Bok coach Nienaber makes changes for England showdown

Handré Pollard and Cobus Reinach have been named in the Springbok starting line-up for the final Test of the Outgoing Tour match against England at Twickenham on Saturday.

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber included Pollard and Reinach in a fresh halfback pairing and recalled Lood de Jager at lock in three changes to his starting team.

The rotational switches entail Elton Jantjies and Herschel Jantjies joining utility forward Franco Mostert among the replacements in other changes to the match-day squad that defeated Scotland 30-15 at Murrayfield last week.

Victory for the Springboks over a strong England team will not only allow the South Africans to retain the No 1 spot on the world rankings but would also give them their first unbeaten Outgoing Tour since 2013.

It will wrap up a successful season for the world champions with nine victories in 13 Tests.

The last time the Springboks beat England in London was 2014, when they edged the hosts 31-28, but they have won three of the past six outings against their northern hemisphere arch-rivals. The most recent was the Rugby World Cup final in Yokohama in 2019, when the Boks emerged 32-12 victors.

“We built good momentum in the Tests against Wales and Scotland, and it is important for us to transfer that into our final match of the tour against England, so we opted to make only three changes to the starting team for this weekend’s clash,” Nienaber said.

“England will pose different threats to Scotland, and with that in mind we have decided to start with Handré, Cobus and Lood. Elton, Herschel and Franco have shown that they can inject energy and ignite a spark on attack off the bench, which will be handy against an English outfit that we know will be highly charged up for this match.”

Nienaber anticipated an epic battle between the teams. “England have made it clear that they’ll come hard at us in this match, and with a few British & Irish Lions players in their midst, home ground advantage and a new record of eight wins in a row against Australia is adding to their motivation this weekend, so we know it will be a hard grind,” Nienaber said.

“That said, we will enter the match equally motivated, especially with the opportunity to retain our status as the top team in the world for a third successive season and winning all three matches in the Outgoing Tour for the first time in eight years being a real prospect.”

Nienaber went on to say: “This has been arguably the most challenging season for a Springbok team yet due to the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, and to finish off the year with a victory against England would be a fantastic reward for the team.”

As with most of the northern hemisphere teams, Nienaber expects a monstrous forward battle, but he said England have the players and ability to mix things up on the day.

“England have traditionally had a strong pack and backs that can trigger action on attack, but they have a number of new players and coaches this season who will want to make their mark, so there may be a different dynamic in their style of play,” he said.

“We’ve been doing our homework and we’ve been putting in the hard yards both on and off the field, so we need to make sure we are mentally and physically sharp on Saturday and convert the opportunities we create on attack into points because in a Test match such as this there are generally only a few of them.”

Springbok squad: Willie le Roux, Jesse Kriel, Lukhanyo Am, Damian de Allende, Makazole Mapimpi, Handré Pollard, Cobus Reinach, Duane Vermeulen, Kwagga Smith, Siya Kolisi (capt), Lood de Jager, Eben Etzebeth, Trevor Nyakane, Bongi Mbonambi, Ox Nché

Replacements:  Malcolm Marx, Steven Kitshoff, Vincent Koch, Franco Mostert, Jasper Wiese, Herschel Jantjies, Elton Jantjies, Frans Steyn