - if you look at a guy like Gerhard (Steenekamp), if you look at a guy like Joseph Dweba, at Thomas (du Toit), at JL (Jean-Luc du Preez) this weekend, I don’t think they will drop South Africa if they have to represent South Africa in the World Cup.
DEPTH WILL BE AN ALLY
“Yes it is always bad to lose players with a lot of experience, and especially World Cup experience but the rest of the guys have had some game time and they have stepped in. I think that if we didn’t give game time to a guy like Marvin (Orie) - if you think about it, he played against Italy, England, Australia and the two Argentina games. So he, for instance, had a lot of game time.”
Nienaber added that every selected squad member - including the concussed Grant Williams - would be able to play a test if needed this weekend, and that, in the end, was the determining factor.
“The one key thing about the squad that was selected is that every single guy selected would be able to play on Saturday. We went with a fully-fit squad and we have been part of World Cup teams before where that wasn’t the case - where you had to carry some injury, guys who can’t train on a Monday and Tuesday, nursing niggles.
“That is probably the negative when you have an older, experienced squad, you lose a bit of agility, you lose a bit of availability in training sessions, but you gain wisdom, big match temperament and guys who have made big decisions under pressure.
“I think that is the toss-up between having an older squad, but if you look at the squad selected, all 33 are ready to go.”
And on a wing and a prayer, the 33 will leave on Saturday for the northern hemisphere with two warm-up tests waiting before their title defence starts.
And without the trio, they will know their work is a little tougher. But the belief that the next guy can step in and step up is what needs to carry them.
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