Decision time for Boks: Faf, Pollard to start against All Blacks?

The Springboks have some massive decisions to make ahead of their Rugby World Cup final against old rivals the, All Blacks, on Saturday, after an uninspiring showing saw them edge England in their semifinal clash in Paris on Saturday.

It was a game that the Boks should have had no trouble with, but they instead had to produce a smash and grab at the end of the match to steal a heart stopping 16-15 win to reach their fourth World Cup final.

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It wasn’t so much England that almost beat them, but more the Boks almost beating themselves after a dreadful performance that lacked energy and intensity, with a number of pundits calling the first half effort one of the worst seen by a Bok team.

The Boks can count themselves incredibly lucky that they weren’t playing the All Blacks, France or Ireland, as a better team would have buried them by the end of the first 40.

Kept faith

The team management kept faith with the match 23 that played an absolute blinder the week before to edge hosts France, by also a single point in the quarterfinals, and that looked to be one of the mistakes that they had made.

Many of the Bok players, who were incredible against France, looked spent against England and it took a massive effort from the bench, with flyhalf Handre Pollard and prop Ox Nche the main contributors, to get them over the line.

A few changes for the semifinal may have injected the needed energy into the side that was missing, and the Boks have to decide now whether to make those changes for the final.

Does match winner Handre Pollard get in ahead of Manie Libbok, who has been the starting flyhalf over the tournament? Does Nche get a start over Steven Kitshoff? Do squad players Canan Moodie and Lukhanyo Am get a look in? Does Faf de Klerk take over from Cobus Reinach?

Or do the management keep faith once again?

The bench split will also be a very interesting call as the 5-3 split of forwards to backs has helped the Boks in their tight knockout wins, but they destroyed the All Blacks by a record score at Twickenham using the 7-1, while the 6-2 split is still their preferred one.

Tricky selections

Speaking about some of the tricky selection decisions to be made this week, Bok coach Jacques Nienaber claimed that it would take a full squad effort to beat the All Blacks.

“Sometimes when we select a team there’s a big thing about the bench – whether it’s a seven-one or five-three on the bench. The main thing is it’s a squad of 33 players and everyone has a role or responsibility,” explained Nienaber.

“The fact that the ‘bomb squad’ came on to the field is because the guys who started laid the foundations and that is what people miss. They see the performance of the guys coming on but you don’t know how much the starters took out of the team they are playing against. 

“It is something we discuss with the players and they understand how it works. We don’t have an A and a B side. Sometimes we start with Ox and Kitshoff is on the bench. We don’t operate like that.”

This will be the second World Cup final between the Boks and the All Blacks, after South Africa famously triumphed on home soil back in 1995.

Fifth final

It is set to be the All Blacks’ fifth appearance in the final, with them winning on three previous occasions, in 1987, and then being the only team to win back to back titles in 2011 and 2015.

The Boks are heading into their fourth final and have never lost at the last stage in the showpiece event, with them winning at home in 1995, in France in 2007 and in Japan in 2019.

After the contrasting performances in the semifinals, with the All Blacks crushing Argentina 44-6, the New Zealanders will probably be considered slight favourites having bounced brilliantly back from their opening match loss against France.

However, the Boks have played well over the whole tournament, even doing well in their pool stage loss against Ireland, and they should be able to shake off their poor semifinal performance and lift their game massively, especially against their greatest rivals.