Boks turn attention to Ireland as Pollard called up, Koch latest injury concern

The Springboks have put their huge win over Romania on Sunday straight behind them and immediately turned their focus to their massive next pool clash against world number one ranked Ireland in Paris this coming Saturday.

The Boks followed up their solid 18-3 opening win over Scotland at the 2023 Rugby World Cup with a thumping 76-0 victory over Romania in wet Bordeaux to make sure they head into the Irish match with plenty of momentum.

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Strong performances from a host of players over the two matches will make selection for the Irish game interesting, with Bok coach Jacques Nienaber admitting that they will be straight with the players and let them know who is in the running as soon as possible.

“From a selection point of view, we’re open and honest with the players, they know what we’re thinking and we’ll share that with them even tonight (Sunday),” explained Nienaber after the Romanian match.

“We have an idea in our minds what we want to do for the next game. It’s nice that there’s such good internal competition within this group and positive competition. There’s not a big gap between the players.”

Quarter-final match-ups

Nienaber also admitted that the Boks didn’t want to get too far ahead of themselves even though many people believe that the quarter-final match-ups will be clear after this weekend’s match.

“It will be a good game to see who finishes one and two in the pool, but there are still games to play, so I don’t want to get too far ahead,” said Nienaber.

“If it’s Italy, or if it’s France or New Zealand, it’s going to be a tough quarter-final, it doesn’t matter who we play.”

If the Boks beat Ireland they will be heavy favourites to top pool B, which would see them take on the second placed side in pool A which looks likely to be the All Blacks after they lost to France in their opening match.

However, if Ireland win it will bring Scotland back into the qualification mix as all three teams could end the pool stage with the same number of wins which would then come down to bonus points and points difference.

Irish form

But with the form that Ireland are currently in, crushing Romania 82-8 and thumping Tonga 59-16, it is unlikely that they will lose to Scotland, meaning this coming weekend’s clash should decide the top two places in the pool.

The Boks, however, have another injury concern heading into the Ireland match after Malcolm Marx was ruled out of the competition and it is touch and go whether Eben Etzebeth will recover in time from his shoulder injury.

Prop Vincent Koch was pulled out of the Bok starting line-up against Romania at the last second after picking up a knock just before the game.

“Vincent hobbled in the warm-up, I think it’s his knee. I don’t have an idea how bad it is, but the doctor will go through it and we’ll have a better understanding maybe tonight (Sunday),” said Nienaber.

Handre Pollard has been called up as the injury replacement for Marx and he will be in line to slot straight into the match 23 for the game against Ireland.