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OPINION: Are the 2019 World Cup winners still the best Boks?
Jacques Nienaber has backed just about every member of the 2019 Bok squad three years later.
Virtually the same Bok team that played in 2019 is playing today, three years later. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images
It is time to freshen up the Springbok team.
It is also time for Jacques Nienaber, and possibly Rassie Erasmus, to stop living in 2019, when they helped the Boks win the World Cup in Japan.
As good as that Bok side was and as well as they have played at times in 2021, including recording a series win against the Lions, they have looked a stale side in 2022.
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Nienaber and his coaching team have backed too many players who were world beaters three years ago but are now struggling for form and seemingly past their best, while the side’s lack of variety and killer instinct is a concern a year out from the World Cup, where they will be defending.
It’s one thing to back experience and to be loyal to players, but to ignore new young talent on the scene who can add value and strengthen a side is ignorant.
Nienaber and Co should be looking to the future, not back at what worked and what success was achieved since 2018.
On Saturday, in the loss to the Wallabies in Adelaide, the only Bok players who were not at the 2019 World Cup were Ox Nche, Joseph Dweba and Jaden Hendrikse.
Also, of the 33 players who featured for the Boks in Japan three years ago, only five are not in the mix in 2022 — Schalk Brits, Francois Louw and Beast Mtawarira, who have retired, and RG Snyman and Sbu Nkosi, who are injured.
Every other player has been part of the squad in 2022 — three years after the triumph in Japan — irrespective of form, fitness and readiness. Are they all still the best Boks?
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What about the other young men who’ve made a name for themselves in the last three years, who’re fresh and hungry and offer something new and different? Some have been given half a chance, others no chance at all.
Have too many players fallen into a comfort zone, knowing they will be part of the Bok squad based on past performances and irrespective of form? It seems like it at times.
The current Bok team needs an injection of something new, and picking some young hungry players for the remainder of the Rugby Championship would be a good place to start.
